Sustainability Champion wins 'Best Ambassador' prize from Mayor of London’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur of 2014!

Nithya is an MBA student currently working in the Employability Office in the Business School at the University of Greenwich. As well as being a Sustainability Champion, she recently won the ‘Best Ambassador’ award from the prestigious Mayor of London’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur of 2014. Below she reflects on her interest in sustainability and journey to the competition.  ———————————————————————————————————————————– Passion for Sustainability + Perseverance = Success and Satisfaction. Sustainability has always interested me because of my passion to contribute back to the environment, community and our world at large through prevention, protection and perseverance. Ever since childhood, I have been very conscious of my actions and their impact, and I wanted to lead by setting an example. As an MBA student, I joined the Green Society as a founding member last year, and due to continued interest in the field, I was also selected as a sustainability auditor for the Business School and attended the training provided by the NUS Green Impact team. My interests in Green Impact and sustainability did not stop there. I chose a dissertation on sustainability in supply chains; the project looked at how retailers in UK and India can trace the supply chain activities that contribute to sustainability. This will be embedded into the retailers’ strategies directly and indirectly, and drive their competitive advantage in an intense and fierce industry which is realising the impacts of climate change and consumer behaviour. The MBA International Business degree requires me to do a placement year and I am now working within the Faculty of Business as an Employability Officer. In addition, I have become a Sustainability Champion for the support staff and have been helping the team in submitting our project book for an ‘Excellence Award’. It encompasses ideas that can make a difference showing a clear identification of relevant ethical and environmental challenges or opportunities within our Faculty of Business. This will then be submitted as a case study and taken forward for project implementation and reporting with Emily Mason, Sustainability Projects Officer, who constantly monitors progress. The Mayor of London Low Carbon Entrepreneur 2014 competition appeared to be a unique project to engage, gain and enhance my employability skills. For example, my time-management, project management, organisation and communication skills have improved immensely. My confidence was boosted by attending the ‘pitching for ideas’ training at the Mayor of London’s Office. I was well supported by the Low Carbon Team Delivery Team within Greater London Authority (GLA).

Dr Katherine Eames (PhD), Low Carbon Entrepreneur Delivery Team (Greater London Authority) and myself with the certificate.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of being an ambassador and promoting this project among fellow students through emails, social media messages, sharing updates, designing flyers and other promotional materials. I ran a competition which invited ideas of how students plan to reduce London’s carbon footprint as individuals and gave away free Thames Water vouchers to winning student entries for best ideas chosen by the Employability Team (University of Greenwich Business School). The incentive of the best ambassador winning a two week work experience placement next summer at City Hall was very motivating and I was excited at doing all the requirements to secure the prize. I contacted my lecturers who were interested in sustainability and asked for permission to sign up with the GLA team so that they can promote the competition next year to our students. I am very thankful to the team for choosing me and I cannot wait to start my placement at City Hall, Greater London Authority Office, which I look forward to undertake with immense enthusiasm and passion. The Sustainable Development Unit has been very supportive and encouraging in all communications with students and has promoted a wealth of good opportunities on campus such as organising Green Week, running sustainability workshops, stalls at events, emails to students, internal communications, flyers at the students centre and notice boards etc. I always try and stick to the motto- “if you want to do something, you will find a way and if you do not want to do something, you will find an excuse”. Hence, I strive hard to find ways to do what I love and what I stand for. This gives me the pleasure in doing my best and the can–do attitude which drives me to deliver and go beyond. To conclude, I would like to say that being involved with societies and heading up projects will add immense value to our CVs and boosts confidence. I would say the best thing to do is to ‘get involved and get noticed’! Rewards are secondary, but personal satisfaction of having done something meaningful with our talent and potential is hugely important. Good luck! Nithya Gopalakrishnan MBA International Business.

Green Impact Audits 2013

Two weeks ago 18 University Schools and Departments took part in a ‘half time’ audit as part of the Green Impact Scheme.

Green Impact challenges departments to enact a number of criteria that promote sustainable behaviours that contribute to the reduction of our environmental impact as a University. Green Impact works from a ‘bottom up’ approach asking staff through a series of criteria to make changes in their workplace. It is this criteria that each department is audited against and from these audits each team received a feedback report, which set them goals to achieve before the final deadline this summer.

The audits were carried out by student volunteers that received IEMA accredited training from the NUS’ Sophia Perkins who is the University’s Green Impact Project Officer. After their training the students got practice what they had learnt by auditing Schools and Departments across the three campuses.

Student Volunteers taking part in the Green Impact Auditor Training Session

Over the course of three days 23 students completed the training and practical auditing experience and will all receive certification of their achievements.

From the staff that were audited the praise for the students was great with comments on their professionalism, eye for detail and encouraging and supportive manner.

It is important that the audits are carried out by students to give both staff and students a chance to sit down and talk about sustainability at their University, as well as offering students a chance to receive training in highly transferable skills that they pick during the process.

A sustainable menu for lunch was laid on by BaxtorStorey for the auditors at each campus. The menu incorporated local produce, fairtrade produce, less meat, MSC fish and reusable crockery.

The audits themselves were very successful and the Sustainability Team would like to thank all the Sustainability Champions that have taken part so far. At the time of the ‘half time’ audits the Schools and Departments of Greenwich had completed 489 sustainable actions. Congratulations!

To find out more about Green Impact at Greenwich please contact Emily Mason at e.mason@gre.ac.uk.