My experience at the 2024 Green Gown Awards 💚

Happy Spring everyone! March has been hitting us with some beautiful sun in the UK and I for one am loving it ☀️ Is this post 5 months late? Maybe…….. I was in two minds about writing a post on this, but in the sustainability space we all desperately need some good news right now so I thought better late than never! Writing this blog is one of the things that meant I was nominated for an award, so it seems only right to share it with all of you.

So what are the Green Gown Awards I hear you cry?! (I had to do some quick googling when I heard about them!) These awards recognise a range of individuals and groups within further and higher education in the UK and Ireland (there are also international versions) for their work towards sustainability and environmental action. I was lucky enough to be shortlisted as a finalist last year in the Student Sustainability Champion category and invited to the awards ceremony in Edinburgh. While I didn’t walk away with the award, I had a fantastic experience and wanted to share some of my thoughts on the whole process…

• 1 – We don’t celebrate sustainability enough 🏆

Because our ambitions are so high, progress takes time to implement and there is still so much bad in the world, we rarely get a chance to celebrate the actions people are taking right now in our own communities. Sustainability hardly has celebrity status, and wins don’t make the headlines because this kind of work isn’t considered ‘cool’ or high profile ( when it is in fact saving the world, but hey what do I know?). So to have an event with so much recognition and grandeur – there was a green carpet! – felt like a rare occasion in this sector. The event was so well organised and I felt so valued to be part of it, which was a wonderful way to round off my student experience.

• 2 – There are people out there doing amazing things 🤩

Right now most of what we are hearing about are the people out there doing terrible things, and it’s easy to come to the conclusion that all people are bad and its better to stay in and talk to the cat. But trust me, there are others out there in the world, without fame or a spotlight, getting on and taking positive action. At the awards ceremony we got to hear about the projects that became winners and highly commended, and there was such a variety of incredible work going on in educational settings up and down the country (and of course across the sea!). From sustainable building projects to outreach schemes, so many different aspects of sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (pictured in the display below…) were being progressed by students, staff members and the wider community. It was such a pleasure to be amongst such a high calibre of people!

• 3 – We don’t have to work in isolation 🫂

We all know that collaboration is key to progress, but being part of the Green Gown Awards taught me that there are always people out there who share your interests and can help you grow, even when your interest is pretty niche. What were the chances that I got to sit next to staff members from a university that I had never visited but ran a project that so closely aligned with my own research and interests? (Pretty low if you’re wondering but it did happen!) Sharing our interests with others not only allows us to share our uniqueness but also to engage people you don’t normally mix with and enable connections to be made when you have something in common. I sound like a paid sponsorship for LinkedIn networking (I’m not) but the general idea is talk to people! Spread ideas, have discussions and maybe good things will come of them.

I also want to take a moment to appreciate how sustainability was implemented at these awards. I was able to travel to Edinburgh by train (a beautiful journey!) and the menu served was fully vegan. I’ve shared some pictures in this post of the event and it was beautifully done, so if anyone is ever nominated or gets the opportunity to attend, it is definitely worth it. My thanks go to the people who put me forward for the award, helped me create the application and the Green Gown Awards team for inviting me. Thank you to everyone who reads this blog and anyone who has been involved in my journey, you all helped this happen!

Wishing you all a peaceful and positive week 💚