SNAPSHOT CASE STUDIES: Teamwork!
SNAPSHOT CASE STUDIES: teamwork!
Case study 1
To get her team mates engaged,Lucy, a Green Impact team lead from the University of Kent, organised a number of departmental events such as ‘Green Impact Coffee and Brownie Lunch’ and ‘Green Impact Coffee and Croissant Morning’ which proved very successful in raising awareness and enthusiasm. Lucy was awarded the Environmental Hero Award for all her efforts!
Case study 2
Staff at St. George House at Anglia Ruskin formed a team and took part in Green Impact. They had no ordinary team lead, their team was lead by the mascot George the Green Dragon. George communicated all the environmental messages to his team, and you could often catch him doing environmental actions such as switching off lights or walking up the steps – this has all been photographically documented! George even has his own Facebook page through which he spread his messages. George won the best Environmental Hero Award.
Case study 3
The Student Support Development Service at the University of Leicester have taken reducing waste and growing local food to new levels as part of Green Impact Universities.The plastic cake/sandwich boxes that are supplied by catering are being used as mini greenhouses to germinate and grow some seeds. These are plants like lettuce and herbs, which can then be taken home by staff in the department to grow on in their gardens etc. The aim is to encourage staff to see how easy it is to grow plants in a small space such as on a windowsill, as well as encouraging people to eat healthily! In addition, their departmental team-building day in June 2010 involved creating a garden at a local primary school in Wigston, Leicester. In order to try and save money on buying plants, they propagated seeds in the office that they then took and planted at the school.
Case study 4
In order to reduce the amount of organic waste going to landfill, the Careers team at the University of Sheffield have introduced a new bin for collecting food waste to be taken to a staff member’s allotment compost heap – they’ve even named it Marjory after the Trash Heap on 80’s TV series Fraggle Rock!
Case study 5
The catering department ‘Fresh Ideas’ at the University of Exeter have taken on sustainability in a big way. They offer chilled water as an alternative to plastic bottled mineral water, and provide milk from a large dispenser rather than individual containers to avoid waste packaging. They also provide locally sourced produce using a consolidated delivery system wherever possible. However their most novel innovation has been the introduction of a ‘Green Impact finger buffet’ as seen below-
Selection of sandwiches from our local supplier Exeter M/F/V 50 % V
Local vegetarian quiche selection Devon V
Devon chicken liver paté on mini crisp breads Devon M
Mini spicy West Country crab cakes West Country F
West Country cheese board West Country V
Fresh fruit platter Devon Supplier V
Case study 6
At the University of Leicester one very creative Green Impact team is using its imagination and skills to turn its waste paper into artistic masterpieces! The Student Support and Development Service’s (SSDS) approach to meeting bronze criteria B.002 (the department has a scheme in place to collect waste A4 paper printed on one side only and, rather than sending it for recycling, reuses it internally) is organising group ‘notebook making sessions’.
Members of staff are asked to bring along their one-sided waste paper, their lunch and imagination and the rest - pens, pencils, scissors, staplers and random props are provided by Karen (the team lead). Over the lunch hour, staff have the opportunity to create and design their very own bespoke and recycled notebook. Not only do these sessions offer colleagues the chance to think about and put into practice waste re-use strategies, they are a great way to enthuse colleagues who do not form part of the Green Impact team. They also act as a great informal and fun way to meet new faces in the department.
In the past, Karen has added different elements to these notebook making sessions including organising mini quizzes, seed planting activities and inviting the GLA, Tobie Roffey, to give a brief update on the scheme in general (also acting as a recruitment drive!).
As you can see from the photographs the University is housing some secret artists!
Case study 7
In February 2010 the ‘5th Floor Senate House’ team at the University of Bristol set up a book share corner. People bring in books as and when they want to and put them on the bookshelf in the kitchen. To buy a book staff put a donation of at least £1 in the box and take away the book of their choice. The scheme is run by Honorata Mazepus, who is a member of the green team. She makes sure it is advertised well (eg. posters changed, e-mails sent to the department), that books don't hang around too long and that the money is kept safe. Any books that have been on the shelf for a long time will be taken to a local charity shop and the money that is raised is given to the Frank Buttle Trust which is an educational foundation.
Case Study 8
Although the new online workbook format has been very well received by Green Impact teams at all of our universities, Andy Biggin from the School of Environmental Science at the University of Liverpool, thought that one area could be improved. Of course, printing the workbook goes against the ethos of the programme but is sometimes necessary to ensure teams can effectively delegate roles and discuss progress at team meetings. He therefore developed a simple plan, listing each criteria, what type of action was required and how to put this into effect, to be used at team meetings to ensure good progress was being made and efforts were coordinated. There are also blank columns for who will complete each action and how much progress has been made. In its entirety it prints onto just six sides so that's just three pieces of paper if you duplex print. Andy's template is available in the Green Impact Workbook Resources thread on the Degrees Cooler sharing forum and the Green Impact team like this so much they're reconsidering the format of the printable workbook on all Green Impact workbooks for next year.