Join the Green Office team!
Want to become a coordinator?
The Green Office team consists of one general manager, five student coordinators, and an enthusiastic group of volunteers. Each coordinator is responsible for all the projects within a specific theme. Some of the projects are ongoing, but you also have a lot of freedom to come up with your own projects for making Wageningen University & Research more sustainable! As a coordinator, you will get a lot of responsibility for your own projects and you will spend about 8 hours per week in the Green Office.
These are the coordinator positions within the Green Office team:
- Communication & Outreach Coordinator [currently filled]
- Community & Network Coordinator [currently filled]
- Food & Health Coordinator [currently filled]
- Campus & Operations Coordinator [currently filled]
- Education & Research Coordinator [currently filled]
Want to become a volunteer?
We would not be able to achieve many of the things that we do without the help of our great volunteers! There are many ways to join the Green Office as a volunteer. We are always looking for like-minded people, who are eager to work on sustainable projects in their free time. The number of hours that you work per week depends on the position you apply for, and on how actively you would like to be involved. Since we have worked with students for a long time- and we are students ourselves- we know that your study sometimes requires full focus and a lot of energy. Therefore, we understand if there are times when you will be less active or miss out on meetings for a while. Depending on your preference and availability, you can choose to take up one or more roles within the team. If you like multiple positions, you can always ask us which roles are possible to combine.
Our current volunteer positions:
- Student Cooking Corner Project Leader [volunteers wanted]
- Billie Cup Implementor [currently filled]
- LEAF Project Assistant [currently filled]
- ECOSIA on Campus project leader [volunteers wanted]
- INEP project assistant (Imagining New Educational Paradigms) [currently filled]
- Green Office Sustainability Guide Developer [currently filled]
- Green Office Circularity Advocate [currently filled]
- Sustainability Blog Editor [currently filled]
- Sustainability Blog Writer [volunteers wanted]
- Communication Assistant [currently filled]
- Newsletter Designer [volunteers wanted]
- Green Office Event Organizer [currently filled]
- Green Impact Project Assistants (GIPA) [volunteers wanted]
You can find a detailed description of the positions below!
Student Cooking Corner Project Leader
The Student Cooking Corner (SCC) is a weekly activity established by the Green Office. It brings together the student community at WUR by giving students the chance to sell a plant-based homecooked meal of their choice. The aim of the SCC is to give students a platform to showcase their cooking and to give others the opportunity to taste unique meals from around the world.
What will be your responsibilities?
- You will be in charge of managing the reservation requests of the SCC
- Contact the forum catering to set up the SCC and
- Brainstorm ideas to promote the SCC among the student community in Wageningen.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for someone with a love for food, who can work and communicate well with others. Someone who can work independently and be proactive when needed.
Volunteer period: 4 months (September – December)
Time investment: 1-2 hours per week
What will you learn?
- Develop communication and organization skills
- Get an insight of the catering services on campus.
- Outreach to people (e.g., to the cooks and to students)
How to apply?
Are you interested in this position? Send an email with a short motivation to greenoffice@wur.nl.
ECOSIA on Campus project leader
It is a campaign to help students switch to more sustainable search engines on their laptops. Unlike Google, Ecosia uses the money they generate from clicks on the advertisement (around 0.5 cents per search) to plant trees. As of February 2022, the campaign was mostly online and focused more on tracking how many people have Ecosia in WUR through our link: https://ecosia.co/greenofficewageningen. Further, if enough users sign up, Ecosia may do a small promotional project for biodiversity on campus.
What will be your responsibilities?
- Promote the switch to Ecosia among students/staff on campus
- Conduct tabling events – talks in Forum with students about the benefits of switching.
- Keep a monthly track of how many users are using Ecosia on campus (through our link)
Who are we looking for?
Currently, this project is mostly limited to online promotion (through social media posts). We are looking for a student that is enthusiastic about talking and promoting this initiative to a broader audience. You are free to be creative and bring your ideas and inspiration for promoting this initiative.
Volunteer period: 2-3 months (can be longer)
Time investment: 1-2 hours a week
What will you learn?
- Develop communication, leadership, and professional skills.
- Learn how to be effective in motivating people towards more sustainable choices
How to apply?
Are you interested in this position? Send an email with a short motivation to greenoffice@wur.nl.
Sustainability Blog Writer
The Green Office Sustainability blog is a great platform to talk about sustainability at WUR, where we share ideas with students and staff members. Some topics that we explore are related to recycling on campus, sustainable education, energy consumption, and the amount of food waste in the canteens. But we are always open to new ideas if our volunteers have any cool projects in mind!
What will be your responsibilities?
As a writer, your task is to write quality blog articles about a variety of topics related to sustainability. Sometimes you will be assigned to write about a specific event or project, but you are also free to share your own ideas! As a writer, you are not responsible for running or promoting the blog, so you can also join us if you have a limited amount of time
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic about sharing and researching new ideas. Advanced written English skills and great attention to detail are necessary, in order to create high-quality posts. There is no minimum volunteer period, so you can work on as many articles as you’d like!
Time investment: 1-2 hours a week
What will you learn?
- Sustainability at WUR and beyond.
- Communication skills, both verbal and written.
- Running a blog with multiple people.
How to apply?
Are you interested in this position? Send an email with a short motivation to greenoffice@wur.nl.
Newsletter Designer
We are currently in the process of creating a newsletter that aims to inform subscribers about projects and events that the Green Office and other organisations in Wageningen are hosting.️ We will also have other sections with useful tips, vacancies, blog posts, and more! For the launch and the first few months of the project, we are looking for a designer to help us to create the outline of the newsletter.
What will be your responsibilities?
Your main responsibility will be creating a minimalistic, but aesthetic design for the GO newsletter. You will be working together with the Food & Health and Communication & Outreach coordinator, and possibly content creator volunteers. As we would like to send out the trial version of the newsletter in February, the upcoming two months would be more intense. Afterwards, the focus would be on finalizing the template and design style for further use.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for someone with an interest in sustainable projects and basic IT skills. Experience with visual arts/ design would be preferred, but is not a must. However, you must be enthusiastic about communication, and the promotion of green initiatives.
Time investment: ~2 hours a week
Minimum volunteer period: at least 2 months
What will you learn?
- How to use the Mailchimp software
- The ins and outs of creating newsletters
- Details of different projects of the Green Office
How to apply?
Are you interested in this position? Send an email with a short motivation to greenoffice@wur.nl.
Green Impact Project Assistants (GIPA)
The Green impact project assistant (GIPA) joins a team within WUR participating in the Green Impact Programme. Green Impact is a United Nations award-winning program designed to support environmentally and socially sustainable practices in your organization.
[https://greenimpact.nus.org.uk/]
After joining the team, you will help them plan and perform sustainable initiatives! This can be anything from improving waste flows in an office to hosting a vegan cake sale to promoting the use of reusable coffee cups rather than single-use cups. Performing initiatives scores points in a ‘game’ and at the end of the edition, there is an awards ceremony to reveal the best teams!
What will be your responsibilities?
- Support teams of WUR staff members in performing sustainability actions
- Create workshops on sustainability to stimulate behavioral change in employees
- Help in the promotion of Green Impact
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for multiple students that are enthusiastic about sustainability and good at motivating others. To make this project a success, we all have to be convinced that many small actions can sum up to a bigger impact and get excited about running a new and innovative project.
Volunteer period: Minimum 6 months (starting date is variable)
Time investment: 1-2 hours a week
What will you learn?
- Develop communication, leadership, and professional skills
- Improve your understanding of sustainability and behavioral change
- Increase your network among students and staff
How to apply?
Are you interested in this position? Send an email with a short motivation to greenoffice@wur.nl.