Green Impact Universities And Colleges Excellence Award

What is Excellence?

Green Impact Universities and Colleges Excellence is a yearlong reward project that allows teams who have achieved a Green Impact Gold Standard for two consecutive years to take a year’s break from the workbook. The Excellence framework gives teams the opportunity to work creatively on bigger picture sustainability initiatives, with specialist support and guidance from NUS and their environmental/sustainability department.

Green Impact Excellence was piloted in the last academic year producing a range of innovative projects nationwide. To see a selection of last year’s entries, watch the video below.

Aims of Excellence:

  • To keep Gold Standard teams engaged in Green Impact;
  • To harness the experience, energy and enthusiasm found within teams, to create unique and exciting sustainability projects;
  • To collectively tackle bigger-picture challenges and issues identified by ‘on the ground’ experience.

Who can take part in Excellence?

Teams who have achieved a Gold Standard for two consecutive years in the GIUC programme. Teams must also be able to comply with the following criteria:

  • A willingness or desire ready to take on the challenge of something larger than the Green Impact workbook;
  • A team who can dedicate a regular portion of their time to the project;
  • Sustainability/Environmental team support for their project.

What constitutes an Excellence project?

NUS advises sustainability/environmental departments to work with teams to create projects that are bespoke to their local problems and opportunities.

There are no limitations on the subject area for a GIUC Excellence project, other than it aims to improve the environmental/sustainability performance of the University or college and/or increase stakeholder engagement with sustainability. Projects could fall within the sustainability themes identified within the GIUC workbook (energy; waste; travel; procurement; pro-environmental communications or; biodiversity) or be further reaching such as, greening the curriculum or engaging with the local community. An Excellence project could also be a perfect opportunity to engage academics and students who have been previously hard to recruit to the programme.

To enable teams to ensure their projects are useful to the University/College’s overall sustainability aims we suggest that:

  • The Sustainability/Environmental Department creates a list of projects they feel it would be interesting and useful for teams to complete;
  • The Sustainability/Environmental Department works with teams who already have an idea for their Excellence project to ensure there is sufficient focus and the project is of a manageable size.

Timeline

The Excellence programme will run alongside the standard Green Impact timeline decided by the environmental/sustainability department.

Requirements

To be awarded an Excellence standard is an accolade. NUS therefore asks teams to report on their progress to gain the accreditation. To ensure consistency and fairness NUS have developed the following framework to guide work on Excellence.

Submission of Project Plan

This should consist of:

  • One or two tangible aims;
  • Four or five Objectives of your project;
  • A clear identification of a relevant ethical/environmental problem or opportunity;
  • Key Activities and Timescales;
  • Key Performance Indicators;
  • Identification of Project Team and Key Stakeholders;
  • Plan to engage students;
  • Resources and Research Required;
  • SMART Action Plan.

To download the GIUC Excellence Project Plan Template click here.

Case Study

 The case study should be between 2-4 pages, include photographs and be submitted electronically on the institution’s submission date.

Final Report

The Final Report is an opportunity for teams to celebrate their hard work and achievements in GIUC Excellence. We hope that a lot of projects will continue after the submission deadline, but teams should aim to summarize their work so far. The Final Report should cover:

  • A summary of your project’s aims and achievements;
  • KPI Delivery Update;
  • Monitoring and Evaluation of the impact of your project;
  • Stakeholder Engagement Update;
  • Project Difficulties and Opportunities;
  • Legacy.

To download the final report template please click here.

Inclusion in Awards Ceremony

NUS recommends that teams who have taken part in Excellence showcase their work at the Awards Ceremony. This could be through any of the following means:

  • A team presentation on their Excellence project;
  • A video on the team’s Excellence project;
  • A series of posters communicating the results of the team’s Excellence project;
  • Any other means deemed appropriate by the Environmental/Sustainability Department.

Rewarding Excellence

To be awarded the Green Impact Excellence standard is an accolade to a team’s work on sustainability. We therefore ask the team to report on their progress to gain the accreditation. To ensure consistency and fairness NUS have developed the following framework to asses Green Impact Excellence. The framework is based on a score out of 100.

To achieve Excellence you must gain 50/100 marks.

To obtain Excellence (Highly Commended) you must attain 65/100 marks.

To attain Excellence (Outstanding) you must achieve 80/100 marks.

These marks can be gained through the following system:

Project Plan – scored out of 30

Final Report – scored out of 50

Case Study – scored out of 20

Deciding how to reward Excellence teams is important in driving their motivation for participation and for being able to demonstrate to all other participants, the institution, SU and wider community that they have achieved important changes or innovations through participating in the programme. We would suggest giving an ‘Excellence’ level award at the end of the year, a special certificate, or a continuation of their 2012-13 Gold Standard status. It would also be worth thinking about the wider impact rewarding these teams could have: are there any wider media routes you could use to highlight their achievements? Could they present at your awards ceremony? Could you make a film of their projects?

Support

Your Green Impact Project Officer (GIPO) will be available to offer guidance throughout the programme. It could be useful to offer a supportive project planning session for Excellence teams, which it is possible for your GIPO to co-facilitate with you. This session should be scheduled to fall on the same day as your launch event, or another workshop. We have a variety of prepared resources available to the environmental/sustainability department:

  • Project plan template;
  • Project planning session presentation;
  • Case study template;
  • Final report template.

FAQs

Is Excellence supposed to be a year on year off programme?

To be part of programme, teams do need to re-visit the workbook every other year if they opt into Green Impact Excellence. We do not expect all teams who take this opportunity to completely finish their project within the year, so a team might continue working on their project even though they are revisiting the workbook in the given year.

Is there going to be a wider element of choice on projects: can we present our own project for consideration?

Yes, a team present their own project for the environmental/sustainability department’s consideration.

Can teams access the workbook to keep on top of the new criteria?

Yes, a team can access the workbook, but they don’t need to complete it during the excellence year.

 

Case studies

Lancaster – Eco-hub

Winchester – Greening the campus

Liverpool – Greening the Students’ Union building

Staffordshire – Computer recycling project

Goldsmiths – Students’ Union biodiversity

Portsmouth – Biodiversity project

Sheffield – Conservation days

Cheltenham – Chilli jam company

Leicester – Education for sustainable development

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If you have any further questions regarding the Excellence programme please don’t hesitate to contact either, your project officer, Sustainability Project Officer, or Green Impact Programme Manager.