2021 - Green Programs Spotlight on Representatives

Experienced Representative: Whitney and the team at the Global Change Institute

2021 has been a year of development for the Green Office program at the Global Change Institute. The building currently has two active representatives Whitney Jeffery and Liz Izquierdo.

Liz joined the program in 2020 and introduced the organics waste streams in the GCI building. Liz and one of the past GCI representatives regularly emptied the bins and helped staff to identify which items could go in these new bins.

During 2020 the building also moved away from under-desk bins to central bin stations and went from having 4 waste streams (paper, co-mingled recycling and general) to 6 waste streams. Liz has advocated for the additional waste streams and has always been a role model for sustainable action in the building.

Whitney originally joined the Green office program back in 2012-2016 in a previous role at UQ.  Whitney re-joined UQ and the Green office program in 2021 at GCI and is passionate about helping increase awareness about waste reduction and recycling.

The organics bins in the GCI building were introduced in March 2020 which coincided with the first pandemic lockdowns. This inconvenient timing created additional challenges in creating awareness on how to use the organics bins.

Whitney and Liz’s main aim for 2021 was to increase awareness for waste management and expand the conversation on sustainability in the process.

Together Liz and Whitney have accomplished the following in GCI in 2021:

• Added additional signage around kitchen areas to indicate where certain items go (like coffee cups and their lids)
• Created a recycling campaign using rotating signs to continue education
• A community reusable coffee cup collection in the kitchen cupboards for staff use
• The addition of a Green Office update to the Deputy Vice Chancellor Research Innovation portfolio newsletter which is distributed to staff
• Created local GCI recycling station which mimics UQ’s Reuse and Recycling station located in the Kingham Room foyer (Building 21C) 
  • This station takes the GCI waste stream bins from 6 (recycling, general, compost/organics, paper and soft plastics) up to 18 which include;
    • General waste
    • Co-mingled recycling
    • Organic waste
    • Food waste
    • Paper
    • Soft Plastic
    • Small E-waste
    • Mobile phones
    • Household batteries
    • Office printer ink cartridges
    • Oral care Products
    • Eye Glasses
    • DVD’s and CD’s
    • Drink containers for change to fund the UQ Green Fund
    • Medication blister packs
    • Bread tags

The GCI building is looking to expand the team in 2022 by recruiting Green Office Reps from each section residing in the building, and having monthly meetings to create change together for the entire building community.

New Representative: Hayley Chow (BEL)

Hayley joined the Green Office program at the Semester 2 2021 after starting a new role and has since been working hard to implement sustainability initiatives within her office space. Hayley said this about her involvement as a Green Office Representative.

“As someone who is involved in the procurement of collateral and print at UQ, I felt like I had a responsibility to learn more about how to do my job more sustainably and maybe help others at the same time.

I’d like to start with increasing awareness of the great sustainability initiatives we have on our campuses, and to provide more education on recycling habits in my local work space.

Listening to other rep’s ideas are a big inspiration so it’s been great to be welcomed into the community.”

We can’t wait to see what Hayley will achieve in her role and in her position as a Green Office Representative!

Site located Representative- QAEHS Sustainability Committee at PACE

Christina Carswell and the team at the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at the PACE site have been incredibly active in the Green Programs sphere throughout 2021. Here’s a little of what they have been up to:

“A conversation over 12 months ago between two friends in the lab has developed into an active and passionate sustainability team within the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS).

Julia Lin and I were primarily concerned with reducing plastic waste in our laboratory environment and investigating energy efficiency in our current practices. This aligned well to QAEHS’ goals as the centre conducts research on an international and national scale monitoring environmental contaminant, human exposures and their relevant risks.

We enthusiastically signed up to be Green Lab Representatives in our PACE laboratory and organised a Green Lab training session in January 2021 attended by 10 equally supportive staff and student members. A competition within the QAEHS centre to name our sustainability team was well received – hence the conception of “Greenstart”.

Diverting waste from landfill by setting up stations for soft plastics, organic waste, glass, polystyrene, cardboard, batteries and cans/bottles recycling was incorporated into our workplace.

Greenstart achieved this by educating members of these stations in our fortnightly meetings, holding fun competitions and quizzes, providing gentle reminders, and ensuring clear signage.

Modifying some laboratory and work practices have reduced plastic wrapping, energy consumption, and disposal costs.  A mindset of repurposing items has also made an impact.

Future projects include repairing some unloved garden beds on our level 3 common area to create community gardens.

This is an exciting venture that will require many hands, but it has the full support of our director, theme leader, staff and students. Being ‘sustainable’ has certainly been infectious at QAEHS!”