Welcome back staff and students to another big year at the University of Salford! The sustainability team have a number of exciting initiatives planned for this year including the university’s involvement in Green Impact for a second year.
The team want to firstly say a big thank you to Charlie Spring for all the hard work she put in during 2013/14. Charlie spearheaded the inaugural year of Green Impact which was a huge success and a real tribute to Charlie’s work. She got eleven staff teams on board and supported them throughout the year. She also recruited and trained a number of students as Project Assistants and Auditors providing them with valuable transferrable skills and sustainability knowledge to assist them in their employment. We are lucky to be keeping Charlie within the university where she will be undertaking a PhD in food waste so we look forward to seeing her around. Thanks Charlie!
Shaun Wykes – Sustainable Behaviours Assistant 2014/15
Our new Sustainable Behaviours Assistant for 2014/15 is Shaun Wykes. Shaun studied law and environmental science at the Australian National University and during his university years he was involved with sustainability on campus including organising events, working with other students on campaigns and writing case studies about the sustainable initiatives that departments were undertaking.
Shaun said, “I’m very excited to be working with the team at the University of Salford to continue the great work of Green Impact into its second year here. This programme is a unique opportunity for staff to follow defined steps to make real sustainable change within their department and for students to access invaluable work experience and knowledge.”
Green Impact is an NUS scheme which began in 2006, and has grown rapidly to now work with over 50 Universities and Colleges, over 100 Students’ Unions, and ever increasing numbers of community organisations, reaching over 44,000 employees across the country – all coming together to lessen their environmental impact.
The central team at NUS and the Environment & Sustainability Team at University will help support teams through the process, as well as providing a wealth of online resources to help make changes across the University.
Over thirty volunteer Student Project Assistants are being trained this week to provide extra support to teams and then next Thursday November 13th from 12-2pm Green Impact will be launched for 2014/15. The launch event will be held in the Students’ Union Activities Space in University House. This event is open to anyone interested in participating or wanting to find out more about the scheme. Please register your attendance by clicking here.
Bec Bennett, Environment & Sustainability Officer said, “We are very excited to be participating in Green Impact again this year. Last year saw some fantastic efforts by staff and student volunteers. We’re hoping to build on that with the development of a new workbo
ok, more resources and we have a great team of student volunteers all ready to be trained to support the staff teams! We have even introduced a new Platinum level which we know some of last year’s teams will be striving for!”
If you have any further queries email Shaun Wykes; s.wykes@salford.ac.uk or click here for more information and stay tuned to hear about more initiatives happening throughout the year.