Go Green's Achievements
2022/23
Student Group of the Year Award
Everyone at Go Green felt honoured about winning the Student Group of the Year award. This award goes to a student group which has shown incredible growth and impact on the student community and exceeded expectations.
Our group is dedicated to making sustainability more accessible to all students and creating a lasting impact on our campus and beyond. All our volunteers have worked hard to reach as many individuals as possible, inspiring them to take action towards a more sustainable future. We are also proud to say that several members of our committee have won individual awards for their outstanding engagement with the group as well. You can see all winners here.
Ultimately, our goal is to make a positive difference for ourselves and future generations, and we are proud to be recognized for our achievements.
BikePad raises national attention
We are proud to have been recognised by the Parliament for our contributions towards creating a more sustainable future.
They applauded BikePad's donation of 40 abandoned bikes to Camphill School, which helped to support children with learning disabilities, but also BikePad's overall efforts to promote greener methods of transport at RGU.
Moreover, the Parliament commended the work of all our student volunteers throughout our variety of projects. Read the motion here.
Kaim Shop moves into Union Building
After the Union moved from the Sports Building to the Riverside Building, Kaim Shop was allowed to follow from its previous location in Kaim Cottage. Kaim Cottage was no longer sufficient to accommodate the growing amount of donations and was tucked away, making it harder to find.
Our volunteers worked hard to move all the donations and furnishings, and together with the support of the Union, we were able to create a new buzzing space. Since then, the number of visitors to the shop has skyrocketed. We are very happy to be able to support students with our items, especially in times of cost of living crisis.
The new location also allowed for easier donation drop-off and more volunteer work. Overall, the move was a great success!
CAN Motion passes at Union AGM
As Go Green is starting a campaign for RGU to divest from investments in fossil fuel companies, this achievement was one of the first big steps.
Through investments RGU enables further usage of fossil fuels which are proven to play a big role in climate change and therefore the current climate crisis we are living in. As a result, RGU actively negatively influences the climate crisis by investing in fossil fuel industries. With the campaign we hope to change those investment behaviours.
However, as students, we can only do so much in our time at university. We have limited time to engage in out-of-uni activities and after our 4 years here we have to leave this behind. WIth our motion we have secured the Union's support for this campaign. To find our more check out our full motion: www.rguunion.co.uk/about/agm/motions/#Motion4
2020/21
Motions at the Union's AGM
All of our 3 motions passed at the AGM. This means from now on Union staff will be working on achieving our suggestions to make RGU a more sustainable and environmentally place. Our motions are the following:
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Increase Climate Literacy
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Set up a Student Climate Assembly
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Call out a Climate Emergency
Start of our Climate Action Network (CAN)
Go Green's new sub-group CAN was found. The network's aim is to improve the climate literacy of all students and teaching staff. Additionally, we want to work with the university on all levels to improve the sustainability content of all departments and curricula.
2019/2020
BikePad Re-launch
This academic year, we are very happy to have re-launched our bicycle hire and workshop, BikePad. The project was originally found in 2017/18 but unfortunately had collapsed due to a lack of volunteers the following year. Thanks to some very engaged students we are back!
Located in Woolmanhill Flat 31, we have a new venue to fix donated bikes, service the ones you bring yourself and hire bicycles out to students. As a result, we reduce waste by repairing old bikes and save CO2 by offering students an eco-friendly alternative to taking the bus or car.
2017/2018
In April 2018, Go Green was fully taken over by students. From then on we were officially a 'student group'. This means we are a group of students who decide to spend their free-time volunteering in our various roles to keep Go Green running over the years.
Kaim Shop
Thanks to the Scottish Governments Climate Challenge Fund, Revolve (now called Kaim Shop) kicked off promoting and establishing a more circular economy on campus and in the community in 2017.
We established a space allowing the community to learn new skills in repairing/repurposing, swap, borrow or take items that would normally have ended up in landfill. It is key in fighting climate change to learn about the impact of our societies current rate and style of consumption. The Kaim Cottage is our second hand shop for students where we happily take donations, hold workshops and more.
2016/2017
LivEco: Zero-Waste Café
In September 2016, Go Green has opened its doors for the first zero-waste café. Until 2020 (when the Covid-19 pandemic hit), thousands of free meals have been shared with students.
We cooked vegetarian stews, curries, soups and many many other more exotic dishes from food that would have ended up in landfills. This way we supported our partner organisation, Fareshare. But it's not just about the food – we have also debated, danced and watched films together.
We have also partnered up with the Erasmus society to hold international food nights which were always great fun!
2014/2015
In 2014, Go Green was founded as a RGU:Union project fully led by staff. The group was supported by the government and received funding over a 4-year period to establish the project.