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What is Green Impact?
What is Green Impact?
Green Impact is an international sustainability accreditation programme designed to recognise and reward environmentally and socially sustainable practices within organisations. Through Green Impact, teams of employees across a variety of different sectors including education, healthcare and the public sector, come together to learn more about sustainability and work together to create positive change - in their workplace and beyond.
At the University of York, where Green Impact has been running since 2011, participating teams have a choice of completing actions from a workbook to earn points, or completing sustainability-focused projects of their own design. These endeavours are submitted for assessment annually, with awards available at Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond (for teams who have achieved Platinum for 5 years in a row) levels.
Meet the team
Meet the team
The SEI York Green Impact Team was established for the 2024-2025 assessment year. Now in our second year, our team continues to combine diverse expertise with representation from several of SEI York Centre’s research groupings and professional support staff teams. We’re also delighted to have the support of our two fantastic Green Impact Project Assistants from the University of York - Trixie and Eugenia!
Amy
Connie
Eugenia
Jennifer
Jo C
Jo M
Lucy
Peter
Sam
Smriti
Trixie
What are we working on?
What are we working on?
For our team’s 2025-2026 entry to the University of York Green Impact Programme we have chosen to create something collaborative, practical and joyful - a collection of recipes which use food as a medium for introducing sustainability topics across a broad range of themes in a non-academic, accessible way. Each recipe is paired with a short ‘sustainability story’ which highlights relevant pieces of SEI research.
Why recipes?
Why recipes?
After working through the Green Impact Toolkit last year, we were eager to tackle a fresh challenge. Since our project team comprises staff from such a wide variety of different internal teams and roles, and because we rarely have the chance to collaborate, we looked for a common thread to unite us. As a group of food lovers, the answer was clear: food!
We also felt that, as food is something we all engage with daily, it could offer a familiar starting point for conversations about sustainability. Our vision is to help to introduce new audiences to SEI research by highlighting key findings in an engaging way that is relatable to individuals in their daily lives.
What's next?
What's next?
This year’s recipe collection has given us an opportunity to pilot the idea, design structures to deliver the content and gain feedback. Next year, we hope to include a much broader range of research, including from other SEI centres and other departments at the University.
If you’d like to be involved by cooking, contributing or collaborating, we’d love to hear from you. 🍴🌍
Past success
Past success
In 2024-2025, the team’s inaugural year, we engaged with the University toolkit. Having completed a whopping 86 actions, accruing 397 points, we were thrilled to achieve a Platinum award for our efforts.
To pinpoint just a handful of examples, this included -
Taking part in initiatives to increase biodiversity on campus, and encouraging staff across our centre to engage with environmental citizen science initiatives
Creating biodegradable bird feeders from foraged pinecones and donated ingredients
Organising digital clean up sessions to reduce staff digital footprints and cloud storage
Conducting energy audits in the office, sharing the results and reminding staff of key energy saving practices
Better integrating sustainability within induction materials for new starters
Conducting bin audits and signposting different recycling facilities on campus
In the same year, Smriti also won a dedicated individual award for Sustainable Cities and Communities for her work in the York City Nature Challenge.
Help us with your feedback
Help us with your feedback
Have you read the S.E. I'm Hungry recipe collection? If so, we'd love to hear from you! Our survey is quick and easy to complete and your feedback will help shape the next version of the recipe collection.
If you would like to request the content of this Google Site in an alternative format, please e-mail sei-admin-manager@york.ac.uk
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