Sustainability PRIME and Champion Awards

Sustainability Champions 2024

Individual Sustainability Champion Award

Winner: Rizki Fitria

Rizki is the Residence Life Manager based on our Edinburgh campus. Rizki has demonstrated several years of individual effort to implement and embed change from Transition Heriot Watt where she setup reuse processes for the end of term, establishing links with local charities, through to the current activity to further encourage recycling and reuse.
The panel particularly commended Rizki for quietly dedicating time to ensure sustainability becomes a behavioural change for the students as they leave halls.

Highly Commended 1: Alex MacLaren, Associate Professor in the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society.

The panel recognised the individual and collaborative work which Alex has been doing for several years which has reached a wide range of people, particularly in relation to student support for sustainability activities.

Highly Commended 2: Robbie Fraser, Operations Manager in Estates and Facilities team.

Robbie has been active in implementing a range of initiatives across the Edinburgh campus, from the establishment and expansion of the allotments to the wildflower beds and most recently the planting of nearly 500 saplings. Robbie's commitment to preserve the natural environment helps to make our Edinburgh Campus so special and has led to a Green Flag award for the 12th consecutive year.

Team Sustainability Champion Award

Winner: Ride Green initiative by the Heriot-Watt Malaysia EmPOWER and Campus Service Team

The team demonstrated an appreciation of what can be achieved through the students and staff working together, encouraging sustainable behaviours, and actively encouraging others to make changes.

Highly Commended 1: Campus Services Malaysia

The team undertook a wide range of activities that demonstrated they delivered over and above their day job.

Highly Commended 2: Heriot-Watt Student Union Team

The panel highlighted the work that the Student Union officers had carried out to establish strong links with sustainability. This was emphasised through their work on the student partnership agreement which demonstrated their values and clear follow-up actions, e.g. through implementation in the student shop.

PRIME Sustainable Futures Award 2024 winners

Winner 1: Circular Chemical Economy

Prof, Umit Bititchi, Prof. Xu Bing, Pourrahimian Parinaz, Dr Melissa Marques-McEwan, Yuan Yingfang, Dr Pang Wei, Ma Qianqian, Dr Arabi Behrouz, Dr Kazakov Rossen.

Partners: University of Surrey, Loughborough University, Cardiff University, Imperial College London, Liverpool University, Newcastle University.

Over the past year, the CircularChem team has solidified its position as a driving force in advancing the circular economy (CE). They have orchestrated impactful workshops, made significant contributions to the Scottish CE Bill, and actively engaged with industry stakeholders to refine their innovative system dynamics model. Their cross-sector collaborations culminated in the insightful “Advancing the Circular Economy” report, influencing both business and policy. They were honoured to receive the prestigious Sustainability Award at the iChemE Global Awards in November 2023, with special recognition for their collaborators and partnerships, affirming their dedication to advocating for and implementing CE practices.

Winner 2: Geochemical-Carbon Dioxide Removal

Dr Phil Renforth, Laura Bastianini, Dr James Campbell, Erdine Cosgun, Spyros Foteinis, Veronica Furey, Kirsty Harrington, Olivia Hawrot, Mohammed Madankan, Rachel Millar, Isara Muangthai, Dan Su, Aimee Titche, Callum Ward, Jaswanth Yaddala.

The geochemical carbon dioxide removal team (based in the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions) has been instrumental in shaping the emerging billion-dollar carbon dioxide removal industry. They have done this through impactful publication, expert advice to funders, investors, purchasers, start-ups, and policymakers, coordinating large science projects and programs, and working closely with industrial partners