Salford University’s School of Environment and Life Sciences have won a platinum Green Impact award by becoming more environmentally sustainable.

Green Impact is a national sustainability accreditation scheme, ran by the National Union of Students. The NUS provides online toolkits for university departments to help them to become greener.

The school is not the only UoS department taking action on climate change and winning awards, the University’s Clifford Whitworth Library also won a gold Green Impact award.

Paul Hinton, the library’s print and copy manager was heavily involved in achieving the gold status and believe it’s very important because of the state of the planet.

He said: “We had people growing plants that are edible we had initiatives where we’re trying to drive down the use of plastics, promote the use of the stairs rather than the lift and cut down on paper usage.

“When students come here, it’s important to get them involved as well as staff, so that everybody understands that recycling does matter and does make a difference.”

The online toolkits enable each university department to earn points when performing sustainability projects and initiatives.

Each department’s toolkit is customized by relevant sustainability themes, for example: energy and water, waste and recycling, travel and health and well-being.

Neva Mowl, the universities environment co-ordinator and one of the developers of the Green impact awards and has said the university has a big impact on the environment.

She said: “We do a lot of info structure changes but we need everyone at the university to do their bit.

“All the small actions do add up to making a big difference and that’s really what green impact is all about.”

Salford University has taken part in other events to support the Go Green campaign, including ‘a night out with the lights out‘, in which all non-essential equipment and lights were switched off.

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