BU's Department of Life and Environmental Science (LES) has received a Bronze award for Green Impact, after taking part in the Green Impact challenge for the first time.
Green Impact Universities and Colleges is an environmental accreditation and awards scheme delivered by the NUS, in partnership with the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC).
It aims to empower people and their departments to take action on sustainability and reward them for their environmental efforts within their workplace.
The award covers measurable actions relating to topics around sustainability - including communication, travel, recycling, and energy - and the number of actions completed correlates to a Bronze, Silver or Gold Award.
The LES Department formed their first ever team in November 2015, called GreenLES+. Team members (Dr. Elena Canterello, Prof. Chris Shiel, Prof. Genoveva Esteban, Elizabeth Franklin and Alex Lovegrove) completed 25 activities scoring 108 points, and involved around 40 staff and 45 postgraduate research students and postgraduate research assistants.
Main activities included promoting the opportunities that BU offers staff to enhance sustainability, such as water saving, Green Week, and sustainable travel; and the identification and documentation of the five most significant negative environmental impacts and suggestions for solutions in the coming year.
Activities also emcompassed the provision of innovative teaching and learning environment to foster students' understanding of sustainable development.
The GreenLES+ team was audited by BU students trained by NUS, and received the Bronze award at a special BU Green Awards Night on Earth Day. Professor Chris Shiel also received the Greenbean award, for the Greenest Member of Staff.
Dr Elena Cantarello, who led the GreenLES+ team, said: “We thought that the Green Impact scheme was an excellent scheme to encourage staff and students to take action on sustainability and we look forward to working towards the Silver award.
"We have a number of creative ideas which we would like to implement, and look forward to collaborating more closely with our students to achieve the next award.”
