Sustainability: our sector’s current best chance of responding to the urgent demands of climate science – new report

A cross-sector partnership advocating for a more urgent and more co-ordinated approach to sustainability in our universities is today reporting on the first year in use of its free Sustainability Leadership Scorecard (SLS) tool. AUDE (the Association of University Directors of Estates) and EAUC (the alliance for sustainable leadership in education) have launched the first annual Sustainability Leadership Scorecard Report together with partners Arup, to give an overview of the UK and Ireland Higher and Further Education sector’s activity and performance on sustainability.

The report is now available to download.

In an era of growing public/student support and activism around climate and environmental issues; UK parliament debates and rolling declarations of “climate emergency” from public institutions (including more than 90 local authorities and universities such as Bristol and Exeter); and clear guidance from the UN via its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on how we can organise and prioritise a response, there are multiple drivers behind the sector’s focus on sustainability.

The Sustainability Leadership Scorecard was launched last year and has been developed to ensure institutions can track their sustainability progress, celebrate their successes and improve their weaknesses. It is interactive, encourages collaboration, and is aligned to the UN SDGs in its approach. It draws information from HESA EMR data for universities, and a breadth of sector tools as well as allowing institutions to individually submit their sustainability performance across areas including leadership, health and wellbeing, procurement, research, student engagement and adaptation.

The first annual Sustainability Leadership Scorecard Report launches today and summarises data submitted by 45 institutions in the UK. Institutions using the tool are clearly able to point to concrete gains from use of the tool, whether in terms of benchmarking to similar universities, gap analysis, or better high-level reporting of sustainability information. Key findings in the report:

• Just under one fifth (18%) of institutions received an overall performance rating of gold, with over a third (36%) receiving a rating of rating of silver. But the overall sector score for institutions is bronze, showing clear room for improvement in the sector as a whole.
• ‘Estates and Operations’ is the highest performing area with institutions reporting strong progress on creating a sustainable estate, but they are reporting less progress on ‘Partnership and Engagement Activities’, as well as ‘Learning, Teaching and Research’.
• Linking activities to the curriculum is reportedly the hardest area for the sector to achieve and this area is performing poorly compared to others. This is an area institutions must seek to prioritise.
• Small teaching institutions and colleges performed above sector average for the category ‘Leadership and Governance’.
• Within the category ‘Leadership and Governance’, it is reported that institutions are struggling to mitigate the risk category the most. This refers to issues around responsible investment and divestment from fossil fuels. We would encourage institutions to come up with an action plan to tackle this issue.
• The reporting also tracks institutions’ contribution to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The sector is reportedly impacting most positively on SDG 5 Gender Equality, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production and SDG 13 Climate Action.

Craig Nowell, AUDE Chair and Director of Campus Infrastructure at the University of Exeter said: “The SLS is a practical working tool designed especially for the HEI sector to promote member participation. It is collaborative in nature, encouraging learning and a sector culture of benchmarking and continuous improvement. An ever-increasing scrutiny of our sustainability performance and cross functional and sector collaborations, particularly in the face of national and international environment and climate change campaigns, will become the new norm.

To every vice chancellor, director of estates, sustainability professional and climate scientist I’d say this: ‘We have a collective responsibility to review our current policies, strategies and work together to minimise carbon and scope 3 emissions, where feasible, and gather ideas on future actions to make a step change to mitigate the impact of our activity. Our students tell us loud and clear the importance they place on sustainability – establishing the SLS as the instrument of choice in your institution is our sector’s current best chance of responding to the issues we face.’ The flexibility of the SLS as a tool, its ‘whole institution approach’, and the way it supports everyone to link activity and strategy are just some of the reasons why I’d encourage a full take-up of the SLS across UK higher education.”

Iain Patton, CEO at EAUC, said: “Universities and colleges are looking for ways to become more resilient and show foresight in an increasingly volatile environment. Their students are also increasingly looking to them to make a socially responsible and sustainable contribution to the world. The value creation and risk mitigation that integrating sustainability holistically brings, shows why it is the solution to these requirements. But it is difficult for institutions to know where they are doing well and where they need to improve. This tool was created to show what a perfect ‘sustainable institution’ might look like, to inspire institutions to strive for better, and to highlight what they need to work on to progress. And it is free, because we want to support the sector on this journey.

“We are pleased to be launching the first annual report and look forward to seeing the sector progress as a whole. We would encourage all institutions to use this tool and start to assess where they are doing well and where they need further support.”

ENDS

Notes to the Editor

1)      The first annual Sustainability Leadership Scorecard Report was co-created by AUDE and EAUC with partners Arup. It was published on 26 June 2019. It is available here.

2)      Improvement opportunities are continuously sought and actioned. For example a new reporting functionality is now available that enables institutions to create graphics which they can use in their senior management reports and business cases.

3)      The Sustainability Leadership Scorecard has received so much interest from UK and Irish institutions that it is going to expand and become a global tool.

Media contact:

Martin Higgs, Communications Officer at AUDE

e. martin@phes.ac.uk t. 07543 221077

Rosie Saban, Media and Campaigns Officer at EAUC

e. rsaban@eauc.org.uk t. 01242 714321

About AUDE: AUDE is the Association of University Directors of Estates and represents more than 95% of UK universities. Its remit is to support the professional development and practice of higher education estates directors and their teams, and it does this through identifying and promoting best practice, providing training and development opportunities at all levels of a HE estates career, and working with partners across the sector to develop integrated solutions to current estates challenges.

For more information visit www.aude.ac.uk.

About the EAUC: EAUC is the alliance for sustainability leadership in education. EAUC represents over 200 institutions with a combined total of 2 million students and nearly 400,000 staff with a spending budget of over £25 billion. We help leaders, academics and professionals to drive sustainability to the heart of their post-16 education institutions. Sustainable universities and colleges are more successful institutions in the longer-term. They report better financial and operational resilience, achieve better outcomes for students, provide greater societal impact and deliver world-leading research and innovation.

For more information visit www.eauc.org.uk.