Coleg Gwent was recently awarded highly commended at the annual Green Gown Awards, established to find the UK’s most sustainable universities and colleges, at a prestigious gala banquet held at the Swan at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London.
The winning entries were drawn from 191 applications, representing nearly 110 colleges and universities from across the UK. Each had to undergo a rigorous assessment process involving 44 expert judges from a range of organisations including the Carbon Trust, The Association of College & University Business Officers (CUBO) and The Skills Funding Agency (SFA). Coleg Gwent was highly commended in the colleges and smaller institutions category.
In their sixth year, the Awards recognise exceptional initiatives being taken by higher and further education institutions in order to become more sustainable. The scheme has a variety of categories in which universities and colleges can illustrate their achievements, in both academia and estates management.
Commenting on the 2010 Green Gown Awards, Iain Patton, Chief Executive of the EAUC, who are the administrators of the Awards, said: “This year’s winning and commended entries demonstrate not only that innovative institutions are taking successful action to minimise their environmental footprints and enhance their social contribution, but also that this is often accompanied by financial benefit. The scale of this benefit will increase as policy measures and regulations increase the costs of poor environmental performance, and as English universities, and eventually, perhaps, all of UK further and higher education, face the prospect of it reducing their funding. Sustainability is therefore compatible with the belt tightening that seems inevitable in future years.”
“We hope that the awards will provide inspiration and shared learning for the sector and will encourage all institutions to continue along the road to greater sustainability and improved environmental management.”
The Green Gown Awards were founded by HEEPI and are now administrated by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC). The 2010 awards are sponsored by: – The Carbon Trust, College and University Business Officers (CUBO), Future–Tech, The Higher Education Academy (HEA), Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), The former Learning and Skills Council (LSC), Salix Finance, The Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Sodexo and The Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA).
The latest award follows two recent health and safety awards for the college, The Royal Society for the prevention of accidents (RoSPA) gold medal award for the sixth consecutive year and the British Safety Council International Health and Safety Award.
