Green Impact Australasian awards
Annie McKillop, Staff Development ＆ Engagement Co-ordinator at AUT Library, has been named Staff Champion in the Green Impact Australasian awards.
The award is to acknowledge a staff member who, in completing sustainability actions as part of a Green Impact team, has had a positive impact on the sustainability achievements of their institution or beyond.
And Annie has done just that. She initiated the Library’s involvement with Green Impact in 2019 when the programme was first piloted at AUT and has helped generate excitement around green knowledge sharing and behaviour change across her department of 90 staff.
Coordinating two library Green Impact groups spanning three campuses, Annie has organised a wide range of a sustainability activities; winter warmer plant-based soup lunch, a tree planting project, and better composting within her department are just a few of the things that have earned her the Staff Champion title.
Annie says it’s been a true team effort, harnessing the different strengths and interests each person brings.
“Love the accolade but just remember I am merely the facilitator; it is a group effort by many wonderful colleagues who enjoy working together across our different teams and campuses. These are people who believe in our power to make a difference. And we have!
Having fun and supporting each other is key. And our consensus model approach allows people to contribute their different skills where and how they can. That’s our ethos and that’s why we have the energy to make things happen.”
In nominating her for the award, her team says she intends to keep driving these changes, making sustainable behaviours the “new normal” even beyond the Green Impact programme.
“Annie has a vision of making sustainability a regular part of people’s roles and of Library staff potentially being able to bring about systematic change at a more strategic level.”
What is Green Impact?
Green Impact is a change and engagement programme, originating from the UK, which helps people understand sustainability and social responsibility
It is a team-based programme where members complete a range of actions in areas like climate change, biodiversity loss and health and wellbeing. Students and staff enter teams and complete tasks from a set toolkit, competing against other teams to win awards.