Forth Valley College – working in partnership with Forth Valley Food Futures and Forth Valley Food and Drink - have scooped an award at the 2024 Green Gown UK and Ireland awards.
The College was down to the last seven in the Campus Health Food and Drink category, and was a finalist alongside Cambridge, Liverpool, Southampton, Sussex and Cardiff Universities as well as Imperial College London.
Now in their 20th year, the awards recognise outstanding and exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken in the post-16 education sector across the UK and Ireland. This year’s awards saw 133 projects from 83 institutions shortlisted, with 22 winners and 23 highly commended awards announced at a ceremony at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on the evening of 13 November.
The College were also Green Gowns finalists in 2021 and 2023, but just missed out on picking up the top awards.
This year, the winners were announced following the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) Scotland conference. The evening ceremony was hosted by Charlotte Bonner from EAUC and Jo Allatt from UKRI as they celebrated 20 years of the Green Gown Awards!
FVC’s submission focused on their recent work with Forth Valley Food Futures and Forth Valley Food and Drink. The College was one of several case studies who were highlighted within the project, which had a primary aim to help develop the social impact auditing tool.
Together, this has helped to produce the UK’s first social impact auditing tool for the food and drink industry - a methodology allowing businesses and institutions to better understand their own contributions toward social sustainability. Published in May 2024 this is now available to food and drink businesses and institutions to use for free.
Through Forth Valley College’s involvement trialling this new methodology, the College has gained a valuable understanding of how its own food and drink provision across the institution contributes to social impacts.
This has helped to better understand and collate many of the positive impacts already in place, such as reducing waste, and to identify further improvements which the College has taken such as the free ‘Food to Go’ project for students.
Judges were impressed by the reduction on food waste and the sound implementation of a range of environmentally and socially responsible options including the overall engagement with students and staff.
Kenny MacInnes, Forth Valley College Principal, said: “We are delighted to win this prestigious award and to be recognised and praised once again by the Judges at the Green Gowns Awards for our work in relation to sustainability. Well done to everyone in the Hospitality and Estates Department who have contributed to this great submission, working with our partners in the Forth Valley Food Futures and Forth Valley Food and Drink organisations.
“We were up against some excellent submissions in our category, who were nominated along with us. We have been shortlisted for the last three years and just missed out on top awards for the last two years. This win shows how committed we are to sustainability and our commitment to achieving our Net Zero targets, which are extremely important to us as a responsible institution. It also helps inspire our students and further encourages sustainability within our local communities and beyond.”
Commenting on the results, Charlotte Bonner, Chief Executive of EAUC, said: “EAUC, and in turn, the Green Gown Awards, are both celebrating their 20th anniversaries this year, with the Green Gown Awards having been an integral part of the sector’s sustainability journey over the last two decades. This year’s outstanding winners and highly commended entries for the Green Gown Awards UK & Ireland once again provide an inspiring and diverse array of initiatives, from impactful projects to passionate individuals, all dedicated to advancing sustainability. These awards demonstrate that sustainability is a collaborative journey, not a competition, with each effort contributing to the broader goal of transformative change for the post-16 education sector and beyond. Congratulations to all our winners, highly commended entrants, and finalists.”
For more information on Forth Valley Food Futures and Forth Valley Food and Drink and the social impact auditing tool click here