This year has proved another successful year for NRI and its contribution to sustainability within the University of Greenwich. For the third year running, NRI has been awarded the Gold Award for sustainability by the National Union of Students (NUS) annual Green Impact Awards in November.
In addition the institute was awarded a Gold Award for their laboratories, and NRI's Sustainability Champion Caroline Troy was awarded the Positive Deviant Award.
The University of Greenwich has made considerable progress this year on their carbon management plan, water, waste and reuse, biodiversity, food, travel, curriculum, student engagement and Green Impact. In addition the University came sixth in the People & Planet Green League 2013 and won the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development.
A new Sustainability Hub, a partnership between the Student's Union and the University, has recently been introduced. The aim of the Hub is to engage students in sustainability and provide outreach to the local community. The idea is to employ four students this year and eight students next year to act as Green Ambassadors and these Ambassadors will work with local businesses, colleges and schools to deliver sustainability training.
Caroline has been recognised for her contribution to ensuring sustainability within NRI, with the Positive Deviant Award. Positive deviance is an approach to behavioural and social change based on the observation that in any community there are people whose uncommon but successful behaviours or strategies enable them to find better solutions to a problem than their peers.
Caroline said: "I want to thank everyone for their continued support on sustainability within the Institute and look forward to working with you all towards our sustainability goals in 2014".
Going forward into 2014, the University is introducing the 'Green Impact Excellence' Award, which will enable Gold-winning departments like NRI to create and manage a larger sustainability project within their department.