Submitted by Susannah Cook on Thu, 2023-06-22 10:26
On Wednesday 21st June 2023, The Environmental Sustainability Team (EST) hosted our inaugural Sustainability Showcase at Wolfson College
Photography credits Stewart Bethell.
This year’s award ceremony looked a bit different than how we had hosted awards ceremonies in the past. There are many different sustainability engagement programmes that the Environmental Sustainability Team administer, and even more offered by our friends across the University. We thought that it was now time to celebrate all our amazing volunteers, staff and students, in one place.
One thing that stayed the same was the vast number of awards and achievements that we celebrated. Dr Sally Pidgeon, the EST's Head of Environmental Sustainability, opened the showcase, emphasising that afternoon was all about celebrating our staff and student volunteers and their achievements.
In terms of our programmes, for Green Impact alone we awarded 43* awards, of which 12 teams achieved Platinum status. Platinum means that each team had to complete 80% of the Green Impact workbook successfully.
- Cambridge University Press and Assessment Cape Town
- Cancer Research UK
- IMS-MRL
- The Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
- The Green Genies - DPHPC
- Christ's College
- Churchill College
- Clare College
- Gonville & Caius College
- Robinson College
- St John's College
- Wolfson College
Nine teams opted for the Excellence project option for Green Impact this year. This took the form of completing a seven-month project focusing on a single topic of the team’s choice. The projects were varied and focused on many different aspects of sustainability.
- The Botanic Gardens: How can we reduce the energy demands of 1 Brookside, a Grade II listed, uninsulated University building?
- Cambridge University Press & Assessment: Carbon literacy training project.
- JCBC: Increasing sustainable practice and energy efficiency in ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers at the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre.
- Jesus and Churchill Colleges’ Seed Library.
- Lucy Cavendish College: A Living Lab for Green Nudges.
- MRC Epidemiology: Turning Studies Paperless.
- Murray Edwards College: Student Sustainability Leaders Programme.
- Robinson College: Improve sustainability products supplied to guests in College.
- The Department of Land Economy: Improving student inclusion in Land Economy Green Impact and Wellbeing.
As part of Green Impact, teams also nominate colleagues, students and projects for 'Special Awards' to recognise those who have gone above and beyond for Green Impact this year. Many of these individuals do these projects voluntarily, giving up vast swaths of their time and working extremely hard to advance sustainability in their College, institution, department or workplace.
Sustainability Hero
- Winner: Ivan Higney, Darwin College
- Highly Commended: Oscar Holgate, Wolfson College
Innovation for Engagement
- Winner: Animal agriculture Lucy Cavendish College
- Highly Commended: Sustainability Thinking Space Wolfson College
Environmental Improvement
- Winner: Clare College Braeside
- Highly Commended: Cambridge University Press and Assessment South Africa Biodiversity Hikes
Community Action
- Winner: Darwin College Project Second Life
Student Leadership Award
- Winner: Deidre Boodoosingh, Wolfson College
- Highly Commended: Lauren Court, Girton College
We also awarded 7 LEAF awards for our lab-based teams as the programme has taken root since it’s soft launch last year.
- Hyvonen Lab – Bronze
- Photoactive Materials – Silver
- Department of Genetics – Silver
- Sainsbury Laboratory – Silver
- Forse Lab – Silver
- MRC Mitochondrial Biological Unit – Gold
- The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology – Gold
The Environmental Sustainability Team also wanted to recognise some of the other projects that we and our friends at Cambridge Zero support. These were:
- The Sustainability Champions
- A Matter of Degrees
- The Green Officers
- The Climate Challenge
- Engage for Change
- Green Impact Student Auditors
As well as celebration, another main aim of the Showcase was knowledge sharing and so we were also lucky to hear 8 presentations from across the University and beyond. Rachel Steward our Sustainability Manager gave us an introduction to LSPs, Joanna Romanowicz from SOS-UK told us about updates to the Green Impact Toolkit and Tamzin Byrne gave us a progress report on the work of the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits. We also heard from Dr Chris Macdonald and Lynda Haines about their Excellence projects at Lucy Cavendish College and the Department of Land Economy respectively. Students Olatz Bulson-Roman and Yuting Chen presented their Engage for Change projects and last but not least, Ivan Higney laid out how to make sustainable change in College catering.
Photography credits Stewart Bethell
Before we enjoyed some refreshments outside in the beautiful garden, Professor Ian Leslie was kind enough to offer some closing remarks, celebrating the achievements of all of our wonderful participants. A big thank you to all who attended and hope to see you again next year.
You can watch the event here on our Youtube channel: Part 1, Part 2 and you will soon be able to access the presentation slides. A full breakdown of award levels will be available on our website in due course.
Written by: Susannah Cook, Sustainability Engagement Manager
*in the awards ceremony our Sustainability Engagement Manager erroneously stated that we awarded 41 awards. We are also awaiting a late submission so the final total may be 44.