We’ve made it into the finals of this year’s Green Gown Awards, based on the success of a collaborative project between the Students’ Union and University services to reduce food waste on campus. The Green Gown organisers have shortlisted our work for the Student Engagement award.

This wide-reaching project included food waste collections, recipe cards to encourage cooking, awareness-raising posters, events, videos and web content. The SU worked with the Estates Office, Accommodation, Retail and External Affairs to reduce the amount of food waste generated across campus. In Student Union outlets a reduction in food waste was achieved despite a 13% rise in the amount of food purchased there compared to the previous year. All of this feeds into broader work by the Environmental Sustainability team to reduce all kinds of waste on campus.

The videos received over 6,000 views, and feedback from students through online surveys was positive, with 61% of responders saying they’d actively changed their behaviour as a result of the eye-catching posters.

This year’s winners will be announced on Thursday 10 November at an awards dinner.

More information

Read more about the campaign and watch the video on the SU website.

Posters used in the project