Green Impact Awards - 2009/10 winners announced

1 June 2010

The University has announced the winners of its annual Green Impact Awards, which it launched in 2008 to encourage its staff and students to improve the environmental performance of their departments.

Fifty University departments took part in the scheme, either jointly or on their own, to see which could be the greenest. Their combined efforts resulted in about 1,350 sustainability actions being taken across the University.

The winning departments, announced by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Clarke, at an awards ceremony in the Wills Memorial Building, are:

Platinum Award (overall winner)

A joint team of the Estates Administration Office, Space and Asset Management and Procurement.

Gold Awards

The Policy Press
The Fifth Floor of Senate House (consisting of five teams including the Public Relations Office and the Vice Chancellors Office)
The Hawthorns

Three further departments got a ‘Working Towards’ Award, six received a Bronze Award, 14 received a ‘Bronze plus’ Award and 11 departments received a Silver Award. Each department was presented with an award made from recycled plastic or glass.

Six special awards were given to departments that took additional actions outside of the scheme, such as greening other departments and getting students involved. Actions here included running vehicles on biofuel (chip fat), measuring carbon footprints and installing wormeries for organic waste disposal.

This year’s criteria were tougher than those in 2009, and there was greater competition between departments. However, all departments either scored higher than last year or achieved a higher award level.

Further information

The Green Impact Awards initiative is an accreditation scheme for environmental best practice, based on over 130 actions that will help the department to reduce its negative impact on the environment. All departments were eligible to participate, regardless of size, remit or location. Among the many winners on the day was Linda James at Churchill Hall who picked up three awards: a 'Bronze plus', and 'Innovation' and 'Environmental Hero' awards for Churchill's work on waste reduction, reuse, and energy saving, and generally pushing the green agenda for a number of years. This year the awards were sponsored by University suppliers/consultants Aecom, Shred-it, Key Travel, Hills and Godfrey Syrett.