Bangor University Students’ Union Wins for the Environment

Rhys Dart, SU Director, Rich Gorman Vice President for Societies & Sustainability and Students’ Union President, Jo Caulfield display their Awards at the recent Awards ceremonyRhys Dart, SU Director, Rich Gorman Vice President for Societies & Sustainability and Students’ Union President, Jo Caulfield display their Awards at the recent Awards ceremonyBangor University Students’ Union has picked up not one or two but three Awards for their environmental work recently.

The Students Union was awarded a highly coveted Gold Award in the NUS Green Impact Awards, having achieved Bronze at their first attempt , last year. This achievement meant that they were also awarded The Co-operative ‘Most Improved Union’ Award for their huge leap in performance.

Green Impact is an environmental accreditation scheme run by NUS, offering an independent benchmarking of a union's environmental performance. The award challenges Students’ Unions to follow environmental best practice and keep sustainability in mind whilst achieving results for students. The Green Impact Award also seeks to capture the positive green innovations in students’ unions and promote them to the public.

The winning campaign image The winning campaign image Bangor University Students’ Union also grabbed a third National Award: The Ecologist ‘Communications Challenge’ Award, as a result of a photo campaign promoting recycling.

Their ‘Rubbish Survival Guide’ Campaign will encourage students to help keep Bangor’s streets clean and tidy; by playing their part in getting rid of litter and making sure that rubbish ends up in the right recycling box.

Vice President for Societies & Sustainability, Rich Gorman said “This is yet another amazing achievement for Bangor Students’ Union, we’ve proved that the environment is a huge priority for us and we are committed to reducing our impacts whilst still providing services, support and representation for our students”.

Additional notes:

Photos of the award ceremony, the recycling photo campaign, and some student environmental projects are available from press@bangor.ac.uk on request.

Some notes on some of the environmental and sustainability projects that Bangor SU runs or supports are below:

  • Student Allotment – growing organic food
  • STAG – Student Treborth Action Group – volunteering at Treborth botanic gardens to encourage and develop biodiversity
  • Switched both  Student Newspapers to being printed on 100% recycled paper
  • Ran a successful Fairtrade Fortnight promoting the importance of Fairtrade

The Army & Navy Stores and Sparx provided clothing and paint for the winning photo campaign

Please contact Rich Gorman on rich.gorman@undeb.bangor.ac.uk for more details.

Publication date: 11 May 2011