QMU win gold at Green Awards

Queen Margaret University (QMU) has been awarded a gold medal at the Scottish Green Awards, cementing its reputation as a leading name in sustainability.

The prize was awarded in the Public Service category, one of the largest categories in the competition, open to local authorities, transport providers and NGOs.

QMU was competing against fellow nominees Calder Cabs and the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges.

The Green Awards, organised by Scottish Business Insider and ScottishPower, were celebrated at a glittering awards ceremony at the Glasgow Science Centre last month, where Vice-Principal of QMU, Rosalyn Marshall, picked up the award.

Ms Marshall told The Journal: “ It was great to get recognition for all the work we have done as it has been a holistic effort, down to all the staff and students over the years and it was good to be able to tell people the story of all that has been done to achieve our sustainability record.

“This award definitely recognises the university’ s achievements to a wider degree because it is a Public Sector Award, not just a University Sector Award, so we were very pleased to receive acclaim on a broader scale.”

This is the latest in a series of accolades QMU has received for its holistic approach to sustainability.

The University was awarded a Green Gown Award for ICT last year and has also been nominated for two categories at the Green Business Awards taking place later this year.

The University’ s new campus received a BREEAM rating of “excellent”, the globally recognised measure of environmental impact of buildings. It remains one of the highest scoring university projects in the UK.

The multi-million pound campus, which was completed in 2008, has been developed with an entirely green agenda, involving social and economic sustainability as well as physical environmental measures.

It is now on target to become one of the lowest energy and lowest carbon campuses in the UK.