Green Gown Awards 2019 - Canterbury Christ Church University - Finalist

Over six years, our student green office has grown from a project-based kernel of an idea to a constant fixture in the Christ Church campus curriculum, running events and campaigns, raising awareness and exploring global sustainability issues in a local context.  

Working in partnership with staff teams, students’ union and student societies, the SGO have been supporting sustainability goals and initiating projects at CCCU from grass roots action all the way up to top level sustainability governance and are now driving engagement with the UN SDGs.  

Through all this, the heart of the project has remained the same: empowering students to engage others on the environmental social and economic sustainability causes they care most about. 

Top 3 learnings:

• It's so important to provide meaningful opportunities for leadership, self-direction and empowerment. 
• Trust students to know how best to engage other students; seek their input on everything. 
• Students have so many demands on their time and attention: offer them incentives to engage.