2011 Sustainability Awards
University of Canterbury 2011 Sustainability Awards
The University of Canterbury Sustainability Office wants to reward those departments and people around campus that are making the effort to make this University more sustainable. The awards were announced by Sue McKnight on the 15 of September as a part of Eco Week. The winners were:
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Leigh Davidson, for Eco Office Initiatives
Leigh has been a staunch supporter of the Eco Office Programme, which the MBA Programme is committed to rolling out. Leigh has also proactively sought out international linkages, particularly regarding the Principles for Responsible Management Forum which she hopes can be rolled out across the whole university.
Cleaning Services, for Waste and Cleaning Initiatives
This year Cleaning Services have done much to advance the sustainability agenda of the University of Canterbury. Following on the heels of the large scale roll out of the new recycling programme, Cleaning supported a summer sustainability scholarship student conducting a microbiological comparison of current cleaning practices here with a no-chemical regime. Cleaning has also been instrumental in the current phase of the waste and recycling education programme.
Cathy Jordan, Dr Bike
Dr Bike is a project run by UC Bike, a student club. During lunchtimes through harsh cold winds and rain, the Dr Bike team, headed by Cathy, have been out there fixing bikes for free. This initiative makes it so much easier for people to keep biking and therefore reducing our overall carbon footprint. Cathy has been enthusiastic and highly proactive in getting Dr Bike up and running again in 2011.
SILVER
Michael Abrahamson, Okeover and Dovedale Community Gardens
The two community gardens we have at UC are flagship sustainability projects, and they could not keep running without the valuable input of many volunteers. Over the years one volunteer has consistently put in more time, and money, than any other: Michael Abrahamson. Michael is not a staff member at UC, but he might as well be given his enormous contribution.
Tom Innes, Creative Sustainable Student Engagement
Tom has managed to lure many students into thinking sustainably about the world. Few people have found ways to link local, organic produce, water conservation, reduced carbon usage, recycling and the ancient monastic arts so convincingly and engagingly as Tom.
The Potluck Club, Food Security Initiatives
The Potluck Club wins this award for promoting an exciting and delectable way to share the message about packaging reduction and the importance of knowing more about where our food comes from and how it has been produced. The Potluck Club is a new student initiative that is proactively collaborating with a range of other groups with similar aims.
Laura Scrimgeour, The Fair Trade Petition
When the UCSA decided to change its coffee to non Fair Trade certified beans, it set back the progress UC had made around gaining fair trade status to a considerable degree. Laura, through the student environment club Kakariki, seized the initiative and began a petition that has contributed to turning this decision around. The UCSA is now back to fair trade coffee, and is now even trialling fair trade hot chocolate.
GOLD
Huhana Carter, Recycling Promotion and Education in Maori and Cultural Studies
Huhana has raised the profile about the issue of waste in our society through her ‘trolley’ in the Wheki ground floor. This acts as a model ‘resource exchange’ where goods are circulated within the university but also out into the wider community and even to the West Coast. Huhana has led by example with this initiative, which has captured the imaginations of many and generated a genuine change in their thinking.
Hannah Muir, the Fair Trade Fair
Hannah undertook to run the Fair Trade Fair as part of Fair Trade Fortnight this year, and managed to get a range of academics and local businesses to participate in an event that raised the profile of this crucial sustainability issue to hundreds of students who normally would not have had the opportunity. It was the central event in UC’s efforts for Fair Trade Fortnight this year and it was pulled off most impressively.
Russell Taylor, the Tonga Initiative Project
Russell’s project takes resources that normally enter our waste stream and puts them to charitable use. In particular, this has involved redeploying old computers (including those from UC) in Tongan schools, and establishing solar panels in those schools so they can power the computers. This project has utilised the knowledge of many UC experts who are together making a real difference to Tongan education.
Susan Krumdieck, the Signs of Change Conference
Susan’s commitment to running the world’s first national networked e-conference has completely transformed the way we can conceptualise how a conference can be run. Mini conferences around the country viewed papers from the different venues, allowing for a low carbon exchange of ideas while still getting the face to face contact that happens during coffee breaks. It was a highly original, technically challenging and exceptionally well executed project that not only in itself addressed a key sustainability issue, but also seeded numerous models of sustainability through the content of the papers delivered.
A copy of the nomination form is here (Word Doc, 202KB)
If you have any questions please e-mail sarah.campagnolo@canterbury.ac.nz and keep checking this page for updates.