The Raine Study’s Heather Campbell receives the Gold level accreditation Certificate of Achievement on behalf of the Raine Study’s team at UWA’s 2020 Green Impact Awards.
November 2020: Here at the Raine Study, we’re big believers in small actions being just as important as the big ones to help achieve change. So while our researchers have been busy collecting and analysing data to better understand and improve human health on a global scale, the Raine Study’s core team has also been taking action to help make our campus a healthier and more sustainable place to work.
In June 2020, we decided to take part in the Green Impact program on offer at the University of Western Australia (UWA), where our office is located. Green Impact is a sustainability engagement program which encourages staff members to get creative to tackle sustainability issues, compete with other teams across the University, and receive recognition for their achievements. The Raine Study team didn’t just get involved, but managed to achieve the top level accredition – Gold!
At UWA, the Green Impact program sees team members working together on a series of sustainability tasks, based around 7 main areas of sustainability:
- water
- waste
- energy
- travel
- health and wellbeing
- procurement
- embedding and communication
Depending on the number of tasks successfully completed, teams are awarded Bronze, Silver or Gold accreditation. The Raine Study team elected to hold a regular Meat-Free Monday (on a Wednesday 🙂 event and implemented changes to recycling and procurement across the office.
Most significantly, team leader Jessica Parrotte (Andrews) was able to include information about the carbon emissions we were able to save by running our 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting as an online/virtual event.
One of the University’s defining characteristics in its UWA 2030 vision is to ‘embed sustainability and fair-trade principles into the developmental and operational activities of the campus’; with a key pillar of the strategy being the creation of a more clean, green and sustainable campus. Green Impact is a fun and flexible voluntary program design to help us get there.
Green Impact was developed in the United Kingdom in 2006 by the National Union of Students (NUS) and is delivered in Australia by Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS). Green Impact has been implemented by over 500 organisations worldwide, reaching more than 100,000 people. The program raises awareness of sustainability 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 socioeconomic and environmental change in their offices and across campus.
Find out more about Green Impact at UWA and read the UWA Green Impact Report for 2020 here.