At Newcastle University, we recognise that the climate crisis must be addressed communally, and we cannot meet the sustainability targets set out in our Climate Action Plan without the efforts of all our colleagues and students.

Green Impact and LEAF are two amazing programmes available for our colleagues at the university, with the opportunity for participants to win bronze, silver, and gold awards for sustainability. Earlier this month, the Environment Awards recognised and celebrated the achievements of our colleagues and students over the past year, with 11 teams receiving Green Impact awards and 10 teams receiving LEAF awards. A massive congratulations to those teams!

So, read on to find out how you can get involved in the next programme of Green Impact or LEAF, and play your part in increasing environmental sustainability on campus!

Green Impact

Green Impact is a United Nations award-winning programme which promotes environmentally and socially sustainable behaviour across organisations. At Newcastle University, colleagues can sign up to Green Impact and create teams within their work area, with actions assigned to complete in the online toolkit. The toolkit is aligned with the UN Sustainability Goals, with themes such as energy, water, waste, travel, biodiversity, communication, and wellbeing.

This is a great opportunity to improve your knowledge on environmental issues and contribute to meaningful sustainable change in your workplace, whilst collecting some awards to display!

How to get involved:

1. Sign up to Green Impact online from the 11^th of November.
2. Chat to your colleagues in your work area about Green Impact teams and either join one that’s already been created or create a new team.
3. Email sustainable-campus@newcastle.ac.uk to join the Green Impact Teams channel, and chat to other teams!
4. Work through your assigned actions. Each action grants a certain number of points which then add up to the bronze, silver, and gold awards.
5. Our friendly student auditors will come round to check your progress later in the year.
6. The Environmental Awards will be held in June, with engraved recycled slates for teams that made it to Bronze, Silver, or Gold.

LEAF

Our laboratories are essential in enabling the groundbreaking research conducted at Newcastle University, and scientific research is vital in mitigating the climate crisis. However, traditional laboratory practices can come with unintended environmental impact (Freese et al, 2024).

LEAF, or the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework, is an online platform for laboratory users designed by UCL to improve the sustainability and efficiency of laboratories. Similar to Green Impact, lab teams work through sustainability actions to reduce waste, water, and energy along with improving the efficiency of other resources. There is an upcoming refresh of the LEAF actions and criteria, so sign up now to be a part of this updated programme.

How to get involved?

1. Sign up on the LEAF login portal
2. Register with your institutional email, then login and either join an existing lab, or request a new lab (if your lab is not already listed).
3. After your account is verified, work with your team through the bronze, silver, and gold criteria. Members of the Sustainability Team will assess your progress along the way, and certificates will be awarded at the Environmental Awards!
4. Every year, progress to a higher certificate, or re-audit to keep your accreditation.

Key dates:

• Relaunch of Green Impact on Monday the 11^th of November
• Criteria Update of LEAF on Monday the 11^th of November.
• Green Impact Launch Webinar on Thursday the 14^th of November, Sign up here.
• LEAF teams channels launch on Friday the 1^st of November.
• Celebrating Success Environmental Awards: June (date to be announced later).

Thank you for reading, and we look forward to welcoming some new teams to Green Impact and LEAF this year!

References

Freese, T., Elzinga, N., Heinemann, M., Lerch, M.M. and Feringa, B.L., 2024. The relevance of sustainable laboratory practices. Rsc Sustainability, 2(5), pp.1300-1336.