Welcoming our new Sustainability Projects Assistant…

Hi, I’m Alex and I’m excited to be joining the sustainability team for a year as the new Sustainability Projects Assistant!

Alex enjoying the views of the fjords in Norway

Alex enjoying the views of the fjords in Norway

I’ve got a background in Physical Geography, so I am a geek in anything from climate change to natural hazards to glaciers. For the past year I’ve been doing an MA with Forum for the Future in ‘Leadership for Sustainable Development’.

forum for the future

My masters course has allowed me to sample sustainability in a range of organisations, from a charity to a local authority, from Bank of America to a multi-national company. It also allowed me to look at the idea of ‘systems change’, for example, how can we cause change for sustainability in the complex food system, or the energy system? I’m looking forward to putting my learning into practice at Greenwich.

I’ll be looking after the Sustainability Management System and helping Emily out with other sustainability projects. These projects include Green Impact and the Carbon Management Plan, and I’ll also be helping with sustainability events such as the Green Week. Green Impact is a behaviour change project where teams are rewarded for their efforts, so get in contact with the sustainability team if you would like to know more! I’m especially looking forward to getting to know the sustainability champions and spotting new opportunities for sustainability at Greenwich.

Greenwich is a leader in Sustainability within Higher Education, coming 6th this year in the People & Planet’s ‘Green League’, and this is what made me so attracted to working here. So far everyone has been friendly and welcoming and I’m very impressed with the garden!

As I settle in, you may see me wandering round the campuses so I hope to meet as many staff and students as possible on my travels. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at a.giles@greenwich.ac.uk, or if you have any questions about Sustainability at the University of Greenwich then email sustainability@greenwich.ac.uk.

University of Greenwich Tops the People & Planet Green League 2012

The Sustainability Team are absolutely delighted to announce that we have topped the People & Planet Green League table for 2012. It is a tremendous result that we are extremely proud of at the University!

University of Greenwich Number 1 in the Green league

We were really pleased when we achieved fifth in the table last year and have pressed on working to improve in the areas we were behind in. Since the last table came out we have managed to achieve ISO14001 accreditation for our environmental management system, really gotten under way with some of our biodiversity projects, pushed forward our work to bring together the academics in the University who are teaching and researching sustainability related topics and have seen sustainability finally make its way into the University’s Strategic Plan.

Our Sustainability Champions Network has almost doubled in size since last year and the champions between them have tripled the number of tasks completed as part of the Green Impact project. Last year they completed 561 actions to improve the environmental performance of the university, this year it is over 1,500 – they have also been instrumental in communicating sustainability across the board and embedding it at a local level.

Our Sustainability Champions at last year's awards - this year we are looking for a bigger staircase!

As a result of our good position in the table last year there has been an increase in interest in and knowledge of the work we have been doing, and as the work that we are doing has spread further across the university we have found more and more willing collaborators and innovators.  There are some really exciting research and teaching projects taking place across the schools and offices in the University.

If it wasn’t for all the staff and students at the University who have taken these extra steps and really adopted the philosophy behind our sustainability strategy the result in the Green League would not have been possible.  We owe a lot of thanks to a huge number of people within the institution, a lot of people have played their part people such as our campus Facilities teams including our cleaners and porters dealing with energy, water and waste, the senior managers of the university supporting their sustainability champions, those who get their students involved in sustainability and those in the Vice Chancellor’s Office especially the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Resources- who has supported the ‘positive deviants’ that have been spotted roaming the university’s grounds?!

Positive deviant: a person who does the right thing for sustainability, despite being surrounded by the wrong institutional structures, the wrong processes and stubbornly uncooperative people. And doing it in a way that
brings other people along.
Extracted from: The Positive Deviant: Sustainability Leadership in a Perverse World (Earthscan 2010) by Sara Parkin.

Student volunteers have audited every nook and cranny of the campus, staff champions have got sustainability onto the agenda at hundreds of meetings and not a day goes by without someone at the University contacting us about an idea or an opportunity they have spotted for implementing sustainability in some way across the university.

Lots of new projects have been taking place including our Orchard planting last autumn

Our internal sustainability awards at the University in June will be attended by well over 50 members of staff and students which is testament to how many people there are working towards improving the University’s sustainability performance. It has been a lot of hard work but knowing we are making a positive difference, not only to the environment, but also for the staff and students that live, work and study at the University is the driving force behind the energy that goes into what we do.

P.S. If you haven’t read it – we thoroughly recommend that you read Leith Sharp’s paper on ‘Green campuses: the road from little victories to systemic transformation’. It’s from 2002 but still very relevant and if you’ve ever tried bringing about organisational change in a university it may ring true and for those of you who haven’t tried it it provides a great insight into the complex challenge!

So after a glass or two of Kent’s finest sparkling wine- please raise your glasses and celebrate all those working in sustainability – it’s back to work for the Sustainability Team here at Greenwich-  we still have a long journey ahead of us……

People & Planet Green League 2011

Today the University of Greenwich rose to 5th in the People & Planet Green League table and was awarded a 1st Class award for its efforts over the last 12 months.

See the story on the Guardian website here and in the education section of today’s (7th June) paper.

We are absolutely delighted with the result which has seen us rise from 103rd in 2009 and 61st in 2010 to our current position. We would like to thank everyone at the University who has been supportive of our work, who have been involved with the various projects and who make working at the University of Greenwich a real pleasure! Without everyone’s support and enthusiasm towards improving the University’s sustainability performance we wouldn’t have been able to make such a climb up the table.

Although today is a day for celebrating the achievements we have made we are keen to make sure that next year we are doing even more. There are still plenty more opportunities for the University to tackle issues of sustainability over the next 12 months and we are determined not to rest on our laurels and continue to push the sustainability agenda forward.

The People & Planet Green League 2011 reveals the environmental and ethical performance of 142 universities, awarding First Class ‘degrees’ to the best and Fail to those doing the least to address their impacts.

Nottingham Trent University takes the top spot this year and also in the top 5 with Greenwich are the universities of Gloucestershire, Worcester, Plymouth and Bournemouth (with whom we are tied for 5th place). We managed to obtain a score 47 points out of a possible 70, so despite our high league table finish there is still plenty more to be done.

The People & Planet website has a full breakdown of the scores and demonstrates the areas where Greenwich is doing well and the areas we need to improve on.

The results show major improvements across the higher education sector in 12 out of the 13 criteria used to rank universities and measure their transition to a fair & sustainable future – including:

• 8.3% increase in universities generating their own renewable energy on-site
• 57% of sector has put in place strong Carbon Management plans and climate targets
• 10% increase in energy-saving & recycling initiatives for students in halls of residence
• 10% increase in universities publishing Sustainable Food policies
• 20% increase in universities employing at least one Sustainability Manager
• 68% of universities have now achieved Fairtrade status

Louise Hazan, who compiled People & Planet’s Green League 2011, said:

“This year’s results show the sector is making a clear transition towards low-carbon, sustainable operations and responding to increasing student demand for greener universities that offer value for money. However, despite clear progress in the last year on issues such as carbon management planning and student engagement, the fact that carbon emissions are still rising should sound alarm bells for Vice-Chancellors and the Government alike”.