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Hello, I’m Esin D’Amery. I am a First year Politics and International Relations Student at The University of Greenwich. 20 by age, but many will agree when I say 40 in attitude. Currently I live in the beautiful town of Greenwich, an area I feel extremely excited about due to the beauty and buzz you get when walking around. I come from London and Hertfordshire originally, but my family currently reside by the seaside in Norfolk.

I first encountered the Sustainability Hub via our current Vice President Campaigns and Representation Sabbatical Officer Kyle Marchalleck. Kyle approached and explained about a new opportunity to combine my interest in sustainability and to get more involved with The Students’ Union.  Admittedly I was a tad weary about getting involved with something which is seen to be a brushed under the carpet idea.  However, after attending one of The Sustainability Hub’s Forums, I met the team and saw how enthusiastic they were. They explained the Hub in a way I found completely intriguing.  I quickly applied and got through to the interview. After passing the interview I was offered the job and here I am!

My first opportunity to get hands on came in the shape of the Fairtrade Fortnight and the chance to host a Cooperative Fairtrade Wine and Cheese night. The Cooperative offer many opportunities to work in conjunction with Universities, schools and businesses to share their knowledge and contacts in order to hold events with a great message. The Sustainability Hub applied to hold the event along with many other institutions, and we were successful in our application – we felt it would be a great opportunity to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight in this manner which we know to be successful. We hope attendees were able to see why it is important to take Fairtrade into consideration with daily life. It is a sad fact that our lack of knowledge and understanding of such controversial and important social issues, cause such drastic drawbacks for the producers we depend on for our daily products. I hoped that by having an actual Fairtrade Producer present for the event, we are able to give attendees a rare face to face opportunity to see the drastic positive change Fairtrade makes to people’s lives.

I worked with the Co-operative to organise the event – it took around 5 weeks to organise it fully. Being a student, I worked around my timetable comfortably and devoted enough time to organise the event without forgetting about my actual degree. The event itself ran perfectly! My amazing team were there helping me out as much as possible and it was fantastic to have them by my side. The Cooperative attended, and along with Daniela Cedron, the Fairtrade wine producer from Argentina. During the event, every last drop of wine was consumed, and every bit of cheese was demolished. All attendees were pleased and I was extremely happy to see such a fantastic turnout! It was great to see something you had initially thought about, actually happen…and successfully! It gave me a great sense of pride in my team and my ability to do my job well!

Hey guys! I guess you can never be too late to blog :D! I’m Gabriel, one of the three Green Impact Green Ambassadors. I am a final year Civil Engineering student. Often when I tell people what I study, some of the responses are “WOW!” or “erm, what’s that?”. So I think it’s only fair that I give a brief explanation. According to the Institution of Civil Engineer’s website (ICE) “Civil engineering is all about people. It’s the work that civil engineers do to develop and improve the services and facilities we, the public, all use.”

Civil engineering is relied upon every day for a variety of things: from supplying energy and clean water to our homes, to processing and recycling our waste, to finding solutions to problems like pollution, construction of buildings, bridges, dams, flood defences etc etc. Basically anything that is designed and built a civil engineer has been behind it. (Maybe this wasn’t brief LOL)

Over the period of my studies a passion for the world to have a sustainable future for our water & environment resources grew. Having clean, potable water and sufficient sanitation are vital necessities for a decent standard of living. I know that here in UK that is not a problem but elsewhere in developing countries it is. Therefore, I hope to be a part of creating sustainable water & environment resources worldwide in the future.

So that’s why I’m Green Ambassador! During the time I’ve been a Green Ambassador my understanding and knowledge of sustainability has definitely increased but still there is a long way to go. Learning from my colleagues and various training we have all completed has played a massive contribution. As a Green Ambassador we are working on a unique programme called Green Impact Enterprise which is an environmental awards accreditation scheme run by the university’s student union supported by the National Union of Students (NUS). Currently, we are attempting to promote Greenwich as a centre of sustainable tourism. As a Green Ambassador for this particular programme we offer businesses support and guidance, to achieve recognised Green Impact accreditation for their environmental efforts. It involves a lot of meetings with businesses and organisations which has given me experience I’ve never had before.

I hope to be blogging about the progress we’ve made very soon!

Thanks

Gabriel

Hi, my name is Patrick and I am one of the new Education and Training Green Ambassadors at the recently established Greenwich Sustainability Hub.

A little bit about myself 

I am a third year Building Surveying (Commercial Management) student at the University of Greenwich. Originally from Stoke on Trent, I have a firm understanding of sustainability and green issues from my school education, which carried a heavy environment emphasis, as well as studying sustainability modules at university.

My passion for the environment has change forms over the past few years, from an academic side, through to my work as a photographer. Working as a photographer I found a new appreciation for the environment and a greater understanding of why it’s important for us to look after it. Many people across the university will recognise me for my photography work at events, but not many know that the real creative, hobby side of this interest is based on nature photography.

My hope is that in the future as a built environment professional I can merge my passions for construction and sustainability to help drive a positive impact on the industry, towards a sustainable future.

My role at the hub

Working with my colleague Maria I will be creating and delivering workshops on a wide variety of sustainability topics to students and communities across all ages.

This is an ambitious project that forms part of the Hub’s bid for funding from the NUS. We hope that, over two years will we connect with and deliver workshops in 11 schools or colleges. We are just beginning our work now to contact and get involved with these schools.

We hope to engage with many different people from all backgrounds to help to educate them on sustainability and why it is important for us to enact a behaviour change in our lives.

To the future

I will be trying to blog as much of our journey as possible, as well as my own journey to improve my own sustainability. There will hopefully be, chilli growing, workshop ideas and examples and updates of our success in delivering education and training on sustainability.

Feel free to follow the journey and drop us a line with any comments, questions or ideas.

Thanks for reading.

Patrick Hollins

The Sustainability Team has welcomed eight new interns to its team from across the three University of Greenwich campuses! Below they introduce themselves and what their initial thoughts on sustainability are.

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Tracey Zhu

I’m Tracey, the new Marketing and Events intern for the University of Greenwich Sustainability Team. I’m currently a third year student studying Business Administration with Marketing. I am enthused by lifestyle and still photography because it creates art and captures the beauty, emotion and memories in that particular moment of time. During my free time, I enjoy cycling, travelling and cooking.

To me, sustainability is important because it’s about the future. How we live now, affects everything that will survive in the future, from people, to animals to plants. It doesn’t matter where you live, or how much money you have, everyone is dependable on the Earth to survive. We need food, water, air and other resources such as trees, plants and even the sunrays to help us survive. Our energy bills are slowly creeping up every year, what is the main reason for this?

There is a lack of security of supply, it is reported by EDF Energy that the UK are expecting to face a gap between how much energy we use, and how much energy we can generate once the older coal and nuclear plants are retired over the next 10-20 years. Since we all need the Earth for survival, it’s vital that we do all our best to look after it, and make the Earth a better place to be!

Ana Marta Laranjeira

Hello, I’m Ana Marta and I’ll be joining the sustainability team this year as a marketing and events intern.

I’ve moved from Portugal to London just three months ago to start studying Business with Marketing in Greenwich so I’m extremely happy to get this opportunity of working in my area of studies and a subject that interests me: sustainability!

Other than marketing, I can say I like the usual “hanging out with friends”, playing volleyball, going to concerts and festivals and I’ve recently started playing the drums and absolutely LOVE it.

Sustainability it’s a big concern of mine. It doesn’t make sense to me to live and enjoy the resources we have nowadays in this planet as we want, and not give the chance for the next generations to do so. It’s a simple thing but still so important!

I can’t wait to start working with this team, and share the things I am currently learning about marketing and business in general with them, and learn all of the things they know that I would never learn on my course. I’m sure that this amazing combination of all kinds of people with various backgrounds will allow the sustainability team to go further and will turn this whole experience in something even more rewarding.  I look forward to finding out all of the different perspectives from all of the people working here, about the exact same topic: sustainability!

 Zoe Walker

Hello my name is Zoe-marie and I study Landscape Architecture in the School of Architecture, Design and Construction. As a new Green Impact Project Assistant I am very excited about the challenges I will probably find myself in. Studying landscape architecture allows me to pursue my  interest  in the environment and what I can do personally; and how I can help other people around my area to make a change and help support our planet.

I love horse riding and going out with friends and colleagues and am really enjoying the volunteer work I do with St John’s ambulance, which I recently started.

Our planet is important even the very small insects no matter how much they creep me out! Sustainability is not just about finding new ways to recycle and using the weather for solar and wind  power; but also to maintain our habitats and the creatures that live in them, and this is what i am very much looking forward to spending my life doing.

Subeckhya Gurung

My name is Subeckhya Gurung, aka Subu.  I started my university life this year and am currently studying BSc H Environmental Science at the University of Greenwich.  Experiencing on campus life has been very rewarding and fascinating. Living in halls, getting to meet new people, experiencing a new way of life, learning about new cultures and so many more new things has been very enjoyable and insightful. I have been living away from home for 3 months now and I never thought I would have been able to experience so much in such a short span of time. I am really looking forward to and excited about the rest of this academic year as I am learning and experiencing more than I thought was possible.

One of the most insightful things I have learnt has been regarding my University. When I applied to study at Greenwich I knew very little about it, however, talking to student, staff and getting involved in University activities has taught me a lot about the heritage and current projects my University is part of. Greenwich has three beautiful and very historical sites. I am at the Medway campus, which may not be considered to be at par with the Greenwich maritime campus, however, nor is it lacking in anyway. We have a very picturesque dockside, which is walking distance as well as a town centre and shopping centre.

Greenwich is very aware of the impact it has, not only on the lives of us students but also on a global scale. Greenwich is particularly active with regards to sustainability. Well, what is sustainability?

In my perspective, sustainability means maintaining the environment, economy and the society for the good of the living and ensuring a healthier, cleaner and safer future for the coming generations.  To produce a sustainable environment we cannot depend on technologies only, we must take some action. It’s our responsibility to protect the environment.  Greenwich has been doing a lot to ensure that it has a positive impact, for example, all students are made aware of the sustainable projects that the University is planning and undertaking. We are also regarded as one of the ‘greenest’ universities in Britain.

I am proud to be a part of such a productive, exciting and influential University that has so much to offer not just myself but also our growing community.

Last Thursday evening the University of Greenwich was recognised again for its leading work of putting sustainability at the heart of its operations, teaching and strategy. Building on the University topping the Green League, this Times Higher award further recognises the commitment, passion and action of all those people we would like to thank for getting us to where we are:

Our 50 committed and effective Champions are actively integrating sustainable behaviour change through their departments and throughout the University. So far 1,500 Green Impact Tasks have been undertaken and this is set to further increase, helping make sustainability improvements in a whole range of areas, including resource use, curriculum development and student engagement.

The Carbon Management Team, led by Nigel Heugh have helped reduce 22% of our carbon footprint since 2005 and we are expecting a 40% reduction by 2020. This has included investment in scores of energy efficiency projects, plus the installation of 200 solar panels and the planned installation of a ground breaking University of Greenwich innovation for its glycerol Combined Heat and Power system in Medway. Further collaborations with the ILS department have enabled 100% of the university’s PC’s to power down after use.

Pictured from left: Keith Jones, Nigel Heugh, Emily Mason, Mary McCartney, Debbie Bartlett, Peter Fotheringham, Kat Thorne, Amanda Hatton, Gerry Bildstein, Pat Harvey, Patrick Finch (one of the judges).

Staff throughout the institution have been essential to helping us deliver on our sustainability commitments and responsibilities and in achieving our covered leadership status. Without support from throughout the Facilities Management Team, Finance and Procurement, plus staff from departments ranging from EDU to Student Affairs, from Architecture to the Business School and the NRI to Health and Social Care; illustrating that sustainability is relevant and cuts across every department and school here in Greenwich.

We continue to work with the Students Union and students identifying and providing placements and support for applied research illustrating how sustainability is the thread that connects everything we do. We also continue to work actively with and are grateful for the support of the University’s management. Senior support and the integration of sustainability into the University’s strategy is vital to meeting the needs of the future. Our University is now in a great position to continue building on it strengths, to maintain its leadership in sustainability and helping deliver the learning a future sustainable planet requires.

Our expert, supportive and enabling sustainability team (Emily Mason, Alex Giles (plus our SUUG colleague Ana Lopez plus past staff Kat Thorne and John Bailey)) have been essential to the University’s sustainability successes. I’d like to thank them all and invite the University to continue to join us in our exciting plans to take our University through the rest of its sustainability journey.

Overall we have seen sustainability being welcomed as a way of motivating staff, providing meaning and helping meet the needs and values of staff and students. As the NUS HEA report on student attitudes towards, and skills for sustainability states; 80% of students expect sustainability to be included not just the operations of the University sector but also the curriculum. We are well on the way, yet there is still much more do to. The University of Greenwich will only remain a leader with its continued inspired innovation and committed actions to reduce our impacts and help research and teach to enable the sustainable innovations a successful future demands. We hope to help you in this inspiring journey.

Simon Goldsmith (the new) Head of Sustainability

Alex Giles gives us her highlights from her first University of Greenwich Sustainability Awards.

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Although I have only been with the University of Greenwich for 3 months, when it came to hosting the Sustainability Awards 2013 I could really appreciate the cross-departmental buy-in and support. Everyone in the room had contributed or been involved with Sustainability in one way or another, and there were many others dotted around the University who could not make it on the day.

We kicked off the day by updating the attendees on sustainability at the University of Greenwich, including our carbon management plan, water, waste and reuse, biodiversity, food, travel, curriculum, student engagement and Green Impact.  We also reflected on our current accreditation of ISO14001, the business school’s perusal of ISO2012(1) sustainable events accreditation and our Fairtrade University status. We proudly spoke of our sustainability achievements of coming 6^th place in the People & Planet Green League 2013 and that we’ve been shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development. Quite a list I’m sure you’ll agree. It is a KPI of the University to stay in the top 10 in the Green League, but we’ll have to prioritise where to focus our efforts. Our top 3 priorities looking forward will be scope 3 carbon emissions, sustainable procurement and ethical finance.

We also introduced our new Sustainability Hub, a partnership between the Student’s Union and the University that will engage students in sustainability and provide outreach to the local community.  The Hub will employ four students this year and eight students next year to act as Green Ambassadors. These Ambassadors will work with local businesses, colleges and schools to deliver sustainability training and, for those lucky shops and colleges, the Green Impact behaviour change project. Amongst other projects, the hub will also expand food growing at Greenwich, with a vision to open up a student- led farmers market.

The awards! C. Patrick Hollins

For our Green Impact Awards, we gave out 6 ‘Working towards Bronze’ awards, 7 Bronze Awards, 8 Silver Awards and an outstanding 5 Gold Awards! This year we are introducing the ‘Green Impact Excellence’ Award, which will give the opportunity for Gold-winning departments to create and manage a sustainability project within their department. These teams have demonstrated that sustainable behaviours are embedded in their department through achieving their Gold Awards; their excellence project will allow them to explore how to enrich sustainability in their department, whether that is through the curriculum or communication. We already have a couple of interested teams exploring and planning potential projects, so watch this space for more updates of how they’re getting on.

In addition to our Green Impact Awards, we gave out 9 Special Awards to individuals or departments for their continued and dedicated contribution to sustainability in their department. These included:

–          Be the Change Award – Paul Harvey from Sodexo

–          Carbon Reduction Award – Jon Hudson from the Building Services Team

–          Sustainability in the Curriculum Award – Charlotte Jeavons from Public Health

–          Environmental Hero Award – The volunteers of the Edible Garden

–          Golden Pickaxe Award – Michael Unsworth, Head of Grounds

–          Green Impact Golden Labs Criteria Award – The Natural Resources Institute

–          Student Participation and Employability Award – The Business School

–          Positive Deviant Award – Caroline Troy from the Natural Resources Institute

–          Student Sustainability Champion Award – Lauren Newberry

Some of our Special Award Winners. C. Patrick Hollins

For more information about the awards please contact the Sustainability Team sustainability@gre.ac.uk