LUSU makes for a greener society

Lancaster University Students' Union has met the gold standard in greening campuses and communities in an initiative run by the NUS.

Lancaster was among a select number of UK Universities to be awarded Gold in The Sound Environmental Impact Awards which seek to capture the positive green innovations in students’ unions and promote them to the general public. Auditors specifically commended Lancaster University Students’ Union for their innovative GreenLancaster scheme.

GreenLancaster is a partnership between LUSU and University Facilities and set up its hub in 2009 to support students to develop and deliver environmental initiatives. Notable projects so far include a Carbon Competition aimed at reducing student energy consumption in halls of residences, a bike recycling scheme which has seen 63 bikes sold to students and staff, and a college recycling contest which saw one college reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by 40 per cent.

A record 83 students’ unions took part in the Sound Environmental Impact Awards scheme with inspirational initiatives including Fairtrade football tournaments, bra banks, bike generators, even an alternative allotment scheme for locals making use of student gardens.

The other Gold winners were: Edinburgh University Students' Association, Winchester Students' Union, Loughborough Students' Union and University of Warwick Students' Union.

For more information on GreenLancaster go to http://greenlancaster.org.uk or email green@lancaster.ac.uk

Sound Impact is run by NUS, sponsored by The Co-operative and in partnership with www.theecologist.org.