Would you like to live more sustainably, but do you need that extra push? Then Green Impact is just the thing for you! For a whole year, you join a team commit to actions of your choice, from cycling to campus to eating vegan for a week. Check out the amazing results of the first edition of Green Impact.
Last year, our university participated in Green Impact for the first time, a global initiative of Students Organising for Sustainability International (SOS International). The aim is to encourage people to work towards greater sustainability within their own organisations. In this sense, the project is in line with our goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2030. We invite staff and students to take action and become more involved, not only on campus but also in their own living and studying environment. At our university, Green Impact is coordinated by GreenOffice, the student platform for a greener campus, with support from the Environment Office and the Climate Team.
Second edition
The second edition kicked off in November. As a member of staff you can form a team with your colleagues. Students can unite with like-minded fellow students, friends or roommates. You can still join Green Impact at any time.
An online toolkit allows you to choose from a large number of easily achievable actions. GreenOffice reworked the existing offer into its own version that is in line with our climate strategy. In total, you can sign up for more than a hundred actions. These range from simple things like using a water bottle or being zero waste for a week to broader initiatives such as having fruit from the organic farmer delivered to the office or providing vegetarian catering on study days. For each completed action, your team earns points, at the end of which they can win a gold, silver or bronze medal.
What were the results?
Curious to see how our university performed during the first edition? Here are the results for each category, with one or two examples of successful actions. Read on and be inspired!
In total, 52 people participated in the first edition, divided into ten teams. With their actions, they reached another 191 colleagues or supporters.
Altogether, the teams saved 16,619 kilograms of CO2.
How? Three members of Team GreenOffice ate vegan for a week.
Five of the six members of Team Environment Office travelled to work by bicycle.
Thanks to relatively small efforts, the teams saved on their paper consumption and planted 49 trees.
How? 115 people discovered Ecosia, a search engine that donates 80 per cent of its profits to the protection of the rainforest. This resulted in 49 trees being planted. We give special thanks to Team FBE (Faculty of Business and Economics), which promoted the search engine to all of the faculty’s staff and students and managed to convince a hundred of them so far.
Team Environment Office made efforts to waste less paper, by printing less, borrowing books from the library instead of buying them, and switching from paper to digital subscriptions.
The teams’ actions related to waste, energy, water, transport and food saved 2,390 euros.
How? Each member of Team Faculty of Arts Secretariat committed to making at least one change at home to save on energy or heating. They did this by either lowering the temperature of the thermostat to 19 or 20 °C, making their homes draught-free, or switching to LED lighting.
Thanks to measures taken at home, 33 people saved 185,900 litres of water together.
How? Team Centre for Social Policy adjusted its shower habits. One team member saved 56 litres of water per week by taking shorter showers.
Team Faculty of Arts Secretariat organised an awareness-raising campaign on water use, with posters in the toilets and kitchens.
The teams reduced their global waste by 326 kg.
How? Team FBE convinced all colleagues to use a reusable drinking bottle instead of plastic ones. New colleagues received their own coffee mug, so that they did not have to use plastic cups.
Team Purchasing Office collected empty ink cartridges for recycling.
Nominated for the Green Impact International Special Awards
For some participants, the Green Impact adventure got an extra twist to it. For the first time, the Green Impact International Special Awards will be presented, an award ceremony that highlights exceptional achievements by a student, employee or team. Together with the participating universities in Belgium and the Netherlands, SOS International selected three nominees per university, making twelve nominations in total.
This resulted in the following well-deserved distinctions for UAntwerp. Inez Vanhoutte has been nominated in the category for the ‘Student Leadership Award’. She worked at GreenOffice on Green Impact and is being praised for her efforts to convert the climate strategy into concrete actions and communicating with our members of staff, among other things. Daphne Zevgaridis of the Central Purchasing Office has been nominated in the category for the ‘Sustainability Hero Award’. With her enthusiasm, she was able to convince not only her immediate colleagues but also the entire Finance Department.
The Faculty of Business and Economics has been nominated in the category for the ‘Team Innovation Award’. With 92 completed actions, they were one of the most ambitious Green Impact teams to date. Their ultimate goal is to embed sustainability into the faculty’s strategy. Among other things, this was translated into making investments in sustainability in the workplace, with the support of the dean.
In January, we will find out which three nominees, one per category, will go on to the international election in February. In that round, those selected will compete against candidates from the UK, Australia and New Zealand. We congratulate the three nominees and keep our fingers crossed that they may continue to the election!
Will you, together with your colleagues, also join the Green Impact challenge? (info in Dutch)