| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 73.80 |
| Liaison | Corey Peterson |
| Submission Date | June 2, 2022 |
University of Tasmania
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Sustainability
Team UTAS Infrastructure Services and Development |
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Name of the campaign:
A brief description of the campaign:
Following the release of the University’s Waste Minimisation Action Plan in 2021, the University developed a waste minimisation campaign to meet the Plan’s resource recovery and waste minimisation objectives by engaging the entire University community. The campaign includes:
- Bin rationalisation program: removal of 1000 individual office (under desks) bins
- Multi-stream waste collection: A new centralised co-mingle recycling, landfill and organics collection service has been introduced to staff tea rooms and provided for major University events on campus (e.g., Orientation and Open Days). The new service has printed education materials on the bins and the bins have colour coded lids to indicate the stream. Staff were also provided with additional education materials about recycling locations and services.
- Re-Use program: started in 2016 with furniture, this program has now expanded in number and types of items being relocated within the University or donated to local charities (e.g., stationery, lab equipment).
- Recycling Walls: more than 20 Recycling Walls were introduced across the Tasmanian campuses in 2021. The Recycling Walls collect hard to recycle items (e.g., small e-waste, toothbrushes and paste tubes, disposable razors). The Recycling Walls are used for waste and recycling education demonstrations, as part of campus tours, student research projects and engaging games.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
The volume of waste to landfill has fallen and remained consistent since the introduction of the bin rationalisation and other initiatives.
Within the first 7 months of the introduction of the new organics collection service, 20 tonnes of organic materials were diverted to commercial composting from landfill, preventing the release of methane from food waste in landfill and providing material for new compost. For the same period 38 tonnes of co-mingle recycling, 18 tonnes of office paper, and 120 tonnes of cardboard were collected. In 2021, the proportion of recycling to waste to landfill was consistently between 20-25%, a considerable rise compared to previous years.
Through the Re-Use Program, 49 tonnes of waste to landfill were avoided through the reuse of furniture and other items in 2021 (2.3 times more than in any other year since it was launched in 2016).
In 2021 more than 1,000 kg of recycle-able materials were collected via Recycling Walls and sent to specialty recycling facilities through these walls.
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Green Impact is a behaviour change and engagement program – it helps people understand sustainability and social responsibility, shows them what they can do to make a difference, and supports them in achieving these actions. Green Impact was developed by the National Union of Students (NUS) in the United Kingdom where it has been run for more than 10 years, with over 20,000 people actively participating.
The Green Impact Program is designed to celebrate, inspire and recognise the contributions of both professional and academic staff at the University. Green Impact is an opportunity for staff at the University to:
- take practical action to improve the sustainability of their campuses
- collaborate with peers they may not usually work with
- learn about current sustainability initiatives of the University
- engage in new and creative activities with an element of competition.
Each organisation that uses the Green Impact model develops their own bespoke program creating a simple but sophisticated online tool to guide and monitor people’s progress together with a dynamic, engaging support package which is then delivered in collaboration with students and supported by Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS), creating a community of people working together towards common, agreed goals.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Participant teams and individuals identify the actions they want to complete, gather evidence, and log their actions and earn points. Actions and evidence are audited by trained students. During the pilot year (2018), 32 individuals in 8 teams completed 70 actions. In the second year of the program (2019), participation increased to 100 individuals across 15 teams, who completed 232 actions. In 2020, 12 teams consisting of 88 members completed 436 actions, and 14 students were involved in auditing the teams.
In 2021, 14 teams included 39 members completed 165 actions. During the year 16 students were trained as project assistants and 20 students took part in auditing staff teams. The University of Tasmania students in 2021, represented 27% of students taking part in the program across Australia and New Zealand.
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.