Green Gown Awards – 2019

The Green Gown Awards UK & Ireland Awards Ceremony took place at Glasgow Science Centre on Tuesday 26 November 2019.

We are delighted to present the 2019 Winners, Highly Commended and Finalists by sharing their inspiring examples of sustainability best practice, together with some words of advice and encouragement on lessons learnt along the way when implementing their projects.

We hope you will be inspired and motivated by these projects. There were 101 Finalists, representing 55 institutions, split over the 14 categories.

This year’s UK and Ireland Green Gown Awards’ Finalists, representing over 1 million students, 162,000 staff and a combined annual turnover of £15 billion, are leading the way with their commitment to the global sustainability agenda and proving the value that universities and colleges bring to the economy and society.

All emphasise an institution’s role in enabling and empowering young people to tackle pressing global issues to ensure they have a better tomorrow. The Awards provide the sector with benchmarks for excellence and are respected by Government, funding councils, senior management, academics and students. For the third year running, applicants were tasked with outlining how their sustainability projects delivered against the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

49% of this year’s finalists listed ‘quality education’ as an SDG they are delivering against. Meanwhile just under half are working towards ‘responsible consumption and production’ and 41% put forward projects working towards “sustainable cities and communities”. To show the breadth of the impact education has on the delivery of the SDGs, 31% stated they are delivering against the ‘health and well-being’ SDG, one in four delivering “reduced inequalities” and one third delivering against “climate action”.

Between the Winners, Highly Commended and Finalists, the projects touched on every department and permeated across the whole curriculum. They were conducted by students, staff, academics, external stakeholders and can be found all across the UK and Ireland.

These initiatives are a shining example of the power post-16 education possesses and the seriousness with which it takes its responsibility in creating a better world and a new generation of leaders.