Green Gown Awards 2021:Sustainability Champion–Staff-Harrogate College,Holly Hansen-Maughan-HC

Holly Hansen-Maughan

I have driven the College to transform its outlook on all things green in order to help the planet, its people and to better serve its community. The College changed hands in Sept 2019, and I started in Dec 2019. There was no prior work to build upon, but I was inspired to create change.

The college has now committed to being Net Zero Carbon, has partnered with various local organisations, has run discount schemes, climate cafes, and awareness events. A cultural shift means it has a sustainability committee, a green week, student campaigns – it has allocated an area in College for gardening and planting. The impact of the change is affecting more than staff and students. It will host the launch event of the first ever Harrogate Action Climate Festival this October. It will host awareness events around sustainable construction and retrofit. My goal is long term organisational change.

Top 3 learnings:

1. There is always more to do, and it can grow and develop unexpectedly.
2. Everybody cares about being sustainable - you just have to find out in which way!
3. Sustainability impacts everything and cannot be worked on in a silo.

Videos

• Video #1 (click to hide)