Green impact awards

This year we took a bit of leap with the NUS project Green impact. After completing and winning awards for the bronze and silver we were lined up to go for gold. However after looking at the workbooks this year I had my doubts as the amount of work needed for this award was huge and as we are an independent company (unlike the other groups taking part who are all departments at DMU) we have little control over many of the aspects involved. For example we are not allowed to re-plumb the toilets so that they are more efficient or put more windows into the building so that we have more natural light.
Anyhow, with encouragement from the office team I ploughed on with the work book with help from Laura and Jayne and the rest of the office team and of course our wonderful student volunteers.
Although we did all we could to earn enough points for Gold, I was actually really shocked when we got it and then came the revelation that we had won the special award for most improved team! Amazing!
I’m sure you will have seen our awards in the office, or perhaps you have read about them in our weekly email. However you may not really know much about the project so I thought it would be worth explaining a little bit more about what green impact is all about.
Green impact is a project which has University staff and students working together to create a greener way of working. It’s a programme which seeks to change behaviours which are negative to our environment and make changes towards the way we work with an aim to become more sustainable. Hundreds of organisations complete the workbook every year over 1000 teams in the UK
For the students who get on board with the project there are multiple benefits. They will gain experience in real word situations regarding project working and improving efficiency and sustainability within the workplace. It also helps with learning people skills and management as the students are working in pairs or independently liaising with the department or organisation. It sets students up with transferable skills before they go into the working world.
In practical terms every team is assigned some student volunteers who are trained to support organisations in completing the workbooks. This year I cannot speak highly enough about our wonderful student volunteers Sara Williams and Quinn Franklin who were so flexible and supportive and helped me think outside of the box about what changes we can make to become greener. I know both students thoroughly enjoyed the project as well and it was lovely to see Sara pick up an award for best student volunteer.
I’m really pleased with the result this year and grateful to my colleagues for all their support, so thanks everyone- we did it!
For tips on being greener check out our website The Learning Support Centre

Written by Amy Niland