Silwood Sustainability Champions lead the way with Green Impact Award

The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, with headquarters at Silwood Park, has earned a Bronze Green Impact Award, recognising its commitment to embedding practical sustainability across the campus.

Green Impact, an international UN award-winning programme run by SOS-UK and aligned with Imperial’s Sustainability Strategy 2021–2026, supports staff and students to make measurable improvements in areas such as energy use, waste reduction, biodiversity and travel. A Bronze Award reflects important first steps toward integrating sustainable practice into everyday operations.

Professor Vincent Savolainen, Director of the Georgina Mace Centre, said: ‘Green Impact is a UN award-winning SOS UK programme aligned with Imperial’s Sustainability Strategy. As Director of the Georgina Mace Centre, I’m immensely proud we’ve earned a Bronze Award, continuing Georgina Mace’s legacy of making the world better.’

A milestone for the Georgina Mace Centre

For a Centre dedicated to understanding and protecting biodiversity, this achievement reinforces its commitment to ‘walking the talk.’ It also provides external recognition for work that often happens quietly - day-to-day habits, small improvements, and collaborative actions that together contribute to campus-wide change. The process has helped strengthen community spirit too, with staff, students and researchers sharing ideas, resources and support throughout the year.

"Working with the sustainability team has brought great insights, including getting introduced to Regenerative Leadership and how we can make the best of our skills in influencing ourselves and those around us." Paidamoyo Mataranyika Silwood Sustainability Champion

This achievement was driven by a committed group of Sustainability Champions at Silwood Park who have worked throughout the year to embed more environmentally responsible practices across the Centre and the wider Silwood community. Their combined efforts, from communications and student engagement to evidence submission and campus outreach, formed the backbone of the Centre’s first Green Impact Award.

Paidamoyo Mataranyika, Silwood Sustainability Champion, said: 'I joined the Silwood sustainability committee this year because I wanted to intentionally contribute to making our campus more sustainable and to learn more. Working with the sustainability team has brought great insights, including getting introduced to the very intriguing concept of Regenerative Leadership and how we can make the best of our skills in influencing ourselves and those around us.” 

Campus-wide engagement - and a mascot!

This year’s work focused on establishing a strong baseline and raising awareness of sustainable habits already possible at Silwood. Champions shared regular tips through the Silwood Bulletin, highlighted campus facilities such as water refill points and recycling stations and encouraged more efficient energy use across shared spaces.

A standout success was the creation of Leif, a green mascot designed by postdoctoral researcher Dr Vivienne Groner. Leif appeared on posters, in newsletters, and even as a life-sized cardboard cut-out travelling around campus with sustainability reminders. A naming competition for new Master’s students helped build early-term engagement and quickly established Leif as a familiar figure at Silwood, even making an appearance at the Birds, Bugs & Beasts nature activity day.

Another highlight was the redesigned sustainable welcome boxes for incoming Master’s students, coordinated by Agnes Szwarczynska with SSCP PhD researchers. The boxes featured eco-friendly products, practical sustainability guidance, and seeds to help new students connect with local biodiversity from their first week on campus.

Looking ahead

The team now aims for a Silver Award in the next Green Impact cycle, involving deeper collaboration with senior management and expanding participation across labs, working groups and other Silwood-based teams.

The team is also committed to deeper engagement with the University-wide sustainability network, a start already made through the Sustainability seminar Jess Williams hosted at Silwood at the beginning of this term, featuring Professor Ben Barratt, co-director of Imperial’s new School of Convergence Science Sustainability, and Stav Friedman, Imperial’s Sustainability Engagement and Project Support Officer.

Staff and students across Imperial can find out more or get involved by visiting Imperial’s sustainability webpages or contacting the Silwood sustainability team for an informal conversation.

Sustainability Champions

• Julie Etheridge – Sustainability communications and Silwood Bulletin updates
• Dr Vivienne Groner – Coordination with Sustainable Imperial, evidence submission, and designer of Leif
• Dr Jessica Williams – Senior engagement, sustainability seminar, and Green Impact audit
• Agnes Szwarczynska – Student engagement and sustainable welcome box initiative
• Dr Paidamoyo Mataranyika – Network development and guest speaker outreach