Green Gown Awards 2021: Student Engagement - The Students’ Union at UWE - Finalist

Greener Futures!

Greener Futures is a sustainability competition for societies and sport clubs at The Students’ Union at UWE. It is a creative, fun, and rewarding way for our students to gain inspiration and recognition for building sustainability into their communities. The programme features a workbook of challenges that are completed throughout the academic year and connected to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Participating clubs and societies are given the option to apply for financial aid of up to £500, this enables groups to carry out in-depth sustainability projects.

At the end of the academic year, the club or society with the most points will receive the title of ‘Greener Futures Club/Society of the Year’, presented at their respective awards ceremony. There is also an award for ‘Leader of the Year’, celebrating a student who has made particularly strong efforts to be sustainable and encourage their group to get involved.

Top 3 learnings:

1. Established communities are well placed to tackle behaviour change as a team.
2. Incentivising engagement brings student through the door, inspiration and passion will keep them meaningfully involved.
3. Running a mid-year competition helped to keep involvement in the yearlong initiative, having mini sprints can provide a hook to re-engage or energise participants.

Videos

• Video #1 (click to hide)