Overall the awards were split as follows:
- 3x Special Awards winners
- 5x Gold Award winners
- 35x Silver Standard winners
- 20x Bronze Standard winners
- 19x Unions Working Towards Accreditation
Helping Students’ Unions do their bit for the environment
Projects range from recycling and energy efficient lighting in the Union building, to beach cleans and working with children in the community.
All entrants were awarded one of four qualifications: Working towards accreditation; Bronze Standard; Silver Standard and Gold Award. To gain the Bronze Standard, Unions need to have met all twenty-two criteria marked as Bronze essentials - these are the actions that we think all Students' Unions could and should be doing as a minimum.
New to this year is the Silver Standard. To gain the Silver Standard, Unions need to have met all the Bronze essentials plus all eleven criteria marked as Silver essentials and gained an overall score of 400 or more.
Unions could build their overall score by meeting any of the 159 optional bonus criteria – as the name suggests these are non-compulsory, but the more they got, the higher their score, helping them on their way to a Silver Standard.
The five highest scoring Unions received the Gold Award, a prestigious hand-made sculpture made from recycled car window glass. Three more Unions received Special Awards - for innovation, the most improved score and for environmental communications on their websites.
These were supported by main sponsors The Co-operative and Office Depot and media partners, Ecologist magazine.
Overall Winner - Loughborough Students’ Union
Gold winners - what the auditors had to say
Loughborough Students’ Union have gained 225 points since last year and are continually striving to improve upon their already impressive environmental performance.
Examples of projects and initiatives:
- Aiming for ISO14001 standard for their Environmental Management System.
- Environmental awareness-raising signs are placed throughout the Union.
- Recently installed a new waste compactor and, along with their comprehensive recycling and composting facilities, are very close to zero waste!
- Successfully lobbied Loughborough University to sign the People and Planet Green Education Declaration.
Leeds University Union
Leeds has improved their score by 258 points since last year and has retained the Gold that they achieved last year.
Examples of projects and initiatives:
- The Peanut Gallery – a student-run social centre where students can meet up and get involved. This space includes a ‘free shop’ and meeting area and it has been completely fitted out with recycled items – from computers to mugs, rugs and paint.
- Worked with the University of Leeds on their Velocampus initiative. This project aims to have 300 bicycles in circulation over the next 3 years at a minimum rental level. The Unions role has been to communicate the scheme with students and house the registration and demonstration. As a result, all 100 bikes for the first year were signed-for in less than a week.
Newcastle University Union Society
Newcastle has made huge progress over the past year and has increased their overall score by 319 points, increasing from a Bronze to achieve a Gold Award this year. They should be congratulated on such a massive achievement.
Examples of projects and initiatives:
- Demonstrated a massive 17% reduction in gas usage for 07/08, compared to 06/07.
- Student Community Action Newcastle (SCAN) - Community Clean Up Programme involves cleaning up local parks, streams, woodland and rivers with local voluntary groups.
Edinburgh University Students’ Association
Edinburgh has increased by 227 points and retain the Gold that they achieved last year.
Examples of projects and initiatives:
- They have a sophisticated heat exchange system in one of their bars to make use of waste heat.
- New this year is the collection of food waste for composting from all catering sites with the help of a local social enterprise. This has brought the association ever closer to the goal of zero waste to landfill, with two buildings no longer sending any waste to landfill as a result.
University of Central Lancashire Students' Union
UCLan have increased their score by 244 points and have finally reached a Gold Award after achieving Silver for the past two years.
Examples of projects and initiatives:
- They have the UK’s second largest solar panel array installed on their nightclub, 53 Degrees. They have a digital notice board near the main entrance to the Union showing real-time data on the performance of the panels, which includes the total amount of carbon dioxide they have saved since being installed.
- A waste audit and survey has been carried out by MSc students this year to look into the feasibility of composting food waste and also to minimise contamination of recyclables.
Special Awards
Office Depot Green Innovation Award - Reading University Students' Union
The winner of the 2009 Office Depot Green Innovation Award is Reading University Students' Union. They won the award for their ‘Students in Bloom’ initiative, which involved encouraging students to plant flowers in their front garden.
This involved handing out free bulbs, pots and peat-free compost to students with prizes being awarded in the spring for the best display. This will increase biodiversity, improve the appearance of student areas and improve the perception of students in these areas.
The judges’ comments on Reading:
Great name, simple idea - incorporates social responsibility, community cohesion and relations, biodiversity and local environment and can be easily replicated by other unions. Nothing else like this is being done at present, it ticks so many boxes out of such a simple idea.
Unions often do these initiatives on campus – forgetting about the students in the community.
There was some debate over who should win the Award this year and, if possible, we would have liked to give the Award to two Unions. Because of this we’d like to make a special mention of Union of UEA Students for their Good Shopping Guide Ethical Labelling scheme.
They have introduced into the Union Food Outlet (UFO) ethical labels on the shelves for assessed products. The labelling system gives an overall rating as well as a breakdown of where that rating came from (including categories such as environmental report, GM, organic, nuclear power, animal welfare, vegetarian, political donations, Fairtrade and boycott).
This year the system will become automated through a partnership between Union of UEA Students, The Ethical Shopping Organisation (makers of Good Shopping Guide) and Fidelity Systems (our EPOS provider).
The judges’ comments on UEA:
Truly innovative and leads the way – the only reason that Students in Bloom pips them is due to inclusion of the local community and its ability to be replicated.
Ecologist Communications Challenge Award - Loughborough Students' Union
This year's Ecologist Challenge Award was designed to increase the environmental and ethical presence on student union websites. The judging panel composed of three students and three industry professionals, from website developers to journalists.
Entrants could also request a one-to-one tutorial with Kristen Harding, Assistant Publisher at Ecologist magazine to review the ideas they had for updating or creating their website for the Award.
The winner of the 2009 Ecologist Communications Challenge Award is Loughborough Students' Union.
The judges’ comments:
Loughborough’s website really exemplifies their commitment to ethical and environmental issues and is the most detailed website, by far. The Ethics and Environment pages are easily navigable from a button on the home page and they have a dedicated section within the website.
They have a really comprehensive recent news and upcoming events page, which includes both Union and national events. Useful information on how Loughborough University students can become greener is included, with lots of up-to-date links to external environmental and ethical organisations. There is detailed information on Fairtrade, what it’s about and why it matters.
One additional means of creating awareness and of gaining points towards the Ecologist Communications Award was to add the pledge link to websites. The link takes users to a selection of pledges on the NUS website where the user can choose a personal pledge from a pre-set choice.
For every 10 pledges returned by students from each Institution and Union, they gained a point towards their Ecologist Communications Award total.
We have received nearly 500 pledges to date and the Union who entered the most number of pledges was University of Bradford Union.
Make your own pledge now!
The Co-operative Most Improved Union Award - University of Plymouth Students' Union
The winner of The Co-operative Most Improved Union Award is University of Plymouth Students’ Union. Their score has improved by 350 points from 251 points in 2007/08.
This means they have increased from ‘working towards accreditation’ last year to achieve Silver standard this year!
- ViP (Volunteering in Plymouth) is one of the largest departments within the Union, and coordinates many different volunteering programmes benefiting the environment. These include: Beach Cleans; Moor Trees – tree planting on
- Dartmoor; working with The Barn Owl Trust - The Green Agenda aims to educate students at the University about environmental issues, and enable them to become involved in working towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
- New UPSU Climate Change Society - For every mile driven on Union business a 1p per mile surcharge is collected and the proceeds from this are invested in green initiatives in the union.
Download the list of all Sound Environmental Impact Awards unions in 2008/09
Visit the Sound Impact Awards image gallery to see the winners