Green Impact Programme

The Highland Council has launched a new carbon reduction programme and we’d love for you to be involved.

What is Green Impact?

Green Impact is a simple and effective way for departments and teams to improve their health and wellbeing, connect with other staff across the organisation and make positive changes to the workplace and our environment.

How does Green Impact work?

Staff take part by doing fun and engaging actions in an online toolkit. Criteria are split into Bronze, Silver and Gold categories, depending on their impact and difficulty level. Teams may be composed of members from a department, team or floor of a building – whatever suits you.

You can register a team now and then start recruiting members before getting going with the toolkit. You’ll receive support at every step of the process and could win an award later in the year.

Will Green Impact be a lot of work?

No. You can really spend as little as half an hour a week doing it. Before we allocate awards you’ll have 9 months to complete the actions and there will be lots of support available.

Why should I get involved?

Green Impact is easy, flexible, free, fun and rewarding. By participating you’ll get to:

make your workplace a more enjoyable and efficient place to work;
work with new people from both within and outside of the organisation;
learn about social, health and environmental issues and make a real impact;
be recognised for positive actions you are doing already;
benefit from the shared experience of thousands of others across the country who also use the Green Impact programme;
attend (and maybe win something at) the annual award ceremony.

How will I be supported?

We will be holding a number of Green Impact “bite-sized webinars” throughout the year as well as doing call-arounds to see how you’re getting on. You’ll receive regular (but not spammy) communications and of course, we’re at the end of the phone and email if you need us – contact details are below. Teams will also be supported by students from the University of the Highlands and Islands to complete actions.

What awards can be won?

You can pick and choose between 141 varied actions to complete! For each completed action, you will receive a number of points. Actions are scored from 2-10 depending on time commitment and impact.

Bronze award - at least 100 points
Silver award - at least 170 points
Gold award - at least 210 points

Some examples of the actions you and your team can complete include:

organising sustainable lunches
going on biodiversity walks
running energy awareness campaigns
working with students to identify potential food growing sites at work

There are also special awards available for:

Community Action Award
Environmental Hero Award
Environmental Improvement Award
Innovation for Engagement Award

How do I get involved?

Encourage your colleagues to join your team;

Getting started on completing actions from the toolkit.

Got questions?

Contact Climate Change Co-ordinator Joe Perry by email for more information.