NUS Green Impact Award

YPI's Green Impact team has been hard at work over the last year, implementing new sustainability initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint at Genesis 1 and 2. Initiatives have included introducing a bin pilot to encourage recycling, encouraging the community to change their printing habits and switching lights and heating off.

The auditor for the York Plasma Institute stated:

"I was particularly impressed with the YPI's attention to detail and minimising waste in different, often overlooked ways,such as the placement of bins and using stickers to indicate different brightness settings. As a student who is part of the Physics department, I enjoyed learning about the innovative and positive ways in which the YPI is operating sustainably.

The Green Impact award scheme is an initiative which is led by the National Union of Students, this year there have been 33 awards given out throughout the University. The gains from the award are:

• 1,699 actions completed, 1,172 as a direct result of Green Impact
• 470 tonnes CO2 potential saving (based on just 10 of the 200+ actions in the workbook)
• £155,562 potential savings
• 28 teams submitting (some achieving multiple awards), with 37 teams taking part over the year in some way
• 217 Green Impact team members, reaching 4,000 staff and students
• 60 students widening their University experience through training and development roles as auditors and project assistants

We would like to thank the Green Impact team for all their hard work and congratulate them on the achievement! We look forward to continuing to make an impact using the process that have been implemented over the past year, and implementing new initiatives as we work towards a silver award in 2021.

The YPI Green Impact team is a small, nurturing, (eco)friendly group that is always glad to welcome new members. For more information or to get involved, please visit the team's Wiki pages.