Earlier this month, we celebrated our sustainability champions at the annual UC Sustainability Awards, presented by Vice-Chancellor | Tumu Whakarae Professor Cheryl de la Rey.
It was a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate all the amazing work that is being done for sustainability, both in research and practice. As you can imagine, the UC Sustainability Office is feeling pretty proud of our UC community right now!
Read on to see all the wonderful students and staff who were nominated for an award this year, and see the full list of our Winners and Highly Commended Awards across the seven categories. Or, check out the UC media release here for more details.
And the winners of the 2019 UC Sustainability Awards are….
Winner of the 2019 Supreme Award: Associate Professor Bronwyn Hayward
Supreme Award winner Associate Professor Bronwyn Hayward led the way in the 2019 awards with her international involvement in the IPCC reports and her incredible community engagement. A talented researcher and communicator, Associate Professor Hayward inspires action at all levels – from serving on one of the highest international science forums to writing books and articles, hosting community events and even maintaining a lively Twitter feed. Her commitment to sustainability and democracy engages undergraduate and postgraduate students who are fortunate enough to study with her in the classroom, “civics lab” and in-field teaching.
Check out the video below to learn more about Bronwyn’s work – from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to local huis, she is walking the talk on engaging us in sustainability issues. Thank you for all your work Bronwyn!
Winner Academic Staff – Team: Environmental Science Staff Team
Winner Academic Staff – Individual: Susan Krumdieck for Transition Engineering, Building a Sustainable Future (published Oct 2019)
Winner Student Research: Helena Ruffell for her research in Wastewater treatment plants as a source of microplastics to the environment
Winner Student-Led Project Individual: Courtney Wright-Watson for Establishing Envirosoc (see her video below)
Winner Student-Led Project Team: Amelia Dewhurst, Rose Bayldon, Florence Ferguson, Josh Watson for the Christchurch Climate Challenge
Winner General Staff – Individual: Linda Morris for a lifetime of reusing, repurposing and recycling
Winner General Staff – Team: Haere-roa/UCSA Building Project Team for the Wellbeing Precinct Low Carbon Energy Scheme
A huge congratulations to our Highly Commended Individual and Team Award winners:
Highly Commended Academic Staff (Individual): Sally Gaw for Microplastics in Aotearoa New Zealand
Highly Commended Academic Staff (Individual): Tim Huber for Waste reduction through design
Highly Commended Academic Staff (Individual): Piers Locke for Pedagogy of hope – teaching that inspires engagement in environmental action
Highly Commended Academic Staff Team (Teaching): The Chemical and Process Engineering Academic Team for embedding sustainability in Chemical and Process Engineering teaching at UC
Highly Commended Academic Staff Team (Applied): HydroEco Engineering Research Group [Aisling (Ash) O’Sullivan, Tom Cochrane, Frances Charters, Peter McGuigan, Aude Thierry and research students] with support from Facilities Management for THE STORMINATOR™ – A Sustainable Stormwater Treatment Solution Using Food Waste Shells
Highly Commended Academic Staff Team (Applied): EPECentre Joule Log Heating Team [Dr Bill Heffernan, Dr Nurzhan Nursultanov, Mr Ryan van Herel] for their research in an Electric alternative to toxic chemical fumigation for export logs
Highly Commended Student Research: Mehrnoush Tangestani and Daniel Smith for their research into Omega-3 fatty acid production from New Zealand algae
Highly Commended Student Research: Sergio Hansen and Julian Maranan (Project Team: AOS01) for Treatment Performance of an Innovative Downpipe Stormwater Treatment Solution
Highly Commended Student Research (International): Niebert Blair, PhD Student for “Discovery of the dynamic balance of sustainability – Lessons learned from Amerindian hinterland villages in the Amazon region of Guyana, South America”
Highly Commended Student-Led Project (Individual): Ella Knobloch for Carbon Free UC and Role Modelling Sustainability
Highly Commended Student-Led Project (Individual): Varvara Sidorenko for Eco Volunteering
Highly Commended Student-Led Project (Team): UC For Climate Core Team for UC For Climate
Highly Commended General Staff (Team): Procurement for Supply Chain Influence
Highly Commended General Staff (Team): Mt Barker Forestry for Mt Barker Forestry
And, finally, congratulations to all the 2019 UC Sustainability Awards Nominees!
- Pieter Pelser, Jim Briskie and Helen Warburton for BIOL273 Campus Biodiversity Inventory
- NZPSA 2019 Organising Committee for Developing a Sustainable Conference Model for UC
- Emma Rees for Keeping the Kaupokonui Stream Cool
- Felix Morgenstern and Etienne Gil-Goldsbrough for their research “Degradation Characteristics of Compostable Plastics in Controlled and Uncontrolled Composting Environments”
- Amelia Dewhurst, nominated individually as well as with the winning student team for her work with the Christchurch Climate Challenge
- Harjot Gill for Sustainability and Waste Management
- Rose Bayldon, nominated individually as well as with the winning team for Christchurch Climate Challenge
- Patricio Gallardo Ocampo for Transition of Freight Transportation to Zero Carbon
- Abby Robertson for Te Ao Māori in Waiutuutu Community Garden
- UC Bike: Bikefest Group for encouraging commuter cycling at UC
- Isabel Andrade for The Role of Adaptive Capacity: Transitioning Engineering of Zero Carbon Building Retrofits
- Lauralee Mather for Earthly
- UCSA Food and Beverage Team for coffee price structure change to tackle single use takeaway cups
- UCSA Events Team for Globelets
What an incredible showcase of sustainability research, practice, projects, initiatives and passions – we can’t wait for next year. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the 2019 Sustainability Awards so special.
And finally, a big thank you to our sponsors: Trade Aid and Yealands Wines. We love working and collaborating with like-minded sustainable businesses and social enterprises to help us celebrate our sustainability champions in style!
For more details on our wonderful award winners, check out the media release “Activists and academics intersect at the UC Sustainability Awards” or see our website.
This message was brought to you by the UC Sustainability Office. Stay connected and follow us on Facebook, Instagram or sign up to our newsletter to stay in the loop about campus sustainability. This blog is part of our communications plan for the 2019 UC Sustainability Awards.
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