Students were the big winners at De Montfort University’s big SDG Awards night for those who go the extra mile for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Student Nandar Lin scooped the big prize for SDG 11 Project of the Year; the Project Atefa student volunteering team won the SDG Civic Project of the Year and Damari Kota won SDG Student Project of the Year.
There was also a £50 prize for student Casey Bell for her innovative idea to improve sustainability at DMU as part of the 30 for 30 competition.
The SDG Awards had been reshaped this year to mark the first anniversary of the university’s role as the global academic hub chair for UN SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Masters student Nandar was the first winner of the SDG 11 Project of the Year for her work on sustainability and architecture. Nandar’s project on the Dawei Bus Station in Myanmar was singled out for special praise. The sustainable design was as an architectural response to the increasing demand for efficient, sustainable public transportation infrastructure in Southeast Asia.
The SDG Civic Project of the Year went to the organisers of a Christmas party held on campus for the children of refugees and attended by more than 120 people. The event was organised by a team of students from the Project Atefa volunteer programme and the university catering company Chartwells organised and paid for all the food at the event.
The SDG Student Project of the Year winner was Damari Kota who spent seven months planning and four weeks working in Tanzania teaching shoemaking to local women, so they could break out of poverty and earn a living from the trade.
Highly commended in this category was again Nandar Lin and also Clémence Belbéoch for her exceptional PhD thesis ‘Environmental footprints of British wool and innovative enzymatic recycling to promote circularity’ - the first data-driven full life cycle assessment of British wool from farm to post-consumer recycling.
Student Casey Bell won a £50 voucher for one of the most innovative ideas to improve sustainability on campus as part of the 30 for 30 competition- a kinetic energy generation cardio gym on campus. The gym would have mechanical workout apparatus that would generate electricity through kinetic energy that could be used within campus, promote a healthier lifestyle for staff and students and alter the way we consume energy on and off campus.
A shortlist of 30 ideas, from the more than 100 submitted, to mark the recent COP 30 climate talks in Brazil will be presented to the university’s leadership to be evaluated with a view to implementation.
Head of the SDG Impact Hub Dr Mark Charlton, who opened the event, paid tribute to the work of all students working towards the SDGs.
He said: “There is so much good work going on among students at the university towards the SDGs aiming to make lives better for millions of people across the world. These winners reflect the best of that work but there is so much more going on across the campus.”
Full list of winners and those highly commended:
- Professional Services Fellow of the Year – winner Steven Baguley, with Philomena Imade-Omoregie Osagie and Abbie Williams highly commended.
- Research Fellow of the Year – winner Jason Lee, with Alex Anlesinya and Steven Hadley highly commended.
- Teaching Fellow of the Year – winner Anoop Bhogal-Nair, with Sahar Abdalrahman, Masoud Keimasi, Hasti Chitsazan and Julia Cook highly commended.
- SDG Student Project of the Year – winner Damari Kota, with Clémence Belbéoch and Nandar Lin highly commended.
- SDG Staff Project of the Year - winner Aamena Meidell, with Tuan Luong and of Penny Tremayne, Cath Arden and Hannah Taylor-Rollings
- SDG Civic Project of the Year – winner Project Atefa student team and Chartwells, with the Being Human Festival and Trash for Art highly commended.
- SDG 11 Project of the Year - winner Nandar Lin, with DMU Made highly commended.
- 30 for 30 sustainability competition – winner Phil Adams, highly commended Casey Bell and Amanda Thorley.
Posted on Tuesday 16 December 2025