Green Gown Awards 2015 – Sustainability Professional Award - Alex Metcalfe - Finalist

Sustainability Projects Officer, Canterbury Christ Church University

Alex has embarked on a mission, to converge a place of flourishing learning with being an ‘Edible Campus’.  With no formal pedagogical role, he is teaching staff and students the essential bond between the environment, food security and community cohesion through voluntary, formal and informal curriculum engagement over and above his job description.

The campus borders the old monastery gardens of St Augustine’s Abbey, founded in 598AD. Alex is stewarding students to have a sense of purpose, values and place in our modern world, born from this past connection, invoking the spirit of the monastery’s historical role in environmental, social and spiritual sustainability, revitalised through a real student connection to the importance of a bountiful university campus. 

Alex has carved a path which marries a technical professional services remit with a deep sense of civic and community duty to engage with, and augment his social and environmental positive impact on his collegiate community.

Top 3 learnings

1 Constantly put yourself in the shoes of others to find out what they would need in order to help make this project a success

2 Make connections between people, projects and places so your project joins up and yields multiple benefits, rather than having lots of smaller projects that aren’t feasible to manage

3 Being patient, kind and yet forthright will win many allies and builds strong relationships over the longer term.