Sustainable Behaviour Assistant - Birmingham

IMPORTANT:  This Advertiser has requested that applicants MUST be National Residents / Valid Work Permit-holders.  Other applicants need not apply.

 

(Please note that there is no requirement for an accompanying cover letter for this application, so please tailor your CV for the role)

Background

The University of Birmingham is keen to build on progress in environmental performance over the last few years. We won a Green Gown award for Continuous Improvement in Waste Management & Recycling 2008, and were shortlisted for one in Carbon Reduction in 2013. A sustainable travel plan coordinator was appointed in 2008, and a sustainability projects coordinator in March 2011. The University carbon management plan was published in 2011 and reductions have been continued to be made against a 2005_2006 baseline. The University has also achieved the Carbon Trust Standard. In addition the Guild of Students completed the Green Impact Excellence award in 2013 after 2 years achieving the Gold standard.

In 2012/2013 the University took part in Student Switch Off, Green Impact, and Go Green week. The number of teams who submitted the Green Impacts workbook increased from 29 to 39, achieving 1 working towards, 15 bronze, 17 silver and 6 gold.

 

Green Impact is an environmental accreditation scheme that encourages pro-environmental behaviours by staff. It empowers sustainability champions within their workplace, helping them gain recognition for their environmental efforts, whilst playing on the competitive spirit of staff working in teams. It provides people and their departments with a tangible framework for improving their environmental performance, breaking down complex environmental issues into more manageable bite-sized chunks.

Green Impact forms part of the NUS’s wider strategy to support students’ unions by supporting them to green their own operations, their institutions and the wider community. All NUS environmental programmes seek to generate sustainable income for students’ unions by paying them to get involved in local delivery of our central projects. The environmental programmes are also committed to providing volunteering opportunities for students that will help with their employability, especially through skills that support the transition to a low carbon economy.

The scheme is all about practical actions that tackle common bad practice. A number of departments are audited to determine what common bad practices exist across an institution, and then a list of practical actions is developed to address them. These actions are carefully chosen so that any member of staff can do them on behalf of their team or department. From recycling, to investing in more efficient equipment, to encouraging biodiversity, or Fairtrade, the scheme covers a broad range of issues under the sustainability umbrella, all tailored to an individual institution to cover local policy and process.

For more information on Green Impact please go to:

http://www.eauc.org.uk/green_impact

http://www.nus.org.uk/greenimpactpledge

http://www.changeagents.org.uk/current-projects/green-impact

 

 

Objective

This post will involve a coordinating and supportive role to ensure the effective implementation and impact of the Green Impact project in order to achieve an increase in the pro-environmental behaviours of students and staff within the university.

The Sustainable Behaviour Assistant will provide added capacity to enable successful delivery of the university’s Green Impact project by the specified completion dates.

This is a 9 month part time post that will deliver the Green Impact objectives but also enhance the capacity and impact of the sustainability team across the University of Birmingham as a whole.

 

Benefits of this opportunity

The successful graduate will have opportunities to learn about being a team player, developing communication skills in different mediums and will gain project management skills including event planning and management, project implementation and evaluation.

The nature of this role will enable the graduate to develop not only the skills and outputs required as part of Green Impact, but also to work as an integral part of the environment team to create and drive forward further initiatives across the university’s staff, students and estates.

 

Outputs

- Coordinate and support the Green Impact project to encourage pro-environmental behaviour change across the institution and wider community.

- Increase number of students and staff with pro-environmental knowledge and awareness

- Successful delivery of the University’s Green Impact project by the specified completion dates

- Provide quantitative and qualitative data relating to the scheme to the EAUC

- Develop and drive forward wider environmental projects across the university

 

Key Tasks

1 Meet with stakeholders around the University (staff and student groups) to encourage their early involvement in all of the planned communications through local launch of the project

2 Plan, deliver and evaluate the Green Impact project through amendment, distribution and collation of the Workbook in partnership with departmental teams

3 Recruit, coordinate and motivate teams of staff and student volunteers to drive forward the University’s Green Impact project through their involvement as departmental teams, project assistants and auditors

4 Ensure that all records and information are collated and disseminated effectively, in line with the requirements of the project, and facilitate discussion and drive forward agendas with key contacts and participants

5 To assist the Environment Team in conducting appropriate environmental surveys of relevance to the Project (for example, lights left on unnecessarily, windows left open, recycling bin contents)

6 Prioritise key tasks and workload to ensure successful delivery to time frames specified by the project aims, and actively network with other Sustainable Behaviour Assistants to ensure sharing of best practice across the sector

7 Act as an ambassador for the project and ensure effective communication of its aims and objectives in liaison with the Student Union and through other partners and external channels and Keep in regular contact with the EAUC Green Impact Project Officer and attend phone or face to face meetings when required

8 To assist with other projects relevant to Green Impact being conducted by the Environment Team, and to investigate external funding sources for further projects that would complement it when appropriate and fitting with the demands of the Green Impact project

9 To support the Sustainability & Environmental Advisor in editing and updating the university’s environment web site and other web pages that may be of integral use to the Green Impact project

10 Organise and facilitate an Awards Ceremony for the participating departments in line with the timescales of the project and with the aim of celebrating the successes and impacts of the teams and the project.