Griffith University continues to demonstrate excellence in promoting innovative and effective sustainability practices.

The 2018 Sustainability Awards for Staff highlights best practice when it comes to working towards sustainability in their element and surrounding working groups.

Group winner: Dr Graham Jenkins, Mr Simon Howell and Associate Professor Wayne Hall from the School of Engineering and Built Environment for their project, A Creative Approach to embedding Sustainability and Global Engagement in Engineering Education.

DVC (Engagement) Professor Martin Betts with Dr Graham Jenkins and Simon Howell

This project focuseson Griffith Sciences students building their skills in developing a sustainable society. The structured educational program fosters creativity, innovation, a user centred focus and global awareness of the social, technical, economic and environmental aspects facing our graduates in the 21st century. The project introduces first year students to sustainable engineering design practice in 1701ENG – Creative Engineering, using experiential learning. Students design a product or piece of infrastructure for a client where the user experience and sustainable development go hand in hand, with a focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This integrates with 3005ENG – Global Perspectives for Sustainable Infrastructure, where students get a ‘hands on’ opportunity through a work integrated learning internship with an NGO in Cambodia. Here they build and implement sustainable water management within local villages, while developing skills to transfer this knowledge to the developed world in which they live.

Group winner: Mr Stephen Pulley, Ms Suganthi Sivasubramaniam and Mr Fred Fleck from Fleet and Logistics, Business Services for their Sustainable Transportation project.

DVC (Engagement) Professor Martin Betts, Fred Fleck, Stephen Pulley and Dianne Smith (standing in for Suganthi Sivasubramaniam)

The project incorporates a sustainable, cost-effective implementation of Hybrid Vehicles into, not just the pool fleet but also the Executive take home vehicles. After completion of the project Hybrid Vehicles will account for 91% of General Use Pool vehicles with a projected saving of 30 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. In addition, with the implementation of promoting ‘Share a Ride’ through the pop-up prompt when booking a PoolCar, ‘Share a Ride’ bookings have increased by 39% with 541 Share a Ride trips completed in the first half of 2018. And … the group are currently engaged in see whether the diesel intercampus buses can be replaced with electric buses as part of a contract renewal. The project has increased awareness and promotion to the University Community of Sustainable Transport options offered by the University.

Toyota Hybrid Camry and Prius part of Griffith’s sustainability fleet of vehicles

Group – Highly Commended: Ms Vanessa Taveras Dalmau, Ms Rachel Perkins and Dr Rob Hales from the Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith Business School for their War on Coffee Cups project

DVC (Engagement) Professor Martin Betts with Rachel Perkins and Vanessa Taveras Dalmau

A successful pilot project in 2017 raised awareness that over 1 billion coffee cups were going to landfill every year in Australia The project involved the installation of specialised coffee cup collection tubes in selected areas on the Nathan campus, as well as a display during Griffith’s Sustainability Week in September 2017. Since then, collaborations between Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise and Campus Life, Griffith Food and Closed Loops and their Simply Cups initiative has resulted in a dedicated Coffee Cup Recycling program being implemented across Griffith’s five campuses.

The coffee cup collection tubes are installed across all Griffith University campuses.