We're thrilled to share that the Skills Centre has been awarded a Silver Award in this year's greenimpact programme. While we're celebrating this achievement, I want to reflect on the journey that got us here and share what we've learned along the way.
Starting small, thinking big
When we began our greenimpact journey at the end of January 2025, we had just a few months to make meaningful progress before the May deadline. Rather than being overwhelmed by the challenge, we embraced the opportunity to think systematically about sustainability across all aspects of our work.
The greenimpact programme covers "a wide range of sustainability themes, including academic practices, energy, waste, water, biodiversity and wellbeing," giving us plenty of areas to explore and improve. What struck us immediately was how this wasn't just about recycling bins and turning off lights (though those matter too), it was about fundamentally rethinking how we operate as a centre.
Our five focus areas
We identified five key areas where the Skills Centre could make a real difference:
Digital Resources Footprint: We discovered we had over 150 legacy digital resources consuming server space unnecessarily. This audit opened our eyes to the hidden environmental impact of our digital work.
Digital Resource Creation: We're developing frameworks for making environmentally conscious decisions when creating new digital content, considering both immediate resource use and long-term sustainability.
Sustainability Resource Development: We began creating resources to enhance students' sustainability literacy, recognising our unique position to influence the next generation of graduates.
Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Sustainability: We explored how to integrate sustainability thinking into our educational support services naturally and meaningfully.
Sustainable Travel and Session Delivery Planning: We are enhancing our session planning matrix to include environmental impact considerations.
The reality of change
I'll be honest, it wasn't always easy. Balancing greenimpact work with our existing responsibilities meant difficult choices about time allocation. Our team members contributed between 1-2 hours per week, and coordinating everyone's schedules was a constant challenge.
We also realised that much of our work necessarily focused on the "Plan" phase of our Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. While this might seem less exciting than immediate implementation, it gave us something invaluable: a solid foundation for sustainable change. As one team member reflected, "We've built a roadmap that will guide our sustainability efforts long after the award ceremony."
Learning and growing together
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect has been how the process brought our team together around a shared purpose. Regular monthly meetings became spaces for creative problem-solving and mutual support. We learned to leverage each other's strengths, from research and analysis to creative communication and stakeholder engagement.
The collaborative aspect extended beyond our immediate team too. We connected with the University's Sustainability Office, built relationships with colleagues across the University, and began conversations about shared challenges and resources. This network has already proven valuable as we plan our next steps.
Looking Forward
Our Silver Award feels like a beginning rather than an endpoint. The University of Bath has ambitious sustainability goals, including commitments to "being net zero in scope 1 and 2 by 2030, a 50% reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2030 and net zero across scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 2040." The Skills Centre wants to play its part in achieving these targets.
Looking ahead, we're excited about expanding our greenimpact participation to include staff from across all teams in the careers and skills family. We're also exploring opportunities for staff-student collaboration through sustainability-focused internships and skills development programmes, initiatives that would benefit from university-level funding as part of the institution's broader sustainability strategy.
What This Means for You
Whether you're a colleague in the Skills Centre, a member of staff elsewhere at Bath, or a student reading this, our greenimpact journey demonstrates that sustainability isn't about perfect solutions or dramatic gestures. It's about thoughtful, systematic change and collective commitment to doing better.
We've developed our Skills Centre Sustainability Statement, which commits us to environmental responsibility, raising awareness, and community engagement. But more than words on a page, this represents our ongoing promise to embed sustainability thinking into everything we do.
A Personal Impact
The changes haven't just been institutional; they've been personal too. Team members report being more conscious about digital waste, both at work and home. We're printing less, planning meals better to reduce food waste, and having ongoing conversations about sustainability that extend well beyond our formal Green Impact work.
As one team member put it: "The awareness raised through greenimpact has definitely carried over to my personal life. I've become more mindful about my digital footprint and more conscious about purchases, asking myself whether I really need something before buying it."
Thank You
Our Silver Award belongs to everyone who supported this journey. From colleagues who supported our sustainability work to those that shared their experiences and challenges, this has been a truly collaborative effort.
Most importantly, this work continues. Our greenimpact participation this year will inform centre-wide discussions and help us plan for even broader participation in future years. We're building something sustainable, not just in environmental terms, but in creating lasting change in how we think and work.
The University of Bath is home to world-leading research in sustainability and climate change through the Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change. As staff and students, we all have a role to play in translating that expertise into daily practice across our campus community.
Our Silver Award is a milestone, but our sustainability journey is just beginning. We're excited about what we'll achieve together in the months and years ahead.
Respond
