Green Gown Awards 2014 - Student Engagement - University of Chester - Finalist

How to turn the tap off with a trashion show!

One year ago, the University of Chester became the founding member of the DoNation’s “Do Good for Uni programme”; getting students and staff pledging simple, sustainable behaviours over a two month period. The University of Chester has 28 teams taking part in the DoChester League, while students are harder to get involved in the actual pledging, they were very keen to make use of the information behind the DoActions to hold events as part of final-year modules and to spread the word via blogs.

The most popular pledges were Tap It, promoted by the Students’ Union, encouraging students to drink tap water rather than bottled water. While the Trashion Show, inspired by the Passion Fashion pledge, provided the opportunity to showcase creative ways to bring tired clothes back to life. The Do Good for Uni’s programme has provided a stepping stone for engagement across the University and helps to make behaviour change a joined up activity.

Top 3 learnings

1 Use students to engage students
2 Make the most of existing infrastructure to encourage and promote students to get involved, from incorporating it into their course assessment, to hosting a Work Based Learning student placement
3 Incentives, prizes and rewards!

Videos

• How to turn the tap off with a trashion show! (click to hide)