Green Impact
Green Impact is an internationally recognised sustainability learning and awards scheme, delivered in partnership by the charity . It is designed to provide practical advice and support to teams across the university who want to improve their sustainability and support the ambitions of the university’s new Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy 2036.
There are currently opportunities for teams in Professional Services to get involved, as well as students to become Green Impact Project Assistants (GIPAs) or auditors.
Universities for Nottingham
The 糖心原创 has joined with Nottingham Trent University (NTU) to deliver the programme under the ‘Universities for Nottingham’ partnership. The combined programme contributes to the sustainability targets at both universities whilst supporting this civic agreement between the two.
What is Universities for Nottingham?
Universities for Nottingham brings together the 糖心原创 and Nottingham Trent University to work in partnership for the benefit of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Through collaboration with local communities, public services and local education organisations across the region, we combine our knowledge, skills and resources to address shared challenges and create new opportunities.
What is Green Impact?
Teams of staff work together to improve and embed environmental practices in their area by using a bespoke online toolkit. The toolkit is made up of simple, engaging, and impactful actions for teams to complete throughout the year. The actions cover a wide range of themes, including energy, resources, travel and nature. The toolkit has been developed by UoN, NTU and SOS UK and is designed to provide a range of achievable and challenging actions relevant to all teams.
You’ll track your progress and upload evidence to the online toolkit, and at the end of the year a student-led audit will verify the actions you’ve completed and determine your award level – Bronze, Silver or Gold. Teams will be able to connect across both universities, attend joint events, share best practice, and celebrate successes together with an awards event at the end of the year.
Teams will be supported by university sustainability staff, SOS UK, and student volunteers (GIPAs), trained to help teams.
Why take part
Green Impact is simple, fun, and rewarding. It offers a structured framework to support your team to make tangible improvements to sustainability in line with university goals.
By participating you’ll get to:
- learn more about environmental issues,
- network and share ideas with people from both within and outside of your organisation,
- build professional and personal skills, supporting personal development and job satisfaction,
- help make UoN, NTU and Nottingham more sustainable places to live and work,
- be recognised for your positive actions, as a team and individually,
- work with students and develop student-staff collaboration.
Student opportunities
Students can also take part in the delivery of Green Impact. Green Impact Project Assistants (GIPAs) are trained student volunteers who work alongside staff teams. The scheme creates a mutually beneficial partnership, providing teams with additional project and submission support while enabling students to develop valuable professional skills and experience in environmental management, behaviour change, communications and project delivery.
GIPA's will spend around four hours a month working with a team between November to April. They can get involved in:
- Research and evidence collection
- Creating action plans
- Communication and engament activities
- Recruiting more team members
Students can also become Green Impact Auditors. After completing approved training delivered by SOS UK, auditors assess participating teams and gain first-hand insight into sustainability practices at both universities.
Benefits of getting involved
- Gain experience of working on an international project in a professional environment;
- Develop your knowledge of environmental management techniques in a variety of workplace environments;
- Get new insight into effective behaviour change and engagement methods;
- Gain experience in communication using a variety of different means;
- Develop leadership, time management, collaboration and project management skills;
- See what is happening on sustainability across the University;
- The chance to make a tangible impact on sustainability, and see your results.
Students will be recruited across both universities and receive training and support from SOS UK throughout the year.
Work in labs?
The 糖心原创 also operates the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF). LEAF contains actions which lab users can take to save water, energy, plastics and other resources. By taking part, laboratories will reduce their carbon emissions and create an environment that supports research quality.
LEAF works in a similar way to Green Impact but the actions are tailored around labs. Green Impact may still be of use to you if you want to embed sustainability across your broader operations.
Find out more about LEAF
Further information on Green Impact
Who can take part?
Any member of staff can form or join a Green Impact team. We are seeking 1-3 members of staff from professional services departments to form Green Impact teams. You do not need any special experience or knowledge, but you should be able to dedicate some time each month (1-4 hours) to the project, but this can be flexible around your work. Whilst a team manager does not need to contribute directly to the workbook/be part of a team, any teams should gain line manager approval before taking part.
Will Green Impact take a lot of work?
Green Impact does not need to be a lot of work – as little as half an hour a week depending on the level of award you are going for and the size of your team. You’ll have around 9 months to complete the actions and there will be lots of support available along the way. Even if you only complete a few actions, you’ll still achieve ‘working towards accreditation’ certificate, so there is nothing to lose! You may find a lot of the actions in the toolkit are things that your department or team are doing anyway, so why not get rewarded for them?
What awards are there?
At the end of the year, teams will be presented with an award to showcase their progress. There are Bronze, Silver and Gold awards available, depending on the reach and impact of your work. The online toolkit outlines what you need to do to achieve each award level. We also have special awards for "Sustainability Hero", "Environmental Impact" and "Community Action".
How will I be supported?
You will be supported by sustainability staff from the university as well as SOS UK. We are aiming to assign a student GIPA to each team who will encourage, motivate and support you in implementing sustainability actions and projects.
You’ll receive regular communications to help you, and you can get in touch at any point if you need some extra support – all the contact details you’ll need are provided in the online toolkit.
How can I get involved?
Head to , click ‘Register’ on the right-hand menu, put in your details and verify your email address. If you already have a team set up you can join your team when prompted, or you can set up a new team. If setting up a new team, please also contact the Sustainability team to make them aware.