Green Impact Awards

The University of Birmingham is creating campuses that enable sustainable working practices and behaviours. The Green Impact Awards champion these efforts and encourage positive action towards this goal.All of our community, including colleagues and students, are encouraged to take part and help secure a more sustainable working environment for all.  

How does the Toolkit work?

Once you have either set up or joined an existing team, you are ready to begin completing tasks. The tasks are situated in a 'Toolkit', and the Toolkit contains subcategories, with tasks relevent to that subcategory inside.

For instance, under the Energy subcategory, there are tasks that relate to saving energy. For example, 'Communications have been shared encouraging team members to do a walk around of their house, unplugging any chargers, laptops or equipment which are left on unnecessarily', and 'The team has an up-to-date written lighting and equipment responsibility plan covering all the main areas and key equipment within the department'. Each task is worth a set amount of points.

What do the points mean?

Some tasks are a little more involved, and this is reflected by the number of points the tasks are worth. The higher the points, the larger the sustainable impact. 

At the end of the acedmic year,  teams who have acheived the required points will be presented with an award at the annual Green Impact Award Ceremony. Depending on the number of points collected, there is the chance to win either a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum award. For those who go the extra mile, there are five extra awards up for grabs that either teams or individuals can win:

• Sustainability Hero 
• Innovation for Engagement
• Environmental Improvement
• Community Action
• Student Leadership

Further details on the criteria for these awards can be found under the Special subcategory on the Toolkit.

What can I gain from taking part?

Besides from a sleek slate trophy for the office, Green Impact boasts a range of benefits.

In the latest round of Green Impact, our 35 teams completed 1432 actions, reaching around 2076 people through these activities, which resulted in an estimated potential saving of 130 tonnes of CO2.

Helping to tackle climate change is not the only benefit of taking part. Wellbeing is also at the forefront of the Toolkit, and many of the tasks, even those outside of the Wellbeing subcategory, promote individual and team wellbeing. 

Hear from a few of our teams who are already seeing the positive effects that taking part in Green Impact has had on their team:

What support is available?

Throughout the year, Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS UK) organises national catch ups where you can find out how other teams from other instititutions are doing, share best practice and ask any questions. Likewise, at the University of Birmingham there are monthly catch ups for teams to discuss their progress, ask questions and collaborate on tasks should they wish.

Your University of Birmingham Green Impact Contacts

Jade and Cai are project leads for the Green Impact Awards, and can provide day-to-day support with your Green Impact queries.

2022 - 2023 Green Impact winners

Congratulations to the 27 teams who won awards at our latest Green Impact Ceremony!