Green Impact Award

As a voluntary Environmental Champion, you will have the opportunity to take part in the Green Impact Award scheme. The scheme was pioneered at the University of Bristol last year and they enjoyed the following successes:

• 100% have energy-awareness stickers in their offices
• 87% have identified ten main greening opportunities
• 20% have taken one or more initiative to sustain / encourage biodiversity in the last 12-months
• 13% have run their own water-saving campaign in the last 6 months
• 76% have inducted all new staff on environmental issues
• 35% have switched to Fairtrade

By joining the Green Impact Award, you will be able to work through a common programme of activities. This will not only provide you with lots of suggestions, but will also help you plan your green initiatives and help us calculate just how much of a difference is being made.

The Green Impact Award gives you the opportunity to go beyond the basic suggestions and become part of something much bigger! We are running Green Impact as part of a DEFRA initiative with 18 other universities. So this is truly a national initiative.

When you sign up for Green Impact, you will be introduced to your team. We have split the University into 12 Faculty and Directorate Teams, so you will get plenty of support. The teams will be working through the Green Impact Award handbook, which is broken down into bronze, silver and bonus criteria. To get us started, we'll be working to the bronze criteria so don't be put off by the size of the workbook!

The tasks are rated according to the environmental benefit that they will yield and also the amount of effort that is required to complete them. This way, you can quickly identify the easy wins or if you are feeling more ambitious, set yourself a challenge!

A great feature of the scheme is that you can do as much or as little as you have the time to do, you can even work in a team with other Environmental Champions in your building, department or school.

Some examples of the types of tasks that are included in the workbook are:

• Enough recycling stations are available within your area to remove the need for under-desk litter bins.
• The department has a comprehensive shut-down checklist for vacations to ensure all non-essential equipment and services are not wasting energy.
• Your area has run its own recycling campaign within the last 6 months.
• Your area does not have any bottle-fed water coolers.
• The department requests reusable crockery and cutlery for the majority of buffets in preference to paper, polystyrene and plastic disposable items.

So if this has inspired you to get involved, then please email eest@reading.ac.uk to register as an Environmental Champion!