1. Getting to Green Impact bronze and overcoming challenges
Kim Croasdale
Sustainability Project Officer – Curriculum & Healthcare
#greenimpact

2. Friendly space Chatham House rules
How our workshops run
Friendly space
Chatham House rules
Friendly space: this means we don’t judge what someone else says (we may respond and ask questions but avoid hostility) there are no wrong answers!
Chatham House Rules mean we don’t share any personal or private information beyond this room, e.g. if someone says managerial support can be an issue for them, don’t tell the story naming them!

3. The aims of this workshop
Provide an introduction to and overview of Green Impact
Help you plan how you can start your work
Discuss some common barriers and potential solutions
Tell you about some of the opportunities associated with taking part

4. The aims of this workshop
Anything you’d like to add?

5. Don’t forget the bigger picture! In 2015/16 the scheme…
What you’re a part of…
Don’t forget the bigger picture! In 2015/16 the scheme…
Was used by 179 organisations ranging from students’ unions to NHS Trusts
Engaged 19,916 people in sustainability and social justice issues
Provided 625 students with training and development opportunities
Was made up of 1,075 teams led by 3,202 people
Saw 46,743 actions completed, 29,382 as a direct result of the programme

6. What you’re a part of…
And here’s what happening so far across the Winchester district this year…
Being led by 21 team members
Engaging 807 colleagues in 12 organisations
Completed 94 actions

7. What is Green Impact? 7 3. Ongoing support
1. Planning and toolkit development
2. Publicity and recruitment
3. Ongoing support
4. Toolkit submission and audits
5. Awards event
6. Feedback and evaluation
This is important to incorporate the main environmental objectives of the council, and to give a mixture of achievable and challenging actions for teams to work through.
The next stage is shouting about the programme to get people involved and organisations signed up – we want to help produce an active network of organisations sharing good practice and overcoming challenges
Organisations then spend the next 4-6 months meeting with their colleagues, promoting sustainable practices and initiatives, putting together sustainability plans and procedures to try and reach a bronze, silver or gold standard.
In March 2017 we will make sure everyone has updated their workbook as much as they can for the year by the submission deadline, then audits are conducted by volunteers to verify the progress of each of the groups.
This is the fun, but really important part of the project cycle. A celebration event is essential to recognise people’s efforts, but also a brilliant opportunity to share the good practice of the year and inspire people to continue the positive work they are doing.
In the summer months we then have a review of the programme of the year just gone, teams get feedback on their performance and the [environment/sustainability] team review what to focus the workbook on for next year to make it a little bit more challenging. 7

8. Toolkit
Keen individuals or organisations sign up to participate in Green Impact. They are given a bespoke workbook with practical, easy to implement and no or low cost actions to complete.
Complete as many criteria as you can and at the end of the year you will be awarded either working towards, bronze, silver, gold accreditation, 8

9. Student awareness and employability
Award Levels
Working towards accreditation
Complete at least 1 bronze action
Bronze
Complete enough bronze actions to gain 100 points (out of a possible 112)
Silver
Gain bronze and complete enough silver actions to gain 120 points (out of a possible 155)
HAMMER HOME WORKING TOWARDS
Student awareness and employability
Gold
Gain silver and complete enough gold criteria to gain 150 points (out of a possible 174)

10. Special Awards Environmental hero Innovation for engagement
Environmental improvement
Community action
Explain special awards
Special awards are a way for your team, or an individual within it, to get recognition for actions they have gone above and beyond to complete, or separate initiatives outside the toolkit. A local winner is picked by a judging panel and winners get entered into a national special award! 10

11. Support & Resources #greenimpact 11 You’re not on your own!
Workshops just like this one should help you learn tips and tricks and swap ideas with other teams!
We also have a GI team resource bank, with resources to help with the actions and free webinars
Kate and Alison can help with individual queries, as can I
Check out the hashtag #greenimpact to see what others across the UK are doing and share your ideas!
Should be at around 20 minutes
#greenimpact 11

12. Getting to bronze
10 mins

13. Getting to bronze Gain 100 points out of 112 (roughly 25 criteria)
Complete 2 a week
Allocate appropriate criteria to appropriate people
Start with quick wins
Have a ‘power week’!
Give updates in team meetings or newsletters
Explain scoring system for getting to bronze
There are many routes to Bronze
Complete 2 a week – should be doable in minutes per week
Ask colleagues for help – people might not want to officially get involved but can still help you with specific criteria
Start with quick wins – this helps people see it’s possible
Have a ‘power week’! This is where you complete as many criteria as possible within a week
Give updates – helps normalise and shout about the work and boosts team morale

14. Step 1 - Get to know the actions www.greenimpact.org.uk/wcc

15.
The language is a bit different because of the progression of the scheme. We aren’t expecting every organisations to have teams – we know that some might just be one or two people!
If they are bigger then new team members can add themselves to your organisation using the dropdown box.
This allows you to view the criteria, but doesn’t mean you have to take part.

16. Check through the actions
Have a look through the criteria, making sure you read all sections giving you information on what is expected of you to fulfil the criteria, other helpful information and how you will be audited.

17. Completed the action? Not Not applicable done Done
Explain N/A, comments and evidence

18. Other useful features

19. Step 2 - Plan your activity
Check off the things you are already doing and decide who will lead on which tasks
Spending minutes a week should get you to bronze
Share learnings, successes and challenges with each other
Designed to complement and extend Carbon Smart – you may find you’re already doing quite a few of the actions, especially if you’ve reached a high level of Carbon Smart before

20. Complete an action today!
B003: Within the last 12 months the organisation has invited all staff to feed back ideas for saving energy.
B008: The organisation has an active system in place to monitor and record the number of business miles travelled by different modes of transport…
B012: All bins are correctly labelled to show which waste stream they should be used for
B014: The organisation has encouraged colleagues to send e-cards and/or cards supporting charity outlets
B003 – really easy, just send an asking for suggestions, or a box for feedback notes
B008 – much easier than it looks! Could just be an excel document, if you have a finance dept they could help
B012 – simple posters, maybe with images, loads are online
B014 – could be incorporated into an about closing dates over the festive period or could be an e-card from management

21. Just remember… …whatever actions you take
you are making an impact on those around you…
…and helping Winchester lead the way in making a positive change!

22. Any questions?
First, are there any questions about what I’ve discussed so far, the programme or your work?

23. Overcoming barriers 20 mins
Now it’s the really useful bit when you get to grill me!

24. What are your barriers?
Can’t possibly be as scary as this…

25. What are your barriers? Website issues
Tricky actions – don’t know how to start
Tricky actions – seemingly impossible to complete
Bar is set too high

26. The opportunities
10 mins

27. Green Impact team member 2015/16
Opportunities
“It has built a team spirit and given us opportunities to understand how what we do at work and home has an impact on the environment. It has given us the opportunity to interact with like minded people.”
Green Impact team member 2015/16
We’re now going to discuss the kinds of opportunities that are presented by Green Impact
This quote from a team member last year nicely sums up the kinds of things that Green Impact can do for you
For each of the themes I talk through, think about whether there is anything else we could be doing that would help you and make a note. We’ll collect the notes and see what we can offer to you.

28. Boosting confidence “It increased my confidence beyond belief.”
Green Impact team member 2015/16
Feedback from participants shows that taking part in Green Impact is good fun and makes people feel good about themselves
It can also increase confidence through providing further training or continued professional development opportunities

29. Green Impact team member 2015/16
Achievement
Even if you don’t manage to get a bronze, you will get a Working Towards accreditation to show that you’ve made a start and you’re working on your sustainabilityIt’s really important to us that people feel like their efforts are being recognised, which is why we ensure that each organisation we work with has an awards ceremony
Our reclaimed slates are an attractive way for you to display your achievements and we’re looking into getting stickers to go in your windows to shout about your achievements
“It has given us a sense of identity and aims to achieve, which has encouraged the rest of our team to support our green actions.”
Green Impact team member 2015/16

30. Teamwork
“It was a good engagement project - something we were working on together, we got to know each other better.”
Green Impact team member 2015/16
“To work together - we had a very good "Project Manager" who kept us going and encouraged us.”
Green Impact team member 2015/16
The fact that you’re working with colleagues you wouldn’t normally work with means that you are improving communications for other areas of work as well
Anecdotal feedback from teams shows that the best way to work in a team is for one person to take the lead but to delegate tasks to the rest of the team
It’s also a great excuse for more events like bring-and-share lunches and Fairtrade bake sales!

31. Raising awareness
“It has been good to see the overall attitude towards reducing our environmental impact change over time.”
Green Impact team member 2015/16
It’s a key opportunity to people to influence others in their workplace and help them to see how important and all- encompassing sustainability is
It also boosts your organisation’s reputation – we know that your customers and clients want to see organisations taking this seriously and this is a very visible way of proving that you are doing so

32. To round up… We aimed to…
Provide an introduction to and overview of Green Impact
Help you plan how you can start your work
Discuss some common barriers and potential solutions
Tell you about some of the opportunities associated with taking part
5 mins
Check whether people feel that the aims have been met. Also talk through what they wanted to get out of the session and check whether you have met their asks.

33. Key dates Workbook submission: late March 2017 (TBC)
Audits: March/April 2017
Winchester Business Excellence awards: 09/06/2017 33

34. Contact details Kim Croasdale, NUS Kim.Croasdale@nus.org.uk
Alison Woods; Kate Cloud, Winchester City Council