Green Impact Awards 2020-21
The ninth year of Green Impact at the University of Cambridge was launched, completed, and celebrated, during a world pandemic. Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 however, we are immensely proud to announce that 47 teams have achieved a wonderful 49 awards. The greatest-ever number of awards that we have presented at Cambridge is 50, so achieving 49 during such a disruptive year is a truly exceptional team effort!
This year we’ve also seen our greatest-ever proportion of Platinum awards and welcomed over ten new teams, including our latest College team – Gonville and Caius. Together our Green Impact teams engaged over 5,000 colleagues and completed over 2,400 sustainable actions to help make our University more sustainable.
As well as our teams, we'd also like to thank over 40 students, from 23 different Colleges and 19 disciplines, who trained as Green Impact Student Auditors this year. Without their skills, time and passion for sustainability we would not be able to announce the following awards.
A copy of the 2021 award presentation slides is available here, a recording of the event is available on request.
Departmental awards
| Cambridge Assessment Madrid | Working Towards Bronze |
| Investment Office | Working Towards Bronze |
| Cambridge Enterprise | Bronze |
| Cambridge University Press | Bronze |
| CEB Green Impact | Bronze |
| Clinical Neurosciences: CAB | Bronze |
| Department of Engineering - Trumpington Street Site | Bronze |
| MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit | Bronze |
| Faculty of Music | Bronze |
| MRC MBU | Bronze |
| Postdoc Academy | Bronze |
| Staff Counselling Centre | Bronze |
| Alison Richard Building | Silver |
| Cambridge University Botanic Garden | Silver |
| CDBB Sustainability Team | Silver |
| Department of Geography | Silver |
| Department of Radiology | Silver |
| Department of Surgery | Silver |
| Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre | Silver |
| John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair | Silver |
| Maxwell Centre | Silver |
| Meet Cambridge | Silver |
| Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics | Silver |
| SHSS Green Team | Silver |
| University Information Services | Gold |
| Cambridge Assessment | Platinum |
| Cancer Research UK - Cambridge Institute | Platinum |
| Department of Land Economy | Platinum |
| MRC Epidemiology | Platinum |
| The Green Genies, DPHPC | Platinum |
College awards
| Lucy Cavendish College | Silver Colleges |
| Clare College | Gold Colleges |
| Darwin College | Gold Colleges |
| Gonville and Caius College | Gold Colleges |
| Hughes Hall | Gold Colleges |
| King's College | Gold Colleges |
| Magdalene College | Gold Colleges |
| Churchill College | Platinum Colleges |
| Corpus Christi College | Platinum Colleges |
| Girton College | Platinum Colleges |
| Jesus College | Platinum Colleges |
| Robinson College | Platinum Colleges |
| St John's College | Platinum Colleges |
Lab awards
| John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair | Gold Labs |
| Department of Surgery | Platinum Labs |
| Geography Science Laboratories | Platinum Labs |
Excellence awards
While our Platinum-winning teams have demonstrated huge commitment by going beyond the Gold requirements, other teams have chosen to take their Green Impact efforts to the next step in a completely different way. The Excellence award-winning departments have spent the past year focusing on one larger sustainability-themed project of their own design, and of specific relevance to their own context.
You can read about each of the Excellence projects in full here.
| Institute for Manufacturing | Excellence |
| Wolfson College | Excellence |
| Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience | Excellence |
Special awards
The Green Impact Special awards aim to recognise individuals and teams who have gone the extra mile in their Green Impact journey. The projects and initiatives nominated for these awards have made a difference above and beyond the requirements of the standard Green Impact actions.
| Sustainability Hero | Winner: Abby Burrage |
| Winner: Gemma Dunsmure | |
| Highly Commended: Gary Dougan | |
| Highly Commended: Gary Wren | |
| Highly Commended: Ivan Higney | |
| Innovation for Engagement | Winner: Anna Brown |
| Winner: Ellen Mackay | |
| Highly Commended: Andreza Carvalho | |
| Environmental Improvement | Winner: Cambridge Enterprise |
| Highly Commended: Danita Pearson | |
| Community Action | Winner: Darwin College |
| Student Leadership | Winner: Luisa Deragon |
| Highly Commended: Anushka Chandrawat |
Certificates of Recognition for Extra Sustainability Action at Home
This year saw the addition of Working From Home options for our Green Impact teams. Sustainability spread from the University to our home lives and together our Green Impact teams completed over 360 actions from the Working From Home tab, including everything from sustainability lunches to ethical banking and wellbeing activities.
Some teams completed far more Working From Home actions than required for their award level. To recognise the teams who completed 10 or more extra Working From Home actions we have awarded Certificates of Recognition to:
| Cambridge University Press | Faculty of Music |
| Centre for Digital Built Britain | Lucy Cavendish College |
| CEB Green Impact | Meet Cambridge |
| Department of Land Economy | MRC Epidemiology |