Sustainable Behaviour Assistant - Kent

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

 

(Please not that there is no requirement for an accompanying cover letter to apply for this role, so please ensure you tailor your CV for the role)

Background

Please note that registering your interest in this position will put you forward for the position at the University of Kent. This position is a part-time role for 6 months beginning on the 7th October 2013. Sustainability forms one of the six key messages of the University's plan and is at the heart of everything we do as an organisation. The Green Impact project offers departments at the University of Kent a practical opportunity to embed good environmental and ethical practices in their everyday work. Green Impact recognises the great influence that both academic and non-academic departments have in the university environment, and that any changes made here will go a long way!

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 6 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 Kent as a whole.

 

Outputs:

1. Coordinate and support the Green Impact and Student Switch Off projects to encourage pro-environmental behaviour change across the institution and wider community.

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

3. Successful delivery of the University’s Green Impact and Student Switch Off projects by the specified completion dates

4. Provide quantitative and qualitative data relating to the scheme to the NUS

5. Develop and drive forward wider environmental projects across the university

 

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.