Green Gown Awards announce winning projects playing leading roles in addressing climate action

In the first ever virtual ceremony, held on Wednesday 24 March 2021, the Green Gown Awards UK & Ireland, in association with UKRI, celebrated the inspirational work and projects of 74 finalists in 12 different categories – showing the importance of sustainability commitments even in the most unprecedented of times.

Emerald Publishing is a proud sponsor and judge of the awards which put a spotlight on the innovative and inspiring sustainability work taking place in universities and colleges to create a brighter future for their students.

This year’s finalists represented over 850,000 students and 130,000 staff. They are leading the way with their commitment to the global sustainability agenda and proving the value that universities and colleges bring to the wellbeing of society. The projects all delivered against several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the top four SDGs delivered against being Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Sustainable Cities and Communities and Quality Education. 

Winning initiatives ranged from social projects, like The University of Nottingham's Vets Need Pets initiative that provides free care for pets belonging to homeless and vulnerably housed people with the help of students, to projects that focus on a low carbon future, like South Eastern Regional College's Girls in Energy project that gives female engineers of the future a platform to drive positive change within their skills.

The University of Sheffield was awarded winner of the 'Research with Impact' category – sponsored by Emerald – for its Desert Garden project which uses waste material to grow fresh food in the desert for people displaced by war. Keele University was highly commended in this category for its HyDeploy project that aims to decarbonise the nation’s gas network by blending hydrogen with natural gas.

Nalinee Netithammakorn, student at De Montfort University, was chosen as the winner of the “Research with Impact: Student” category. Nalinee’s innovative research aims to improve sustainability in textile production by creating sustainable alternatives. Judges praised the research for having potential to have huge real world impact in an important, but often overlooked, polluting industry.

The winners brochure is available here: Winners | Green Gown Awards.

To find out more about why we sponsored the awards, please watch our video.

ENDS