Green Gown Awards 2015 – Sustainability Professional Award - Serena Bacuzzi - Highly Commended

Group Sustainability Officer, North Warwickshire and Hinckley College

When Serena started working at the College in 2009, sustainability was not a core priority. Initially Serena concentrated her work on creating policies, plans and procedures to bring this new topic to the attention of the Executive team, and then she started looking at opportunities to finance and deliver sustainability projects.

Over the past 6 years, Serena has been constantly looking out for opportunities to help the College to reduce its impact on the environment, educate the community to sustainable living principles and bring changes to the day-to-day unsustainable practices. Serena has been working passionately with the intention to make the College stand out for its sustainability achievements.

Thanks to this work Serena initiated, the College has attained significant financial savings and her input has contributed to the improvement of services and facilities for staff and students.

Top 3 learnings

1 Sustainability needs to be part of the day-to-day routine in an organisation. Encourage changes in habits and behaviour is one of the most difficult challenges for sustainability professionals. Make sustainability enjoyable, simple, and shout out loud when achievements are met to encourage more positive actions

2 Involve students and encourage them to share their views and ideas for improvement. They normally come out with really good suggestions and have the power to make things happen in the College

3 It takes time to introduce changes and even more to see results. Patience, determination and devotion are key.