University of York is the first UK uni to take part in the Carbon Challenge

The University of York is the first UK university to take part in the Carbon Challenge in partnership with SOS-UK and NUS Green Impact.

SOS-UK and NUS Green Impact's Carbon Challenge was launched yesterday and runs for next three weeks through November. The challenge is open to both staff and students at the university, college and faculty teams compete in a carbon saving leader board.

By signing up online students are able to calculate their individual annual carbon footprint and "collaborate with friends and colleagues on powerful action."

Joining the Carbon Challenge allows students and staff to establish what parts of everyday life they can make carbon savings in. Students join their college team whilst staff join faculty teams. Carbon Challenge uses an online survey site to determine somebody's carbon footprint, providing a breakdown of where an individual creates the most environmental impact.

The survey asks you some basic questions regarding your home and everyday life in order to assess your impact. Questions include asking about individual use of transport, heating and energy usage , diet preference, water usage and your purchasing habits.

Sustainability knowledge is also included in the survey. In this section the questions are based on how you engage as an individual with sustainability. For example, how often you talk about sustainability with your family.

How often do you discuss sustainability?

In an email sent from the University of York's Green Impact and Student Switch Off Coordinator Jo Hossell, the Carbon Challenge is explained.

"Every action you take will contribute to your overall college or department's performance and will give you lots of tips and inspiration to be more sustainable in your everyday life."

The point of the challenge is to "track carbon-saving actions" you complete already whilst using the challenge as an "opportunity to adopt new positive habits."

After completing the initial survey, students can log carbon reducing actions, which then contribute to a team's overall position in the leader board.

Students can log actions to add savings

Within the first day, many students have already signed up to the Carbon Challenge. University of York Sustainability celebrated "nearly a tonne of CO2 already saved in the first day of our Carbon Challenge" on Twitter.

You can sign up for the Carbon Challenge here , to take part in some competitive carbon savings.