A Worcester college is celebrating after being shortlisted as a finalist in awards that mark "good practice across a range of sustainable development activities".

Heart of Worcestershire College (HoW College) received the news earlier this week that they were up for a gong in the Green Gown Awards.

These awards are chosen by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges.

The college has been shortlisted in the “Creating Impact” category, which is awarded to those who have made a significant change on their campuses and the communities around them. The college titled their project “Small Footprint – Huge Strides”.

Peter Robinson, a member of HoW College’s eco group, said: “We are delighted to have been made finalists for this year’s Green Gown Awards. Our project around 3 E’s for the Environment; Ecology, Emissions and Education, struck a chord with the reviewers and really show how we have sought to make an impact across all three elements.

"Under ecology we have created wild spaces on all our main campuses in Worcester, Bromsgrove and Redditch and staff at college have put bird boxes, hedgehog homes and bat boxes in their gardens too.

"Our students have told us they have enjoyed the extra depth of study they have taken on sustainable themes like fast fashion, eco-tourism, sustainable food and climate change. Many signed the Sustainable Development Goals Pledge, so much so that we were third place on the UK leaderboard for students reached in Universities and Colleges, now we have a number of Sustainable Champions across the college.

"One of our greatest achievements has been the reduction in our carbon emissions. Through careful examination of where we were wasting energy over weekends, evenings and different buildings, we have been able to reduce our carbon footprint by 28 per cent in the last three years.

"This has made a substantial financial saving too, as well as fast tracking our plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.

"This has been a team game from the start, from all our staff contributing to our Big Switch Off campaigns and students helping with re-wilding projects and bringing their own ideas to reduce waste, the use of plastic, etc. That team has included people outside the college as well.”

The college has worked with several community and other stakeholder groups such as Plastic Free Worcester, Worcester City Council, the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, Worcester Environmental Group, Worcestershire County Council as well as Worcester Bosch in a recent talk on The Hope of Hydrogen.