Queen's University Belfast
Learning by Leading Sustainability
Finalist, Tomorrow's Employees
About
Queen's University Belfast turned student interest in sustainability into practical experience of how change happens inside a real organisation, developing skills and experiential learning students will take into future employment. Learning by Leading Sustainability is Queen's first Sustainability Student Rep Programme, developed in partnership between the Sustainability Team, Queen's Students' Union and students to create recognised roles for students to lead on sustainability at Queen's. Advertised in seven Schools, it attracted 191 applications from all three Faculties and all study levels, recording over 1,200 engagements in Year 1. Students shaped the Living Labs framework, designed Campus in Action sustainability tours, co-facilitated 2tonnes climate workshops and created 69 sustainability-related work-based opportunities including placements, internships, paid roles and work shadowing. Through this work they learned to move sustainability from aspiration into practice: testing ideas, using evidence, communicating across disciplines, navigating competing priorities and building the practical judgement they need as tomorrow's employees.
Top 3 learnings
- We found students engage deeply when sustainability is visible, practical and connected to real decisions.
- Our experience showed live delivery builds judgement, confidence and employability evidence.
- Recognised roles gave our students credibility, continuity and routes into institutional change.
What it would mean to win
Winning a Green Gown Award would demonstrate the value of listening to students and treating them as equal partners in shaping institutional change. For Queen's, it would affirm a conviction that education should build students for the challenges ahead, not simply prepare them for a world that already exists. For the students who co-designed this programme, it would be recognition that their insight, contribution and expertise matter. And for the wider sector, it would signal that embedding genuine green employability into student experience is both possible and necessary, meeting the growing expectations of employers and the demands of the NI Green Skills agenda.
SDG
| 2026 | |
| Tomorrow's Employees | |
| Finalist, UK and Ireland |
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Green Gown Award Regions
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