Green Impact Students’ Unions Excellence
Project Update
Name of students’ union: Sheffield Students’ Union
Strand chosen: Biodiversity
Project name: “Spring Into Nature”
See www.sheffieldsu.com/nature
Update from after Spring Into Nature Week:
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Over 200 students, staff & Sheffielders attended the challenging, inspiring talk and Q&A from
Bill Oddie. Here’s a live blog of the event: http://bit.ly/14IP1Ql

We put on a huge range of events: see the full Sheffield Spring Into Nature programme here:

The excellent “Shrimps” (Sheffield Improvisational Comedy society) made us 3 “Public
Service Announcement” videos. Bill Oddie, the birds and the bees get the Shrimps treatment!
http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/ethical-environmental/files/Spring-into-natureschedule2013.pdf
Bill Oddie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2L7m_b9nRk&list=PLf71xE2jRgTX312jwWI7Rr9XvNdFZyJrl
Birds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBrB18hHNL8&list=PLf71xE2jRgTX312jwWI7Rr9XvNdFZyJrl
Bees:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKm0OfG7ifI&list=PLf71xE2jRgTX312jwWI7Rr9XvNdFZyJrl
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We got 12 top quality student entries for the Interval biodiversity garden design competition.

The Ents department turned one of our most popular club nights into “Wildlife Roar” with free
wildlife masks: http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/subsite-event.php?contentID=18821
We will do Spring Into Nature again next year. However, as some events were very popular,
others poorly attended, next year we will narrow our focus down to those successful areas.
1.0 Summary (up to 300 words)
Provide a short summary of your projects progress
Through our Spring Into Nature project we have already achieved
some important steps for Biodiversity, and even more excitingly we
have very grand plans for the summer term!
Our achievements to date involve establishing long-term collaboration
with University on their Biodiversity Action Plan, through links with
both SU staff and student groups. We have set up an internal
Students’ Union staff group with a broad representatives from
Entertainments and Commercial to Activities to the Officers. This group
has been coordinating the plans for our Spring Into Nature campaign, all of which are building up to
the climax of Spring Into Nature week.
Spring Into Nature Week at Sheffield Students’ Union will involve inspiring speakers including Bill
Oddie, wildflower seed distribution, and practical workshops for students, as well as a whole host of
publicity about how the Students’ Union practices what we preach (e.g. by buying FSC paper).
2.0 KPI Delivery Update (up to 200 words)
i. Social Media- Our logo (see above) was finished before Christmas,
ensuring we were ready for a big online presence in Semester 2. We have
had a “soft launch” of Spring Into Nature on social media through our
webpage (www.sheffieldsu.com/nature ), our promotion of the RSPB Big
Garden Birdwatch (18 people clicked this a total of 52 times) through
Facebook, Twitter and our tailored “Umail”, and encouraging people to use
Instagram #springintonature for their bird photos. More activity to follow…
ii. Events- Spring Into Nature Week is firmly in the SU’s calendar, with
activity planned for Monday 29th April- Sunday 5th May.
Most excitingly, we’ve booked Bill Oddie to come and speak at the Students’ Union Auditorium!
iii. SU Garden Competition- We plan to launch the SU Garden design competition at the beginning
of March, in collaboration with Landmark, the Landscape students’ society. Judging will take place
during Spring Into Nature Week (w/c 29th April)
iv. Volunteering- Our first hands-on student volunteering activity took place in February, through
the Communities project, where 4 UK and international students joined a Sheffield Council Ranger
and Calum from the Grounds Team to make birdboxes for the campus. (See photos on last pages).
3.0Stakeholder Engagement Update
All stakeholders remain enthusiastically committed to the project.
 As previously mentioned, there is now a Students-Union-wide staff group focusing on the
planning of Spring Into Nature, with representatives from all our Student-facing
departments.
 The collaboration between the Conservation Volunteers students and University’s Grounds
Team has proved mutually beneficial.
 Ethical and Environmental Committee, Student Eats society, the Natural History Society and
Birdwatching Society have all agreed to participate in Spring Into Nature Week
 The social media launch of Spring Into Nature has happened, with more to come.
 The “Shrimps” (Sheffield Improvisational comedy Society) have agreed to do a comic video
promoting the campaign! Watch this space…
4.0On-going Tasks
Everything is still ongoing!
The social media campaign will ramp up in earnest during March and April.
The climax will be Spring Into Nature Week, Monday 29th April- Sunday 5th May.
Wildflowers & bees- Our supplier the Co-operative have promised 300 wildflower seed packs, and
we have agreed to publicise their “Plan Bee” in return: http://www.co-operative.coop/Plan-Bee/ and
we have secured £260 to spend on distributing wildflower seeds to students for their own gardens,
thanks to Student Eats. We will also be making biodiversity improvements (including wildflower
areas) to the Student Eats garden site. This will go well with the beehive we plan to install there
(along with the one we already have on a different site- see image!).
Student and staff visits to the Students’ Union beehive will begin again in March, and will be
advertised through Spring Into Nature.
Volunteering- Thanks to the links we’ve set up between the Conservation Volunteers, the Grounds
Team and the SU’s Activities department, more action is in the pipeline including a project for
volunteers to set up a large wooden bird feeding station by the University’s Elmfield building (which
is surrounded by trees).
Conservation Volunteers will also help the University’s planned biodiversity improvements to our
very own Belgrave Woodland (see Biodiversity Action Plan).
Events- As well as Bill Oddie, we have other speaker events lined up. SU Entertainments are
contacting University of Sheffield lecturers including Tim Birkhead (who specializes in birds) and
Nigel Dunnett & James Hitchmough (Olypmic wildflower meadow) to ask for their participation.
Jim Wardill from the local branch of the RSPB has also agreed to do a lunchtime talk.
5.0Project Difficulties & Opportunities (up to 500)
SU Garden budget- Unfortunately, our
original plan of running a student
competition to help fully redesign the
Students’ Union’s back garden had to be
altered when budget for the change was
removed. Our solution was to still run
the garden competition, but to be clear
to the students that their winning plans
would form a “pick and mix” of future
changes, rather than being done this
year or in their entirety. We hope to use
elements, particularly Landscape
student suggestions for planting plans,
in the meantime.
Flower price- Wildflowers in individual seed packets are very expensive, whereas buying the seeds
in bulk is much cheaper. We have therefore resolved the issue by A) Asking around for sources of
free wildflowers (the Co-op have agreed to provide 300 packs) and B) By enlisting the help of
student volunteers from the Conservation Volunteers, Ethical and Environmental Committee, Natural
History Society and Student Eats society to help pack, publicise and distribute the seed packs.
Time- Predictably, time has been an issue, with some of the more complicated tasks (such as
planning a calendar of social media interaction) being pushed back a few times. Solved by doing it!
Copyright! - We were originally planning for our activity to all be under the banner of “SU
Springwatch”, but this title was abandoned after it was pointed out that the BBC had trademarked
this and, as we were inviting Bill Oddie to speak, they may object to us using their name. We solved
this through sending round an all-staff email to SU staff, asking for them to brainstorm similar but
alternative name ideas, which resulted in “Spring Into Nature” being born.
6.0Excellence Legacy (up to 500)
 Volunteer/ Grounds Team link up. Long-term collaboration with the University has now
been ensured. We have set up a link between the Conservation Volunteers Committee and
the University’s Grounds Team. This will be sustainable as the collaboration is mutually
beneficial- the Grounds Team get enthusiastic student help on practical projects, while the
Conservation Volunteers solve their problem of being oversubscribed but lacking funds to
transport volunteers to projects. (The fact that the Grounds Team offered to throw in free tea
and biscuits for volunteers had nothing to do with it of course!)
 Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Steering group membership. At the time of planning
the project, the University was already working on a BAP- see here for the results. A strong
part of their plan was “To engage with and educate students, employees and other interested
parties.” Thanks to GISU Excellence, we were able to get the agreement of Stella McHugh,
our Community Engagement Manager at the SU, to sit on the University’s BAP Steering

Group, meaning that there will be an expert voice on student engagement at all future
meetings.
Physical legacy. The birdboxes we’ve built, the beehive(s) we’ve bought and wildflowers
our student members will plant will all continue to benefit local wildlife for years to come!
(Birdbox photos below and separate group ones in the link)
http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/ethical-environmental/what-you-can-do/spring-into-nature/birdboxes/
See also separately attached top-quality nature photos which were sent in by students
Callum Hurley and Lukasz Cieslak.