Campus Crusaders

Academic institutions need practical help if they are to pass the test of environmental management, say our guest lecturers Peter Hill from the University of Central Lancashire and Jo Bagnall of Going for Green.

OK, fingers on the buzzers, your starter for 10. You’re in higher education, strapped for cash and your grant money is being withheld - but you're not a student. So what are you? Answer? You’re a further or higher education (FHE) establishment being punished for failing to meet sustainable development targets. Only in your nightmares, surely? Not necessarily. Such a move was proposed to the further and higher education funding councils by the Sustainable Development Education Panel, a body that reports directly to government ministers David Blunkett and John Prescott.

Whilst the FHE sector awaits a response, it too has been taking positive environmental steps. A Statement of Environmental Intent - setting out aims for the development of campus management and environmental education - has recently been drawn up and endorsed by bodies representing principals, vice-chancellors and students. But support is still needed to put the theory of sustainable development into practice.

Cue EcoCampus - an environmental management system (EMS) and award programme, designed to assist the FHE sector to meet sustainability goals in a practical manner. Its development stems from a Going for Green project conducted with the University of Central Lancashire. Run over two years, this was designed both to raise awareness of sustainability as an issue, and to demonstrate its practical application throughout the university and local community. Encouragingly, the high amount of interest generated led to a realisation that FHE institutions were looking for a sector-specific EMS - one to which accreditation would be recognised as a measure of a commitment to sustainable development. The need for such a system has also been recognised elsewhere - notably in Forum for the Future’s Higher Education Partnership programme [see p50]. Increasingly, it’s apparent that existing management systems like ISO14001 and EMAS, principally designed for business, simply don’t transfer that well to the academic world.

So, how does EcoCampus work? It sets out an EMS framework to review environmental performance, identify priorities, implement measures for continuous improvement, and after external verification, receive an award in recognition of their achievements.

To test the applicability of the scheme, EcoCampus is being piloted at various academic institutions across the UK, prior to a full scale launch in two years time. It should produce a number of sustainability dividends, including:

• Financial savings through better use of resources and reduction in energy consumption
• Compliance with environmental legislation, reducing the risk of penalties for breaches
• Enhanced image of the institution to existing and potential students, staff, partners and other external audiences

At a time of renewed and strengthened commitment to the principle of environmental sustainability in the FHE sector, we believe that EcoCampus has the potential to be the defining environmental sustainability management system in the sector - and as such it is a prestigious and essential scheme to be involved in.

If the suggestion to link an institution’s funding to its sustainable development performance ever comes about, we hope that participation in EcoCampus will be seen as a major performance indicator.

The Not So Dirty Dozen

EcoCampus will award participating insitutions for sustainable progress in 12 key areas:

• Policy
• Resource use (incl. water, energy)
• Waste
• Transport
• Ethical/sustainable procurement
• Built environment
• Curriculum greening
• Community involvement
• Health, welfare and safety
• Training
• Environmental reporting
• Innovation and creativity

Jo Bagnall is development officer at Going for Green