Green Impact is a fun and flexible program for staff and students to undertake meaningful, positive actions on campus, working together to make the University of Melbourne a healthy and sustainable place to work and study.

About Green Impact

Green Impact is a change and engagement program, developed in the UK by the National Union of Students (NUS) and delivered in Australia by Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS). Piloted for the first time in Australia at the University of Melbourne in 2017, Green Impact has been implemented by over 400 organisations worldwide. The program raises awareness of sustainability within an organisation by giving people a focused approach to tackling issues and supporting them in achieving these actions.

Worldwide feedback regarding Green Impact has been consistently positive, with participants reporting that it is a fun and engaging way to make meaningful environmental and sustainability change in their offices and across campus.

Year Two of the Program

The 2018 program was a huge success! With 443 individuals, within 44 teams achieving 1377 sustainability based actions. To see all the results and winners from 2017 and 2018 visit our winner’s page and gallery.

Join Green Impact

Launching for the third year in 2019, stay tuned for more information on how you can take part. By creating a team within your department or faculty, you can tackle sustainability issues, compete with other teams across the university, and get recognition for all your achievements!

Learn more about the program

Student volunteer opportunities

How it works

Taking part in Green Impact is as simple as joining or forming a team!

Individuals located in the same physical space (such as an office, department, floor or building) form a team to jointly undertake a series of actions from a pre-designed toolkit. The toolkit has been developed to help teams improve the environmental performance of their workspaces and covers a holistic approach to sustainability. Once teams have completed a certain number of actions, they will be recognised with achieving an accreditation within the program.

The program is fun, flexible, and voluntary. Teams can complete as many actions from the toolkit as they like, even if it’s just one or two. The main aim is to help raise awareness of sustainability and take direct positive action within their workspaces!

The benefits of the program include:

• Increase your awareness of sustainability issues
• Learn how to make positive and healthy changes to your workplace
• Build camaraderie with like-minded individuals from your area
• Contribute to the University’s sustainability strategy and objectives
• Most importantly, learn new things and have fun!

Please click on the icons below to learn more about Green Impact.

Scoring

There are three standard accreditation levels to achieve, as well the newly added LABS section. Each section has a range of different actions.

• The Bronze section includes actions worth 5 points each. These should be the easiest to get started on.
• The Silver section includes a list of actions worth 10 points each, as we recognise that these will take more effort and could be more challenging.
• The Gold actions are worth 15 points each as these are will push your sustainability achievements even further and are the hardest to obtain.
• The Labs tab has a variety of bronze, silver and gold valued actions specific to researchers and laboratory users. To obtain a sustainable labs accreditation you must undertake a combination of standard and Labs based actions, depending on the level you would like to reach.
• All awards (standard and labs) are incremental. Teams must achieve bronze before silver and bronze & silver before moving onto gold.

There are a minimum number of actions you must achieve to reach an accreditation level, however we obviously encourage you to do more if you can. We do acknowledge that teams are busy and have other priorities, so even if you only complete a small number of actions you will be recognised for your efforts with a "Working Toward Accreditation" status.

Green Impact is also all about continual improvement rather than a one-off ranking exercise. The process of completing the actions helps departments develop individual plans for greening their workplaces, helps change behaviours for individuals and culturally around the university and hopefully implement change with a long-term impact!

Choice

You don’t have to do every action! Each level has a selection of different actions for teams to choose from. Choose the actions from each level that you want to complete to gain that award. This gives teams the flexibility to choose things they enjoy, are passionate about and have the influence to change in your area of work.

Awards

No competition is complete without an overall winner! Teams within the program can compete to gain the most points. Awards for first, second and third place will be awarded to the 3 highest point-scoring teams. This means that even if you are not able to reach the next official award level, you can still undertake additional actions to increase your point score and be in with a chance of winning.

There are also special awards! These give you the chance to nominate individuals, ideas and projects in your team that you think go above and beyond what is included in the toolkit or are particularly innovative. The winners will be decided by a panel of judges.

Get Involved

All University of Melbourne staff and postgraduate students can make up a team and follow the step by step guide below to get involved!

SIGN UP TO YOUR ONLINE TOOLKIT

Check out the helpful University of Melbourne (and NUS) resources like poster templates, action plans etc. All available to download and ready to use. We will regularly update this page to include UoM specific resources.

Posters

Most posters below can be downloaded and printed at A3 size (recommended) but feel free to print at other sizes as needed. Please note for a full range of general sustainability posters and other resources please visit our Resources page under our A-Z of Sustainability.

Join Our Team Poster ((PDF 7.0 MB))

Dual Flush Toilets ((JPG 1.9 MB))

Water Bottles ((JPG 1.9 MB))	Coffee Cups ((JPG 1.8 MB))	Computers / Monitors ((JPG 2.8 MB))
Toilet Paper ((JPG 1.9 MB))

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Stickers

Download the examples below and contact us with your preferred stickers. In the email please be specific in regards to sticker type and quantity. If you'd like to customise stickers or need some straight away please download this printable sticker sheet which contains all the current designs.

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Frequently Asked Questions

• 1. Is there a standard size for teams?

  Teams can be any size, there are no restrictions. Teams should be set up within a physical location so a floor, department, building etc. One space/building can have multiple teams (split by floors or existing departmental teams), or departments may decide to cover the whole space/ building. The decision is on a case by case basis. However, we do recommend that team size is manageable.  Green Impact is not designed for individuals but nor should it be unrealistic in its expectation of team size.

• 2. I'm not sure if there's a team in my department?

  Please check this team list, which we will update every couple of weeks. Feel free to contact the team leaders listed.

• 3. Is there a deadline for signing up?

  Once the program has launched for the year you can sign up at any time before the 22 August. However, we do recommend signing up sooner rather than later as this gives teams more time to implement the actions and take advantage of the training and support activities provided by the sustainable campus team. The program is an annual one. Officially the 2019 program opens on 21 February and closes on 22 August 2019.
  
  Actions can be recorded within the toolkit during this time. However, we encourage teams to undertake actions all year round, to ensure a continuity with the sustainability message but also to take the pressure off teams during the toolkits opening. Actions can then just be recorded during this time period.

• 4. Can I have a look at the toolkit without signing up?

  Yes. If you would like to look at the toolkit and get a feel for how it works you can use the following log on details:
  
  Username: examplemelbourne@nus.org.uk
  Password: example

• 5. My team received a bronze accreditation last year, can we make a start straight for silver or do we have to accomplish bronze again?

  The program is all about continual improvement. As such, the award is valid on an annual basis. You have to accomplish bronze each year before you can move onto silver or gold. However, if you have accomplished bronze once, templates and actions will already be available and teams should be able to achieve this award relatively easily and quickly next time around. Also, if teams keep up their actions all year they should be able to tick off multiple actions right at the start.

• 6. What are Project Assistants and does our team have to have one?

  Project Assistants are student volunteers that can be assigned to your team to support you in implementing Green Impact. Teams do not have to have a student assistant but we would highly recommend them. Staff teams can help to provide a valuable volunteering role for students, to help improve their skills and give them work experience.
  
  Students will offer extra resources to teams, as well as bring a fresh perspective/skill set to that team. They are an extra resource for teams and can perform any task set out by the team. We encourage teams to include them in their planning and implementation. Teams will be offered a project assistant once their training has been completed.

• 7. I see there are new actions within the toolkit this year, does that mean we have to do more actions this year?

  There are a number of new actions within the toolkit but this does not mean you have to do more. To reach a Bronze or Silver Award, a minimum of 20 actions must be completed and a minimum of 15 actions for Gold. However, the new actions give variety to teams and ensures we are capturing sustainability actions that are relevant holistically across the university.  Please check out the ‘scoring’ on the How To page .

• 8. Do I have to complete all available actions to reach the accreditation level?

  No, teams do not have to complete all available actions within that level to reach accreditation. Teams have to do a minimum of 20 actions for Bronze and Silver and a minimum of 15 for Gold. However, we do encourage teams to do more if they can, not only will this be a win for sustainability but it also means you can compete with other teams for the highest point scoring prizes at the end of the year. First, second and third place are recognised. However, the program should not be onerous either, we appreciate teams have limited capacity so please just do what you can.

• 9. Can students be part of our team?

  Absolutely! We encourage students to get involved in any capacity they can. This can be as a direct team member (esp. post graduates/PhD students who will often have dedicated space of their own), or in a volunteer support role as either a project assistant or a student auditor.
  Assistant & Auditor Role Info

• 10. I’m not at Parkville can I take part?

  Absolutely! We want to ensure Green Impact is open and relevant for everyone within Melbourne university. The pilot program did primarily focus on the Parkville campus but in 2018 and beyond we want to encourage other campuses to get involved. Absolutely any space within UoM can get involved no matter where you are. We are hoping to reach out to different campuses in 2019 and if you are off Parkville and want to start a team or can help promote Green Impact within your campus please do get in touch.

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