2022 International Green Gown Awards

Deadline: 31-Mar-22

Applications are now open for the 2022 International Green Gown Awards, supported by UN Environment and are open to any university or college across the world.

Categories

All categories are open to any tertiary education establishment – including all post-16 year old educational institutions such as colleges, universities and learning and skills institutions globally.

2030 Climate Action – NEW FOR 2022: Institutions are having to plan how they get to net-zero emissions. This category focuses on the steps that institutions are taking and planning to take to reach their targets. The judges are looking for innovative ideas and approaches that institutions are taking or planning. It is recognised that there will not be the normal evidence or impact available as this category is looking at current plans, with the focus being on intentions.
Benefitting Society: As anchor institutions in their communities and cities, universities and colleges benefit society in many ways. This category captures the powerful and innovative ways education institutions are realising their purpose in today’s society to benefit the lives of individuals, communities and wider society. Examples will range from economic, social and environmental impacts with organisations and sectors outside the institution where innovative new approaches to bringing positive benefit can be found.
Creating Impact: This category recognises institutions that have achieved significant sustainability-related outcomes, on-campus or within their community, using minimal and/or limited resources. Initiatives need to demonstrate the relationship/link between the number of resources used (for example staffing, budget, time) and the level of impact achieved (for example quantifiable changes in behaviours and/or reportable metrics). Institutions that have received substantial external funding for their initiative are not eligible for this category.
Next Generation Learning and Skills: This category recognises achievement in the development of academic courses, skills and capabilities relevant to sustainability. These can be vocational, undergraduate or postgraduate courses or related to wider purposes such as community involvement, global or environmental awareness or to support lifestyle changes.
Student Engagement: This category reflects that students and staff must work together to achieve goals using “top-down” and “bottom-up grass roots” methods to achieve maximum understanding and engagement across an institution. This in turn aids student progress and allows for opportunities to gain transferable employability skills. It looks at both the student input and the staff commitment and the relationship between the two. It must be clear that initiatives include both staff and students (not just one party) working in partnership.

Criteria

To make a strong application please provide facts and figures to support your application and meet all the criteria within your chosen category. You should also include the following generic criteria:

Demonstrate the impact of any measures taken
Provide quantitative clear data to support claims being made and include overall tonnes of CO2e saved
Demonstrate the impact of your initiative and show documented outcomes
Provide industry norm versus over and above requirements
Applications need to go above and beyond standard practice
Explain clearly how the project includes academic staff and/or professional sector staff/support staff and include numbers of others involved including students. Where students and staff are involved, as well as including the actual numbers, include how they were involved and what impact/influence they have had
If your initiative is a joint partnership or includes 3rd parties, provide details on the roles of all parties and state who is the main driver – and state if selected, the name of the partners as they should appear on the certificate/trophy – if appropriate
Explain any targets or KPI’s that are relevant to your application and any relevant costs/resources, inputs/outputs. For example: Before initiative:10% of students were engaged. After initiative: 70% of students were engaged
Small institution criteria is measured against an annual turnover of US$50 million or below.

For more information, visit https://www.greengownawards.org/international-green-gown-awards