Virtual tour and student Ruby Craven win at Green Gown Awards

The University’s virtual Sustainability Tour and Bachelor of Arts student Ruby Craven have won awards in the 2021 Green Gown Awards Australasia.

Woman with long red hair sits smiling at a table with a laptop on it. The laptop has an image of her face with the word 'winner' above.

Ruby Craven won the ACTS Awards of Excellence ­– Student category for her contributions to sustainability as a university student, while the virtual Sustainability Tour received the ‘Highly Commended’ award in the ‘Building Back Better’ category.

Awards were announced at the Green Gown Awards Australasia online ceremony on Thursday 18 November. In its twelfth year, the Awards are run annually by Australian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) and recognise excellence in sustainability within the tertiary education sector in Australasia.

The ACTs Award of Excellence – Student goes to a student from an ACTS member institution who has demonstrated leadership in sustainability initiatives and practical solutions while at University.

Ruby is a third-year Bachelor of Arts student double-majoring in Politics and International Relations and Geography. Ruby is Coordinator of the University of Melbourne Student Union Bike Cooperative, a Climate Reality Leader, represented the University of Melbourne at the 2020 Global University Climate Forum, and completed an internship with the Climate Council Australia from 2019–2020, among other roles. In these roles Ruby follows her passion for climate and inter-generational justice, seeing universities as highly critical in facing Australia’s future challenges.

Ruby feels ecstatic to have her work being recognised at an Australasian level. ‘I’m just so honoured to have been selected alongside such an inspiring and hardworking group of students from across Australasia. It was amazing to see such an array of sustainability initiatives and projects that we can draw on at The University of Melbourne’.

The 'Building Back Better’ category recognises an institution that has responded to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic with innovation, identifying opportunities to drive an environmentally sustainable and just recovery.

The virtual Sustainability Tour was created in response to restrictions preventing on-campus tours from running. As other campus activities transitioned online, the Sustainability Team developed an online platform through which users can explore sustainable initiatives, services, and infrastructure by watching videos embedded into an interactive map of campus. Not only has this provided an innovative alternative to on-campus sustainability tours, but shared knowledge about sustainability activities to new audiences, including international and interstate students, organisations, alumni, prospective students and industry partners.

The University was also represented in three other finalist entries including Alexander Buck in the ACTS Awards of Excellence – Student category, Harriet Deans in the ACTS Awards of Excellence – Staff category, and the Sustainability Student Volunteering and Internship Programs in the ‘Student Engagement’ category.

To view all winners and highly commended finalists of the Awards visit Green Gown Awards Australasia.