2022 - Green Ambassador Program

With it being such a productive year, the GAP Sustainability Council had some words to share about their personal experiences. Events Manager for semester 1 of this year, Nguyen Tran, had this to say about his time with GAP:

“Working with GAP has been such a delight for me as their former Events Manager! Dependable peers that are motivated to make sustainability impactful on not just UQ students but other young people nationally and internationally. As such, such contagious enthusiasm has allowed for fun events, educational workshops and socialising opportunities to sprout from GAP members’ ideas. Thus, I’m proud of my work, grateful to GAP for the opportunity to be its Events Manager and reassured of the group’s future and impact!”

Likewise, Sustainable Development Goal Manager Jayana also had this to say about the highlights of the year for her:

“Being a part of the GAP Council in the role of the SDG Manager has been a wonderful learning experience. Not only have I had the opportunity to help organise and volunteer a variety of events, I have expanded my network - and worked with people who are extremely passionate about sustainability. Being the SDG Manager, I have been able to work within the UQ community and regularly interact with student leaders across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. The GAP community is extremely supportive, hardworking, and a joy to work with. I believe the GAP council is a spectacular example of partnerships and teamwork towards promoting sustainability at UQ and in the broader community. It has been an extremely rewarding experience to have this opportunity to turn ideas into actions.”

With GAP only going from strength to strength, there’s no doubt that there is many more fun and exciting events and collaborations on the horizon for the Green Ambassador Program community in 2023 and beyond! 

GAP ran some fun events, to celebrate the ability to run events on campus safely again. 

In May, GAP held a movie night where the movie of choice was Al Gores ‘An Inconvenient Sequel- Truth to Power’ with free popcorn for attendees.

GAP also joined the UQ Art Museum at their Blue Carbon presentation in May, as a part of the ‘Oceanic thinking’ exhibit. This had a great turnout, and all attendees enjoyed learning more about the potential of the Blue Carbon method in sequestering oceanic and atmospheric carbon.

GAP also had a fair share of volunteering events for members to be a part of this year! Kicking off the year was Clean Up Australia Day in April, where 16 wheelie bins of rubbish were removed from the mangroves along Sir William McGregor Drive in just 2 hours! This was run in conjunction with the UQ Marine Society, UQ Geography and Environmental Management Society (GEMS), the Tourism, Hospitality, and Events Society, and Chemical Engineering Student Society UQ.

Other volunteering included ongoing bushcare events with the St Lucia Bushcare Group, wherein GAP, GEMS, and the UQ Greens club, took to the St Lucia golf course to clear weeds, learn about native and invasive weeds, and plant some new vegetation. These events are a great way for GAP members to give back to the community, as well as get real life experience dealing with land management and invasive plants. The bushcare series also won GEMS an award for ‘Best Event Series’ at the annual UQ Clubs and Societies Awards night!

Our collaborations continued throughout the year, with plogging events held in February and within Sustainability Week in August! GEMS and the Social Runners Club joined us for these events. Ploggers set off along Sir William McGregor drive and cleared the litter from the riparian zone and footpaths, then enjoyed pizza at the community garden.

Throughout this year, GAP had the opportunity to work alongside sustainability student groups across Australia as a part of the Sustainable Universities Network, as well as be connected to groups in the Pacific area and New Zealand through the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. These various collaborations served to allow for more effective events planning and communications, as we were able to both teach and learn from other groups. Fostering these connections will serve to increase GAPs ability to run great events for its members in the future.

GAP had a great opportunity for exposure at the Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) Conference in May. Green Programs Assistant Jasmine spoke about role of students in sustainability at universities, with an emphasis on how students can become further involved in Sustainability in higher education through GAP.

GAP members also attended and spoke at ‘The Future of Sustainability Conference: Regional SEQ Networking Event’ in June, one of the first events for higher education institutions in SEQ focusing on sustainability. This was run as part of the ACTS conference, and attending universities included the Queensland University of Technology, University of Southern Queensland, and the University of the Sunshine Coast. Events Manager Nguyen Tran, as well as SDG Manager Jayana attended, and spoke about their experience volunteering with GAP. The representatives from other universities were interested in hearing about their experiences with GAP, and expressed an interest in forming groups similar to GAP in future!

Jayana, SDG Manager for GAP, also was able to attend the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education (GCSHE), which was a great learning experience. As the conference is held online and based in the United States, it was a great opportunity to find out what kinds of initiatives are in place across America.

GAP also received an award as a part of the Sustainable Universities Network end of year awards ceremony! Winning the award ‘Most events organised’ was a highlight, and a testament to how much can be achieved when collaboration is prioritised in Sustainability engagement!

GAP, as a founding member of the Sustainable Universities Network (SUN), ran some great events in collaboration with other university environment groups across Australia. This included being a part of a national sustainability fortnight, where GAP co-hosted an event alongside the UQ Greens club, as well as other Greens clubs from throughout Australia. This entailed chatting with Greens MP for Ryan, Elizabeth Watson-Brown, the local member for UQ’s St Lucia campus in Brisbane, as well as Robert Simms, a Member of the Legislative Council in the Parliament of South Australia, and Anjali Sharma, a youth environmental activist.

Read more about the 'in conversation' event with a member of the Greens.

This year, being the second year UQ has completed a Sustainability Tracking and Rating System report (STARS), several GAP members aided in collating the report. Throughout April, Jayana, Nguyen, and Yufei all contributed to UQ’s 2022 STARS reporting by assessing the report and adding comments. These students will now be credited in UQ’s official 2022 STARS report! In 2021, UQ achieved a very high silver rating, with a score of 61.37, and is on track to receive a gold rating in the next reporting period.

Read more about UQ’s STARS performance.

To continue GAP’s dedication to providing rewarding volunteer events for members, GAP and Sustainability held a stall at National Student Volunteer Week in May! This was a great opportunity to inform the wider UQ community about the opportunities available within GAP, and to reach out to disciplines outside of Environmental Management and Science.

GAP has also created a judging board to assess Sustainability Award applications, the board is made up of three Sustainability Office Staff and two GAP members.

This year SDG Manager Jayana also ran an ‘SDG bookclub’, where GAP members could complete a UN accredited SDG course online, and have an opportunity to meet weekly and discuss it. This ran over the mid-year break, and two were run simultaneously, with several GAP community members getting involved.

The UQ St Lucia and Gatton Community Gardens were brought back to life throughout 2022 by the amazing efforts of the new Community Garden Coordinator, Michael. Gardening workshops were held on an ongoing basis, and many GAP members took the opportunity to get their hands dirty.