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Managing and Enhancing Student-Staff Partnerships for Sustainability

Managing and Enhancing Student-Staff Partnerships for Sustainability. Julia Kendal 29 th October 2013. Schedule. Background Key campaigns: Waste Wars Blackout Swap Shop Results and impact Lessons learnt & moving forward Final Q&A. Background. University of Southampton:

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Managing and Enhancing Student-Staff Partnerships for Sustainability

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  1. Managing and Enhancing Student-Staff Partnerships for Sustainability Julia Kendal29th October 2013

  2. Schedule • Background • Key campaigns: • Waste Wars • Blackout • Swap Shop • Results and impact • Lessons learnt & moving forward • Final Q&A

  3. Background • University of Southampton: • - 21,835 students (UG and PG) • Around 5,000 staff • 6 campuses, including one in Malaysia • Historic, but fragmented, engagement with sustainability

  4. Green Academy • Participation in Higher Education Academy Green Academy Programme was intended to bring together disparate activities into a coherent sustainability strategy focused on practice • Vision that emerged is for sustainability to be at the CORE of the institution • ‘Sustainability Action Programme’ Curriculum Operations Research Experience

  5. Partnership Approach • Sustainability Action • Top-level support • Student representative • Academics • Associate Dean for Education & Student Experience • Environment Manager • Staff support • Behaviour Change Group • Students’ Union Ethical & Environmental Committee • Environment & Sustainability Advisory Group

  6. Student-Staff Partnerships • Vision of

  7. Waste Wars • 7 years of waste audits • Target: increase recycling from 46% in 2010/11 to 60% by July 2013 • Organised in collaboration between students and staff • Bigger and better (now around 100 students)

  8. Waste Wars • Students impacting campus management • Recycling rates increased from 38% to over 70% in just 4 months • Halls Waste Wars • Competition between different halls • Engaging first years – good habits from the start

  9. Blackout: a night out with the lights out • Carbon reduction target of 20% by 2020 (based on 2005 levels) • ‘Energy Audit’! • Focus on main campus – 34 buildings over one night • Non-essential equipment only • Committee of students and staff • Run event within 8 months

  10. Blackout: a night out with the lights out • Training for students and staff (energy audit experience) • Crucial role of students & staff • Keys are key • Demonstrating student appetite for sustainability (showing staff what they should be doing)

  11. Blackout Results Demonstrated that if everyone switches off every night the annual savings would be: • Over £200,000 • 858 tonnes of carbon • 2,033,131 kWh An award-winning initiative

  12. Blackout 2013: bigger & better • 2 more campuses • 324 students signed up Applying lessons learnt: • Are all the incentives necessary? • Need for repeating and reinforcing the message • Need for consistency in the training for audit completion • Importance of active student partnership & joint leadership

  13. Blackout Impact • Student engagement: • Hundreds of students engaged and trained • all 8 faculties represented • Not just the usual suspects • Staff engagement: • 3463 individuals read first post (2nd most read post ever) • 3184 individuals read results • Energy use change: • Behaviour change • Infrastructure change

  14. Swap Shop Now for something slightly different: • Not just about “being green” • Working with societies • Engaging with Fashion & Style Society

  15. Swap Shop: Results • 156 people • 215 kg of clothes, shoes and accessories rescued from landfill/wallowing in wardrobes • £39.42 raised for RAG • Anything not swapped to British Heart Foundation to sell • New volunteers All for the cost of £5.00.

  16. Student-Staff Partnerships:Impact • Engagement and behaviour change • Operational change: • Recycling rates • IT Power Management Policy for Common Learning Spaces • Strategic change: • SUSU Sustainability Zone • University: shift from the environment to sustainability

  17. Lessons learnt • Collaboration is key • Organising events with, not for, students • Value of student representation & ideas • Empowering students to influence staff behaviour & the wider university community • Evaluation - challenging our assumptions • Creating a culture of personal responsibility • Make it fun and the norm • Get the right incentives • Empowered for action

  18. Lessons learnt • Appropriate recognition • Consistent messaging about partnership • Equal value on students and staff

  19. What’s next? • Engaging with societies (the Swap Shop Model) • Business Ethics & Environment Students (BEES) Programme • Students auditing ethical and environmental practice in local businesses • Student employability • Staff engagement • Students having a positive impact on the local community • Students demonstrating importance to University management & wider city • Students shaping the curriculum

  20. Conclusions • Ensure students & staff work together from the very start of all sustainability projects • Attitude of a university community of students and staff • Make it the norm • One size doesn’t fit all

  21. Thank you for listening. Any questions? Julia Kendal: j.kendal@soton.ac.uk; @JuliaRKendal Sustainability Action Officer, University of Southampton www.southampton.ac.uk/sustainabilityaction

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