Could you go for gold in the Green Impact Awards?

Sunday, 04 September 2011

Following the great success of the 19 teams who took part in 2010/11, the Environment, Energy and Sustainability Team (EEST) are running the Green Impact Award for a third year - but they need your help.

Green Impact is an environmental accreditation scheme, designed to reduce universities' environmental impact by encouraging, rewarding and celebrating practical environmental improvements.

 Last year, the Carrington Building, Facilities Management Directorate and the Students' Union all achieved gold awards, which means that they carried out an outstanding amount of environmental actions, and came up with their own individual ideas to obtain vital extra points. Five teams achieved silver, eight bronze, and three ‘working towards' bronze.

If you would like to get your department or area to take part in this year's scheme, EEST are running a workshop on Wednesday 7 September from 9-11am where you can find out more about what's involved and be inspired by the positive stories of previously successful teams.

Each team has to register online, where they are then able to access a personalised workbook - this provides the team with practical steps and information to help the department gradually reduce their environmental impact.

Energy Officer, Tom Yearley, said: "Taking part in the awards is a great way to boost the environmental performance of your office, team or department. Some of the highlights from last year include the Carrington Green Mission Statement Limerick, Northcourt Halls promoting clothes donation to Oxfam and the ‘Environmental Crimes' list on the notice board in the Communications Office!

"A great feature of the scheme is that you can do as much or as little as you have the time to do, and you can even work in a team with others in your building, department or school. In order to make life easier for new teams this year, we will be running a mentoring scheme and providing assistance with getting your team on board. We have also put together a number of templates and proformas for you to use, which will hopefully make the process as easy and enjoyable as possible."

Please email Tom (t.yearley@reading.ac.uk) if you would like to attend the workshop by Friday 2 September. If you already know that you want to take part this year please let Tom know as soon as possible.

Why take part?

• Being part of something bigger designed to green our campus
• Recognition for environmental actions already in place, and for all your hard work and efforts
• The opportunity to encourage colleagues to think about the environment
• The opportunity to save resources and money