University of Winchester rolls out sustainability and wellbeing programme

University-of-Winchester

The University of Winchester has rolled out a wellbeing and sustainability programme to its 600 employees, following the success of a four-month pilot.

Launched in January 2018, the Jump programme, provided by Green Rewards, is available to all of its university employees and helps encourage behaviour change around staff health and sustainability.

The programme enables employees to take part in various wellbeing and sustainability-related initiatives, which reflect the university’s priorities around energy use, waste and recycling, food and drink, volunteering, sustainable transport and health and wellbeing. Employees can monitor and report their corresponding weekly activity via the programme’s online platform or app in order to earn points.

Individual employees and teams who collect the most points will be awarded prizes on a monthly basis, as well as at the end of each school term. The team with the most points will also be able to donate £400 to a charity of their choice.

The university-wide roll out is the result of a four-month pilot, which started in September 2017. During the pilot, 54% of participants who were signed up to sustainable transport activities reported this on the platform or app every week. This included walking and cycling to work, using public transport, car sharing and using the park and ride service.

Furthermore, 67% of participants who were taking part in energy saving activities reported weekly that they had switched off their electrical equipment when not in use. At the end of the pilot, the conference office was named as the team with the most points. They awarded grant-based foundation The 401 Foundation with the prize £400 donation.

Liz Harris, environmental projects assistant at the University of Winchester, said: “We’ve seen a really positive response to the Jump programme at the university, with an engaged audience participating in activities every week and regularly feeding back to us how much they like the programme and what we can do to keep continually improving their experience. The university-wide roll-out will allow us to keep improving our environmental sustainability and employee wellbeing here at the university.”