Green Impact: team-based sustainability change programme
Green Impact is a team-based programme where you complete a range of actions in areas like climate change, biodiversity loss and health and wellbeing. Your actions earn you points. Students enter teams and complete tasks from a set toolkit, competing against other teams to win awards.
It's a flexible programme – you can take part whether you have an hour or just five minutes free a week.
2021 Green Impact programme
Green Impact 2020 has finished for the year.
The programme will begin again early in 2021, but you can sign up any time from now (until it closes in September 2021) to register for it. Once you’ve registered and the programme begins in 2021, you can start to complete actions from the toolkit, ticking them off as done and uploading evidence and comments along the way to track your progress.
Benefits of participating
Green Impact will help you develop valuable employability skills and is an excellent asset on your CV. You'll also interact with like-minded people worldwide – and most importantly, help us to build a better future that is more socially just, environmentally sustainable and economically resilient.
Forming or joining a team
The team size is up to you. It’s preferable that your team has more than one member and there is no upper limit. The usual number is between five and nine, as having a smaller team makes it easier to work through the actions.
Ideally, you’d form a new team with people who are located near you or with your peers. If this is a challenge, email us and we'll help you find a team to join: sustainability@aut.ac.nz
Yes. If you live in a flat or student accommodations (halls), you can use a special residence toolkit. Look out for it when you register.
Contact us and we can pair you up with others who don’t have a team: sustainability@aut.ac.nz.
Keen to get involved with Green Impact?
If you’d like to be involved in making AUT and our country a more sustainable place, compete with other teams across the University and get recognition for your achievements, we’d like to hear from you.
How to register your team
To take part, all you have to do is:
- Create or join a team (email us if you need help)
- Register your team on the Green Impact website (Enter the registration code '190', and department 'student team')
- Once you have registered, start to complete actions from the toolkit, ticking them off as done and uploading evidence and comments along the way to track your progress.
You’ll then receive regular themed information on how to tackle sustainability issues.
Using the toolkit
You can find out more about how to use the toolkit.
Using the toolkit and how the scoring system works
Actions and projects
An action is a single, small task – you'll find a list of these described in the toolkit (when you register to take part in Green Impact, you get access to the toolkit).
A project is a larger, bespoke task that you and your team can create and develop together. You must submit a proposal for your project to the Sustainability Team so that we can make sure it meets our criteria and goals.
The scoring system: points and certificates
Each action or project is assigned a points value and a type (bronze, silver or gold). For each action or project you complete, you collect points. You need to collect a certain number of points to earn a bronze, silver or gold certificate, but you can complete any action types – bronze, silver or gold – to reach the required total of points for that certificate.
For example: to earn a silver certificate, your points must total or exceed 125 – so you could complete a Silver Project (105 points) plus one Bronze Action (5 points) plus one Gold Action (15 points) to reach 125 points in total.
Points system and certificates
Action type | Action value | Project value | Certificates and points |
▪ | ▪ | ▪ | Working towards Bronze (<75 points) |
Bronze | 5 points | 55 points | Bronze certificate (75 points) |
Silver | 10 points | 105 points | Silver certificate (125 points) |
Gold | 15 points | 155 points | Gold certificate (175 points) |
Need help or more information?
If you have questions or need help, contact us: sustainability@aut.ac.nz
Join Green Impact on Facebook
The Green Impact Facebook page aims to connect and showcase the amazing efforts of programme participants across Australia and New Zealand, working together to create a better future for all – people and planet.
Complete action B031: attend a composting course
About half of waste sent to landfill in NZ is compostable. Learn how to make good use of food scraps and reduce your carbon footprint – attend a free workshop with the Compost Collective and complete action B031 in the toolkit.
Sign up to the newsletter
Sign up to our fortnightly AUT Green Impact newsletter and find out about events, what teams are doing, sustainability news and more.