Green Impact FAQs

All University of Melbourne students and staff, and retailers located on a University of Melbourne campus can join our Green Impact program.

You sure can! If you are studying/working both at home and on campus you can still be part of the Toolkit. However, if you are not located on campus you can sign up as an individual.

The program opens in April and closes in October each year. View the program dates on the Participants Portal to see current dates for this year.

We will recruit Project Assistants in May of 2024, and Student Auditors in October. Sign up to our mailing list to get up to date information about these positions.

Staff based teams can be assigned a student Project Assistant to help them complete toolkit actions if they choose from June. Teams can email the Sustainability Team to request a Project Assistant.

Student accommodation venues and Student Club teams can elect members of their team to undergo Project Assistant training. Project Assistant applicants will have the option to specify which team they would like to assist if they were to be chosen.

More information on the different ways you can sign up as a student.

Actions are designed to improve the environmental and social performance of your workspace and cover categories including biodiversity, climate action, diversity and inclusion, energy and water, engagement, health and wellbeing, procurement, teaching and learning, and waste.

Actions have a varying number of toolkit points associated with them, increasing with the difficulty of the specific action.

Explore the toolkits now

Join the teams toolkit

Join the individuals toolkit

Follow the steps to sign up to your toolkit provided for staff and students. If you still feel lost, use these steps to guide you along.

For teams:

• Set up a meeting with your team to decide who will be the primary and secondary contacts. Determine the frequency of meetings and assign actions for each member to complete before the next meeting.
• Download the toolkit as an excel spreadsheet by selecting the excel symbol in the top right hand corner of the toolkit. You can then save this as shared document within your team and start allocating actions to each member.

For both teams and individuals:

• If you want to get creative, think outside the box and create your own sustainability project. You can log this in the wildcard categories in the toolkit.
• Set up a meeting with or request a presentation from the Sustainability Team to help you come up with a plan that will work for your area.

Contact the Sustainability Team

Green Impact is a friendly competition with each toolkit action given a number of points relative to its level of difficulty. When you complete an action and upload evidence to the toolkit, you will gain the amount of points allocated to that action.

No, you can complete as many actions as you choose but keep in mind that the more actions you complete, the more likely you are to win an award at the Sustainability Awards Ceremony!

For students completing the individual toolkit, you need to complete at least 250 points worth of toolkit actions to be eligible for a Melbourne Plus Credential.

If your team has both an office space and a lab, you can complete both the general team and lab actions. These will all contribute to your final score.

Neither office teams nor labs, can complete actions from the retailer tab.

Students without a permanent space of influence on campus (eg. a student club room or accommodation venue) are encouraged to complete the individuals toolkit. You can still do this collaboratively with your friends!

Submit your toolkit before Friday October 11 2024. Most teams submit their toolkits the day of the deadline so they have plenty of time to log as many actions as they can. Reminders of the deadline will be announced  on the Teams channel.

1. Once you submit your toolkit, you are no longer able to log actions or upload evidence to the toolkit. You can, of course, continue completing sustainable actions but the points won’t be added to your final score.
2. After the deadline, the Sustainability Team with the help of volunteer Student Auditors will review your toolkit to check all appropriate evidence has been uploaded. We will let you know what day this is being completed as some members of your team will need to be available.
3. You will have 2–3 days to resubmit any missing evidence to improve your score, based on the advice of your Student Auditors.

Then, all you need to do is sit back and relax while you wait for your invitation to the end of year Awards Ceremony in October.

You’ll get the chance to celebrate your achievements with other Green Impact participants, members of the University community and the Sustainability Executive, while you snack on delicious food and drinks and hear about the incredible sustainability achievements across the University. There are prizes given to the top Green Impact Award winners. All participants are recognised for their efforts.

Award winners receive a certificate as well as a prize to reward their efforts for sustainability. In the past, prizes have included:

• A TerraCycle Office Waste Collection Box pack to help your team reduce office waste sent to landfill
• A sustainability-themed book pack to share with the team
• A windowsill planter equipped to grow restaurant-style microherbs including basil, parsley and chives
• Adoption of bushfire-injured koalas, with the money going towards their recovery at a sanctuary
• Donation to a charity such as the World Wildlife Fun or Oxfam.