Green Gown Awards 2021: Student Engagement - Nottingham Trent University - Highly Commended

Gamifying climate action for mass engagement

Students and staff at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) are making a big impact reducing carbon emissions and addressing sustainability concerns by undertaking environmental and socially sustainable actions through NTU’s Green Rewards programme, in a fun and meaningful way. NTU Green Rewards is a joint venture between NTU and our Students' Union (NTSU). Through our engaging app, users are signposted to climate positive actions across six key themes, ranging from reducing food waste, to sustainable travel and connecting with nature. Participants can track their progress, take part in monthly challenges, compete with peers, and earn points to win prizes; all of which strengthen the sense of community at NTU.

The combination of gamification and personalisation encourages and empowers users to go that extra mile in their sustainability commitments.

Since its launch in 2019, over 3,000 staff and students have taken part in NTU Green Rewards, racking up an impressive 155,000 sustainability actions which have enabled the avoidance of 331,000kg CO2.

Top 3 learnings:

1. Leverage internal networks and collaboration to increase impact.
2. Sustainability and wellbeing behaviour change initiatives can be fun and rewarding.
3. ‘Catch-all’ mass engagement is a cost effective and meaningful way to reduce carbon emissions.

Videos

• Video #1 (click to hide)