Submitted by Grainne Kennedy on Wed, 2017-01-25 08:35
Green Impact is well underway at the University of Cambridge, with almost 200 staff and students working to improve the environmental and sustainability performance of their buildings, departments and Colleges. January marks the halfway point in the Green Impact year, and the 400 ‘actions’ already completed by the teams taking part indicate that the fifth year of Green Impact will be another great success.
In this article, we report on our ‘Green Impact Project Assistants’ (GIPAs). Just after Green Impact launched in October, twelve students were given a special training session to equip them with the knowledge and skills to help a department or College gain a Green Impact award.
Here is what three of them have been up to…
Rihab and Stavroula helped to initiate Green Impact in the Department of Architecture. After setting up a team of six, including two staff members, they got to work with a simple change. Replacing bottled water with glass jugs for tap water use, helping to cut down on waste from the department while reducing purchasing costs. They have also been adding switch off stickers to lights and putting up new green posters to encourage involvement and remind staff about simple good ‘green’ practices. At Christmas, the team took a festive approach to encouraging green actions - they decorated their (recycled!) Christmas tree with note-cards, pens and sweets inviting suggestions from everyone on how to make the department greener and more sustainable.
More recently, the team have completed an induction factsheet to be used by the department to inform new staff about environmental practices and opportunities in the department, and have plans to create a department-specific recycling guide. The team have lots more that they’re working on and hopefully are well on track for their first ever Green Impact award!
When Lily Maxwell started work at Pembroke College she found out that there wasn't a Green Impact Team in place, so formed a student team with 8 members. There are plans for the student team to link up with staff by attending the termly Environmental Committee meetings with heads of departments. They also plan to make Green Impact an official duty of the Green Officer in the Junior Parlour Committee (JPC) constitution. This will mean that every year the Pembroke College Green Officer will become the GIPA themselves or recruit one from the student population, and together they can set up the team and work with staff towards sustainability goals. In the meantime, the Green Impact team members have each been assigned sections of the ‘workbook’ and are planning to complete the relevant actions throughout the term.
On top of the Green Impact workbook actions, Lily has organised a Pembroke ‘Green Week’ between the 6 and 11 of February, to raise awareness about environmental issues and get the student body enthused and involved. Five events are scheduled to happen during the week, some in collaboration with college societies. The event is being publicised through a Pembroke Green Week page on Facebook and will include a Green Formal with elements of sustainable food to link into 'Spotlight on Sustainable Food month'! The brand new @pemgreen Instagram account that Lily has set up will no doubt be helping to promote and showcase all the College’s green efforts.
Best of luck to all our GIPAs, we hope to see you at the Green Impact awards ceremony at the end of the year!