Call for Entries: UK & Ireland Green Gown Awards

The Awards have become established as the most prestigious recognition of environmental best practice within the further and higher education sectors. The Awards provide the sector with benchmarks for excellence and are respected by Government, funding councils, senior management, academics and students.

Award Categories

• Organisational Categories
  • 2030 Climate Action – Prize
    • Institutions are having to plan how they get to net-zero emissions. This category focuses on the steps that institutions are taking and planning to take to reach their targets. The judges are looking for innovative ideas and approaches that institutions are taking or planning. It is recognised that there will not be the normal evidence or impact available as this category is looking at current plans, with the focus being on intentions.
    • The aim of this category is to share the good efforts institutions are taking as well as learning from each other on areas that have not worked so well. Whilst the end results will not be available, judges will look at projected impacts.
  • Benefitting Society 
    • As anchor institutions in their communities and cities, universities and colleges benefit society in many ways. This category captures the powerful and innovative ways education institutions are realising their purpose in today’s society to benefit the lives of individuals, communities and wider society. Examples will range from economic, social and environmental impacts with organisations and sectors outside the institution where innovative new approaches to bringing positive benefit can be found.
  • Campus Health, Food and Drink     
    • This category includes all food, drink, kitchen and hospitality aspects of healthy, sustainable institutions.
    • The judges will be looking for holistic approaches across the whole institution that show creativity, innovation and consideration for how healthy food and drink is procured, cooked and served considering environmental and social issues. They’re looking for examples that go beyond achievement of standards, good practice and current trends such as plant-based options that rely on ultra-processed foods as substitutes.
  • Creating Impact
    • This category recognises institutions that have achieved significant sustainability related outcomes, on-campus or within their community, using minimal and/or limited resources. Initiatives need to demonstrate the relationship/link between the number of resources used (for example staffing, budget, time) and the level of impact achieved (for example quantifiable changes in behaviours and/or reportable metrics). Institutions that have received substantial external funding for their initiative are not eligible for this category.
  • Digital Futures 
    • This category recognises the digital transformation of the education, research and skills sectors. Digital provides opportunities to improve the student experience, campus environment, and teaching and research practices. It is essential that IT infrastructure is not only resilient, but how it considers developments through the lens of sustainability and equity. Advances in internet connectivity, artificial intelligence and augmented reality have scope to transform campuses and learning into more immersive and more sustainable experiences. Similarly, the digital revolution is driving smart buildings, intelligent campuses, and step-change advances across all aspects of an institution giving students a richer teaching and learning experience.
  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Sustainability 
    • This category is recognising the work institutions undertake to integrate equity, social justice and inclusion as part of their broader sustainability work. Disadvantaged groups will be impacted the most by the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and pollution, so equity and equality are core to achieving a sustainable world. Institutions have to take new approaches and different ways to engage broader diverse audiences and champions. The sector needs to look at ways to improve sustainability as a profession and integrate green careers and skills into their work. The sector needs to look at the barriers that exist which exclude particular protected characteristics and celebrate areas where these have been broken down and accelerated to a more inclusive approach to transition to a sustainable future.
  • Money for Good
    • Post-16 education organisations wield real economic and financial power. This category celebrates educational institutions which are consciously using this power to drive positive societal, environmental or cultural change. No matter how small your resources are, judges will be looking at the resulting beneficial social and environmental impacts.
    • This category will recognise those who have taken a brave step to use their funds to directly support a project or initiatives that have real environmental, social or cultural impact. The judges will be looking for strong stakeholder engagement with staff and students and will be focusing on the scale of impact and not the actual value of the funds.
  • Nature Positive 
    • From the air they breathe to the water they drink and the food they eat, nature provides the essentials they all rely on for the survival and well-being, including crucial economic, health, cultural and spiritual benefits. To reflect the biodiversity and ecological crisis the world is facing, this category champions those institutions who are taking action to promote nature on their campuses, in their operations and teaching and research as well as working in partnership with their local communities.
  • Next Generation Learning and Skills 
    • This category recognises achievement in the development of academic courses, skills and capabilities relevant to sustainability. These can be vocational, undergraduate or postgraduate courses or related to wider purposes such as community involvement, global or environmental awareness or to support lifestyle changes.
  • Research with Impact – Institution 
    • This category recognises the importance and societal impact of research, innovation and knowledge exchange by post-16 education organisations and how this can be used as a driver of to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Student Engagement
    • This category reflects that students and staff must work together to achieve goals using “top-down” and “bottom-up grass roots” methods to achieve maximum understanding and engagement across an institution. This in turn aids student progress and allows for opportunities to gain transferable employability skills. It looks at both the student input and the staff commitment and the relationship between the two. It must be clear that initiatives include both staff and students (not just one party) working in partnership, however judges will look favourably on activities that have been initiated by and/or demonstrating strong leadership by students.
  • Sustainability Institution of the Year 
    • This category recognises sustained, whole-institution commitment and impact to becoming a sustainable organisation.
  • Tomorrow’s Employees
    • To ensure a transition to a sustainable economy, they need people equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviours.
  • Reporting with Influence 
    • This category recognises advancements in how sustainability is reported and how reports are used to further impact and influence within and beyond post-16 education organisations. Reports recognised must be publicly available. The quality, data or presentation of reports will not be judged.
    • This category recognises institutions which are taking pioneering and innovative steps to embrace the green skills agenda.
• Individual Categories
  • Research with Impact – Student 
    • This category recognises excellent student research that progresses the field of sustainability and beneficially impacts on society.
    • Applicants should have completed a piece of sustainability-related research at any post-16 level such as undergraduate, master’s level or small research pieces as part of action based or student research projects or a PhD (not full PhD research), in any discipline. The project could be a freestanding piece of work, the product of a Living Lab project or be completed in partnership with an on- or off-campus partner.
    • The research can be from any discipline and can be focused on the institution’s sustainability work or sustainability more broadly.
  • Sustainability Champion
    • The Sustainability Champion Award is an individual award open to both staff and students at a post-16 education organisation. It recognises people at any level who have implemented a sustainability project or initiative (or several) and whose involvement has made a positive impact their peers, their institution, their students, their local community and/or their local workforce. A key criterion is actions that have been taken over and above the normal requirements of a person’s job or substantive role at the organisation. Applications must provide evidence of impact, and of good leadership in engaging and inspiring others.

Who can enter?

• All categories are open to all post-16 educational institutions – further or higher education institutions, work-based or adult and community learning providers – in the UK and Ireland.
• Applications are also encouraged from third parties such as catering suppliers, waste companies, transport providers, accommodation providers, architects etc. Third party organisations may enter on behalf on an institution, but an institution employee must approve the application. The Award will be made to the institution and not to the third party organisation. When filling out the application form, please state how the partnership should be named in the communication, if selected, as a Finalist.

For more information, visit EAUC.