What is Green Impact?
Green Impact is a sustainability program designed for staff and students to make a difference by acting more sustainably and reducing their carbon footprint. It's a simple and effective way to make positive environmental changes, whilst connecting and collaborating with other staff and students across the University. Given our university-wide goal to achieve below zero emissions (become carbon negative) by 2030, it's important for all of us to play our part.
Green Impact is an international, UN award-winning program designed to support environmentally and socially sustainable practices. So, by taking part in this program, you'll be joining not only your ANU community, but thousands of others in our region and around the world who are also keen to make a difference.
How does Green Impact work?
The Green Impact approach is based on proven behaviour change models and is a flexible and fun way to get involved with sustainability and climate action at the University. You can become involved by forming a team in your department, residential hall, or group of friends or colleagues. Maybe you're already taking action? Grow that positive influence by forming a sustainability team and work together to limit your impact on the environment. Encourage neighbouring teams to take part in Green Impact and grow your networks even further.
Actions are split into Bronze, Silver and Gold categories, depending on their impact and difficulty level. Teams may be composed of members from a department, team, building level, residential hall, club, or society - whatever suits you! You can register a team now and start recruiting members before getting started with the toolkit. You'll receive support at every step of the process and could win an award later in the year.
Start now by registering yourself on the Green Impact platform here and start recruiting members to your team! You can also attend one of the information sessions held throughout the year on navigating the online toolkit. Register for these sessions below.
Will Green Impact be a lot of work?
No! You can spend as little as half an hour a week doing it. You'll have until the end of October 2023 to complete the actions and there will be lots of support available. And if it's too much, you can do just a few actions this year and receive a "working towards bronze" certificate.
Why should I get involved?
Green Impact is easy, free, fun and rewarding. By participating you'll get to:
- contribute to ANU Green sustainability programs like Below Zero, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from activities at the University;
- make your workplace a more enjoyable and efficient place to work;
- work with new people from both within and outside of your team;
- learn about social, health and environmental issues and make a real and positive impact;
- be recognised for any positive actions you are taking already;
- benefit from the shared experience of thousands of others around the world who also use the Green Impact program;
- attend (and maybe win something at) the annual award ceremony.
ANU Green Impact champions from 2022 have said that they better understand how sustainability relates to them and how their actions impact issues connected to sustainability as a result of participating in Green Impact. They also said that they have a better understanding of how to use their knowledge about sustainability to encourage change among others. One participant noted that they were most proud of their "Interaction[s] with other departments, collaborative ideas and visible changes, like getting rid of coffee capsules."
How do I get involved?
- Attend one of our information sessions (see details below);
- Register your team name and contact details in the ANU Green Impact toolkit;
- Encourage your colleagues or peers to join your team;
- Get started on completing actions from the toolkit!
How will I be supported?
We will be holding a number of get-togethers throughout the year, as well as checking in with participants to see how you're getting on. You'll receive regular communications and of course, you can always email if you need us at belowzero@anu.edu.au
Green Impact is delivered by the not-for-profit, member-led organisation, Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS). ACTS support organisations in making a meaningful change toward a more sustainable future by offering a range of tools and exciting programs that facilitate sustainability innovation and engagement. Find out more on their website.
Information Sessions on Green Impact at ANU
Attend a live info session to learn how to navigate the ANU Green Impact online toolkit, pick up tips and tricks for recording and uploading evidence, and ask any questions you have about the toolkit. These information sessions will take place Wednesday 22nd March and Monday 27th March.
Register to attend either info session using the links below:
If you are unable to attend the ANU info sessions or access the recording, join one of these regular sessions, hosted by the ACTS Green Impact team. At these sessions, the ACTS team will demonstrate the functionality of the Green Impact toolkit to participants. These sessions are open to all participants from Australasian program, and the generic ACTS toolkit is used for the demonstration. See the dates and register for an upcoming session here.
What is in the toolkit?
The types of actions vary across climate action and sustainable behaviours. All of them are linked to one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Develop Goals, with icons indicating the target goal(s) on the front tab for each action. The activities in the ANU Green Impact toolkit can be broadly categorised as:
- Biodiversity
- Circular Economy
- Climate Action
- Digital Footprint
- Diversity, Inclusion & Social Justice
- Energy
- Engagement & communications
- Events
- Health & wellbeing
- Procurement
- Travel
- Water
The activities might be one-off actions, short and long-term actions, knowledge sharing, climate action campaigns or group actions. There are also special actions that relate to setting up or joining a team, special award nominations for sustainability champions and a wildcard action that allows teams to get creative by developing their own action that could be included in future toolkits.
See more information on how you can start now to establish climate action in your area.
What awards can be won?
- Working Towards Bronze - Start doing any of the actions even if it's only a few;
- Bronze - Complete 140 points of the Bronze actions;
- Silver - Complete or exceed Bronze target (140 points) and 275 points of the Silver actions;
- Gold - Complete or exceed Silver target (140 Bronze points and 275 Silver) and 360 points of the Gold actions.
There are also special awards available and overall winner will be awarded to the team with the highest number of points. In addition, special awards winners from all participating Green Impact institutions will compete against each other for top honours in the Australasian Green Impact Awards.
Can students get involved with Green Impact?
Absolutely! We encourage students to get involved in any capacity they can. This can be as a direct team member (Including those living in residential halls, members of a club and even postgraduates/PhD students, who often have a dedicated space of their own), or in a volunteer support role as either a project assistant or a student auditor. Interested in volunteering? Let us know.
We are looking for student volunteers to be auditors to conduct an environmental audit of the sustainability actions implemented by a Green Impact team. This role includes a 3-hour training session plus 1-2 hours per team audited and will take place in November 2023. If you are interested and have any questions, let us know.
In 2023, we are launching even more actions that are directly related to student life on campus. For instance, actions that relate to those who live at residential halls or participate in lab groups or societies and clubs. Do you have ideas about actions to include in the toolkit? We'd love to hear them! Let us know.
Green Impact is a United Nations award-winning program designed to support environmentally and socially sustainable practice. It is a change and engagement program delivered regionally in Australasia by ACTS. Learn more about Green Impact.
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