Seven teams from across Oxford Brookes have achieved bronze or silver Green Impact Awards, in recognition of the positive steps they have made towards more sustainable practices on campus.
Green Impact is a sustainability engagement programme run by the National Union of Students (NUS). In the 2022/23 academic year we had 12 teams and 61 staff members at Brookes actively engaging in the programme, 27 of which are new members.
This was our second year and all the teams across the University have been working hard to deliver positive sustainability actions. Four teams applied for the bronze and three teams applied for the silver award, and were audited by students at the end of April. Part of the programme offers free IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment) accredited training for our students.
We are pleased to announce that all seven teams successfully met and exceeded all the criteria for the silver and bronze awards they applied for.
Silver award winners
- Centre for Academic Development
- Learning Resources
- Swindon Campus team
Bronze award winners
- Careers Team’s Green Getters
- Residences
- Oxford Brookes Business School
- Marketing, Recruitment and Engagement’s Green Team
Green Impact success at Brookes
The Green Impact teams have worked incredibly hard to identify opportunities to improve their environmental impact within their departments, minimising resource use, going digital, removing unnecessary use of paper, creating re-use libraries and reducing single-use plastics.
Other successful activities have included:
- the creation of wellbeing gardens
- volunteering activities including rewilding and wildflower seeding initiatives
- delivery of wellbeing walks and litter picks
- promotion of sustainable food initiatives
- support for meat-free days and the movement to Fairtrade and sustainable products
- reported leaking taps
- encouraging active travel and sustainable engagement opportunities.
Congratulations to Claire Bennett and Lisa Hill who won the Environmental Hero award. This is a new category for team members who go above and beyond in driving positive change. Other award winners included:
Environmental Improvement
The Swindon Green Team for the creation and delivery of their fantastic new Wellbeing Garden supporting local biodiversity on site, raising awareness and improving health and wellbeing of students and staff.
Environmental Innovation
The Competence Test Centre within the Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery has taken action to stop the buying of bottled water and promotion of reusable and refillable bottles, saving 14,000 discarded single-use plastic water bottles a year.
Student Leadership
Emily Palmer from the Swindon Campus Green Team was recognised as an invaluable member of the Swindon Campus Green Impact team.