Andy Nolan, Director of Sustainability, University of Nottingham

Sustainability has never been more important to the UK higher education sector than it is today, and over the past twenty-five years there has been an ever-increasing commitment from the sector. In 2015 the publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals put greater emphasis on the role of education in global sustainability and, globally, politicians have committed to those goals.

This has helped to shape the education, learning and research agendas in the developed and developing worlds, and the research portfolios of the seven major UK research councils focus on these global challenges, featuring investments in crop productivity and agricultural sustainability (BBSRC); energy and the built environment (EPSRC); international relations and economics (ESRC); health of the public and antibiotic resistance (MRC); climate change and management of land and natural resources (NERC); energy and nuclear physics (STFC); and arts and humanities (AHRC). Sustainability increasingly features in the curriculum of degree programmes, equipping graduates with an understanding of one of the greatest challenges we face: sustaining the planet’s health so that the growing human population can survive and thrive for centuries to come.

Universities in the UK have responded to the research challenge and have developed world-leading expertise in a wide range of disciplines – cities and urbanism, public health, food and crops, climate adaptation, energy systems and transport, forestry and water – and they have done it on the campuses, in the buildings and laboratories and out there, for real, in wider society. Because of that, the campuses of 2017 are very different from those of 1992, when AUDE first formed.

Today, visit any UK university and the chances are you will find an exemplar building or project that showcases the art of the possible. Zero-carbon laboratories, BREEAM ‘outstanding’ buildings, LEED Platinum and Passivhaus standards abound. Without doubt, our universities are able to demonstrate best practice with exemplars, but are the social, economic and environmental impacts (positive and negative) of universities adequately understood – both academically and operationally?

Over the past twenty-five years directors of estates and their teams have been central to the delivery of increasingly sustainable estates. The agenda has evolved from a marginalised-green view so that now sustainability professionals are commonplace across many universities, helping to shape and deliver increasingly higher standards of performance.

Indeed, the higher education sector has much to be proud of and can point to some fantastic examples of best practice, such as the University of East Anglia’s Enterprise Centre, the Cockcroft Building at the University of Brighton and the Centre for Sustainable Chemistry at University of Nottingham, but despite efforts, most universities are failing to attain meaningful carbon reductions. A recent report by Brite Green revealed that 71% of UK higher education institutes are forecast to fail the carbon targets they set around 2010 in response to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) – including even those considered to be doing the most. While much of the public sector has been contracting and reducing its footprint since 2008, the university sector has been encouraged to grow. Chances are, if there are five cranes in your city, one or two of them are in the middle of a university campus. The real success has been to grow while maintaining a reduction in carbon emissions along the way. In fact, the analysis shows that while the higher education sector in England has improved its carbon emissions reduction performance, it is still off track to achieve the 2020 targets and is far from the 43% HEFCE target.

Increasingly there is a strong economic case for embedding the principles of sustainability into the way campuses are developed so that they are inclusive, safe and environmentally responsible. Whereas ‘sustainability’ was once seen as a differentiator, it is now considered to be an expectation; without doubt, the expectations of current and future students are ever higher and, in an increasingly competitive marketplace, it’s important to deliver. In order to attract the very best talent, universities are creating inspiring, healthy, innovative spaces that support their research and learning strategies.

This is a challenge AUDE has faced up to and, with others, it is working with its members to support them in achieving these targets and in continuing to contribute to the wider sustainability agenda. In response to these new challenges, AUDE has developed training and learning activity to support its members, and has helped to celebrate real achievement through recognising leaders in its awards, conferences and programmes. Alongside that, AUDE has developed a sector-specific tool, the Green Scorecard, to provide benchmark performance information across a wide range of estatesrelated metrics, such as biodiversity, waste, water, transport and energy.

There is much change in the higher education sector and, similarly, while the scientific evidence for climate change is clear, the policy response is not. Successive British governments have been inconsistent in policy and approach, and it may become less clear how carbon reduction targets will be achieved while the UK negotiates exit deals with the European Union, from where much of our energy comes. Universities are here for the long term and will benefit from longer-term policy thinking in government. While the Scottish and Welsh devolved governments have made firmer commitments, Whitehall and Westminster need to provide consistency.

For directors of estates, the future is both challenging and exciting. It’s unclear how long the current period of campus expansion can continue. Great uncertainty about the impact of Brexit and stability in the international market may mean that there will be a greater focus on maximising the efficiency of existing estates through more robust space management; and, after all, doing more with less and being resource-efficient is a fundamental plank of any sustainability strategy. A renewed focus on older buildings and wider infrastructure services will ensure greater longevity for buildings that can have a second, third or even fourth life in a changing climate where resilience to extreme weather patterns will be increasingly important.

If we are really to embed sustainability in the higher education sector, sustainability must maintain its strong foothold within estates departments. An institution-wide approach is needed so as to ensure the wider mission, and that the objectives and strategies take in economic, social and environmental responsibilities. This holistic approach will ensure that sustainability is considered to be ‘just good business’.

The opportunity to bring together both the academic mission and the operational need through the development of ‘living labs’ and ‘smart campuses’ could be the way in which universities develop not just sustainable operations, but also learning, knowledge and transferable impact.

Imagine campuses demonstrating real-world, global sustainability challenges using their intellectual potential to address practical issues and demonstrate them on campus. Thanks to co-created teaching, learning, research and operational activity, the next twenty-five years of university development will see greater innovation, more inspiring architecture and better places in which to live, work and study than ever before. What a neat way that would be to help to deliver the sustainable development goals here and around the planet.