Green Gown Awards 2016 – Community – University of the West of Scotland and SU – Finalist

‘Engage, Empower, Embed’ – E3

University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and Students’ Association of the University of the West of Scotland (SAUWS) Community Gardens, Sustainability Hub and the free shop, have reached out to our local communities to provide a range of benefits stretching far beyond core carbon reduction.

This created strong links with partners including Alzheimer’s Scotland, Migrant Help, schools, other charitable organisations and our own Student Services department to target disadvantaged groups with multifaceted outcomes including benefits to mental and physical health, economic, social welfare and inclusion. The community gardens in Paisley and Ayr provides a community resource for people with Alzheimer’s and a productive learning space for growing food, composting and wider environmental engagement.

The garden workshops taught people how to grow food in their own homes and to share these with others, thereby increasing the impact and legacy of this project exponentially. The Hub has been successful in bringing everybody together to participate in reuse activities and to engage in creativity and artistic expression. 

Top 3 learnings

1 We learned that we can achieve more than we think we can or said we can

2 We learned that there is a real demand and many opportunities to bring about social justice through sustainability in local communities

3 We learned that with limited resources we might not be able to help everyone but we can be a link in the chain that bring others together.

CO2t Savings: 118.38
Actual/Estimated: Actual
No. of yrs: 3

Videos

• ‘Engage, Empower, Embed’ – E3 (click to hide)