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How you can contribute to our sustainability work
By working together as a University community, we can make our campuses more sustainable. Join a program or group today and help us reach our sustainability targets.
Sustainability Living Labs Community of Practice
The Sustainability Strategy, outlines the University’s commitment to putting research excellence into practice through the creation of Living Labs. The University has a wealth of student and staff sustainable research projects that can be tested, evaluated, and implemented using our campuses as a laboratory space.
The next step in creating a formal Sustainability Living Lab at the University is to bring together a new Community of Practice to establish processes and procedures to encourage and facilitate academic and student applications to create a Living Lab project. The Community of Practice will also look at how the University could support Living Labs through research and education. Membership to this community of practice would allow you to be involved in cutting edge and daring research solutions towards a more sustainable future.
We're calling for current academic and professional staff of the University of Sydney to submit an expression of interest to join this new Community of Practice.
Eligibility
The Community of Practice is open to all academic and professional staff and will run through Semester 2, 2022 and Semester 1, 2023.
Time commitment
The Community of Practice will meet every two weeks and members will have small activities to do during and between meetings such as talking with vendors and researching best practice. It is estimated members would commit approximately 2 - 3 hours per week.
Frame of reference
Download the Living Labs on our campuses community of practice terms of reference (Doc, 48KB) for more information.
Register your expression of interest via the Qualitrix form by Friday 1 July. Selected participants will be contacted by the Sustainability Team by Friday 8 July.
Green Impact
Green Impact is a change and engagement program that encourages staff and students to commit to sustainable actions. These actions contribute to the University’s sustainability targets and help create a more sustainable future. In 2022, the program runs from April to the end of September.
Green Impact is a team-based competition, with a series of actions organised into bronze, silver and gold categories depending on the impact. Teams can choose to make an impact in energy and emissions, waste reduction, health and wellbeing or biodiversity.
No matter how many actions are completed, all teams are recognised and will be awarded points. The actions can be completed either on campus or at home, so you aren't impacted if you're working or studying remotely.
- Get together a team and a nominated team leader. Team members don’t need to be from the same office or course.
- Watch the video embedded within the University of Sydney Green Impact Toolkit to learn how to register your team and start taking action. The toolkit is designed to guide teams through the program and will help you track your progress.
- Don’t forget to upload evidence when your team complete actions - such as photos, screenshots, meeting minutes or certificates. Read the Green Impact toolkit user guide for more information.
All Green Impact participants will receive a monthly newsletter with helpful tips on completing actions and information on sustainability-related events to contribute further towards our sustainability targets.
The Sustainability Strategy has partnered with the Green Caffeen program to provide free reusable cups at most Camperdown/Darlington and Sydney Conservatorium of Music campus cafes.
You’ll have 30 days to return your Green Caffeen cup to any participating café (on or off campus) and can have two cups checked out at a time. The cups are made from 98% recycled materials and manufactured in Brisbane. The program will be expanded to more campuses later in the year. Download the Green Caffeen app on your phone and say goodbye to that ‘forgot my cup’ guilt!
BioQuest
BioQuest is a worldwide competition among universities to discover, learn about and help map biodiversity for scientific research and conservation. BioQuest kicks off on 2 August 2022 with the game lasting for a month each time.
Teams across the University photograph, identify and share sightings of plants and animals. The more you identify, the more points for your team.
BioQuest isn't location specific, so even if you are working or studying from home you can get out and about in your local suburbs and upload your sightings.
The collected biodiversity data is shared with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the Atlas of Living Australia helping researchers, agencies, students and communities learn about Australia's biodiversity.
Teams are randomly assigned so all you have to do is complete the online application form up by 2 August.
USU and Sustainability
The University of Sydney Union is committed to a sustainable future for our campus community. They have made commitments ensuring sustainability is embedded into all that they do – from their events and cafés to their student programs and facilities.
USU run a range of events and programs throughout the year with a sustainability focus.
If you have an idea or would like to help USU with its mission to make USYD the most sustainable campus in Australia, contact sustainability@usu.edu.au
Join a student club or society committed to the environment:
