Green Programs 2019: Green Office and Green Labs Promotions and Competitions

Every year, the Sustainability Office runs promotions and competitions for Green Labs and Green Office representatives. These competitions focus on sustainability and behavioural change, while challenging the reps and their colleagues to implement eco-friendly alternatives. This is integral to the Green programs’ success and helps foster engagement throughout the year.

In Semester 1, 2019, the reps played Green Office Bingo, which aimed to inspire sustainable actions at work. Each bingo square involved a new habit, such as collecting soft plastic, wearing something second hand, or drinking from a reusable cup. Individuals and workplaces that completed four adjacent goals on the bingo grid won a prize.

Kathryn Mulcahy, the representative at the Institute of Modern Languages, rallied a team of seven people to participate for the week. The result was astounding, with the team achieving every single bingo goal, complete with photos and multilingual captions.

Along with Tony Steiner, Agnes Faron, Lisa Foreman, Lucas Medcraft, Marianne Lipke and Anjaline Lata, the team visited the Bush Tucker garden, picked up litter, took public transport, and ate vegan lunches during the week. Glückwünsche an das gesamte Team!

Lucy Hurrey and Dominic Jarvis from the Faculty of Science kept composting and recycling to complete the bingo together.

Liz Eden, at the Queensland Alliance of Agriculture and Food Innovation, completed ten bingo goals, including collecting soft plastic to recycle, using a reusable container for lunch, and turning off her computer overnight.

All workplaces that took part scored Fair Trade goodies and reusable products to assist in their future sustainable habits.

In Semester 2, the Green Caffeen competition saw workplaces count the number of single-use, reusable and Green Caffeen coffee cups they used within a two-week period. This was to save as many single-use cups from landfill as possible and spread the word about the Green Caffeen coffee app on campus. To read more about the app, click here

The winning workplace was the QBI Animal Team from UQ Biological Resources, headed by the Green Labs rep Morgan Leigh. Out of a workplace of 10 people, they saved 39 single-use coffee cups from landfill. The team in second place was also from UQ Biological Resources, headed by Green Labs representative Giovanni Bernal Carrillo – their team of 5 saved 28 cups from landfill. Both teams scored themselves some Fair Trade chocolate and free coffee vouchers for their efforts.

A big thank you and congratulations to all that participated in our promotions this year! If you have run a competition in your workplace, or have an idea for one, we’d love to hear it. Email us at sustainability@uq.edu.au