Green Impact Awards 2011/12

About the scheme

The University of Bristol Green Impact Awards offer a practical way of helping departments become greener, whilst celebrating the small steps that individuals are taking to reduce our collective environmental impacts. Green Impact challenges departments to implement a number of easy practical actions that will help the environment. The more actions completed by a department the more points are scored, leading to a Bronze, Bronze Plus, Silver, Gold or Platinum Award.

Aims and outcomes

Green Impact aims to empower individuals and departments to reduce their environmental impact by encouraging, rewarding and celebrating practical environmental improvements.

Who can get involved?

Any department can participate, regardless of size, location or function. We welcome teams that may not be whole departments, for example you may be part an office or laboratory. The scheme is not aimed at any one type of post-holder – any member of staff or student can lead on behalf of their department and the more people you can get on board, the easier it will be, you also get extra points for getting people involved. Students are particularly keen to get involved in projects like this.

What ‘impact’ has Green Impact had?

Find out more about how green impact has helped reduce energy and water use, increased recycling and promoted sustainable travel - What impact green impact?

New this year

Green Impact Laboratories– Working with a national scheme called S-Labs, the University has helped develop a green impact scheme just for labs. Focusing on what can be done by lab staff it looks at efficient cold storage, fume cupboards, ventilation and heating, chemicals, waste and water. Want to take part? Sign up for Green Impact at www.greenimpact.org.uk/bristol and go to the lab tab. Want to know more contact Martin Wiles at m.r.wiles@bristol.ac.uk .

Green Impact Hospitals– Working with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust, a new scheme has been developed that both hospital staff and University staff working in the hospital can get involved in. Want to know more contact Martin Wiles at m.r.wiles@bristol.ac.uk or sign up to the workbook at http://www.greenimpact.org.uk/uhb

Green Impact Excellence– For those departments that have achieved a consistently high score in Green Impact you have a chance to focus on a particular sustainability project and achieve an excellence award which holds for two years. Martin Wiles will contact departments that are eligible.

The Workbook

The work book for 2011 -2012 can be found at www.greenimpact.org.uk/bristol. There are details on the site that explain what you need to do, but if you need any helpplease email the Green Impactmail box. If you are a new department please drop Martin Wiles an email m.r.wiles@bristol.ac.uk .

Green Impact runs this year from the 1^st October 2011 to 2nd March 2012.

What people have said about the Green Impact Award scheme in the past?

"This is the second year that Capital Projects have been involved in the Green Impact Awards. In the first year we achieved a bronze level award which looked at some of the basic ways in which we dealt with our day-to-day business. What became apparent is that we can make a lot of relatively minor changes to the way that we do things but have quite a big effect. 

In the second year, we targeted and achieved a silver level award. In order to achieve this we had to look closer at the detail of our work and the scheme became more of a team effort, and featured heavily in update briefings, and monthly meetings. The team seemed to get behind the scheme and get stuck into changing their own behaviour! As a trained auditor for the scheme I also got a great deal out of the process personally and met lots of enthusiastic people wanting to do the right thing!

 I feel that in the third year of Green Impact we will be questioning a great deal more about what our supply chain do and look to try and reach a little further that our direct team, and hopefully make yet a greater difference!"  (Kevin O'Flaherty, Capital Projects )

“The Green Impact Awards has been great at bringing the different teams working on the 5^th floor of Senate House together. Collecting stamps, the charity book sale and our green tips of the month are now well-established parts of life on the 5^th Floor.” (Jenny Campion-Smith, Planning Office)

Contact information

Email: green-impact-awards@bristol.ac.uk
Phone: 0117 928 8034 (internal x88034)

Green Impact Sponsors 2011-2012

This year we have been very lucky to receive sponsorship from the companies noted below, so a very big thank you to them: