Lead Organisation
Sustainability West Midlands
Project Manager: Alan Carr (Sustainability Adviser)
Overview
North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, South Leicestershire College and Midlands Academies Trust (NWHC) commissioned SWM to reinvigorate the sustainability agenda across the institute by convening a workshop that took place on 14 March 2018 that brought together staff from across the college, as well as writing a report that reflected progress to date, recommendations for future activity and good practice examples from elsewhere.
Aims
- To raise the profile of sustainability across the organisation and to bring all key individuals up to date with the progress NWHC has demonstrated on the subject.
- To make individuals aware that the whole organisation needs to work together to ensure that implementing sustainability related activities can contribute to the key strategic objectives of the college, as well as save money.
- To review NWHC’s current sustainability related strategies, completed projects and outcomes of a stakeholder workshop to assess progress to date, in order for SWM to provide an independent assessment outlining how NWHC can fully embed sustainability across its operations in future.
Results and achievements
As a result of appointing SWM in this role, we were able to help reinvigorate the sustainability agenda with a view to developing a longer-term realistic plan of activity. Because of this project, the following achievements were realised:
- SWM produced sustainability criteria that NWHC can use going forward; this includes the more common areas of activity, such as energy and transport, but also factors in social and economic aspects too.
- We identified a series of plans produced by NWHC that are relevant to the sustainability agenda and have suggested a streamlining process to improve delivery.
- We were able to demonstrate existing good practice relating to sustainability and raise awareness of this across various teams who may have been unaware of the extent of activity beforehand. A total of 73 projects were identified.
- We were able to show that all of the sustainability metrics included in the criteria can fit in some way to the NWHC Strategic Plan, which will encourage buy-in in the future.
- NWHC staff and students conveyed enthusiasm for the sustainability agenda, outlining 27 future project ideas that came from discussions at the workshop.
- As a result of the workshop and literature, we were able to provide NWHC with a series of recommendations and project ideas to consider when taking forward its sustainability related work. These included carrying out full energy and waste audits of the college, embedding sustainability in the curriculum, running a healthy lifestyles programme, deploying local skills and apprenticeships and improving links with the local community.
Lead Organisation
Sustainability West Midlands
Project Manager: Simon Slater (formerly Chief Executive)
Overview
Sustainable development is a complex agenda, how can it be interpreted and practically applied by regional, public sector organizations? SWM set out to answer this question in the context of Advantage West Midlands (AWM). The aim of this was to help build the understanding, confidence, and capacity of regional organizations to practically integrate sustainable development into their strategic and operational processes.
The aim of this work was to take national good practice, in the form of the Sustainable Development Action Plans (SDAP) required to be produced and reported on annually by Government Departments to the Sustainable Development Commission, and adapt for regional public bodies such as AWM.
Results and achievements
- AWM moved from the bottom to the top of the league table of corporate sustainability performance within the RDA network
- The creation of a board champion for future generations to chair the new sustainability sub-committee of the board to measure the progress of the SDAP
- Creation of small sustainability team of staff and co-located staff within AWM to drive ‘mainstreaming’
- Using the opportunity to refresh the economic strategy to produce the UK’s first low carbon regional economic strategy
- Internal environmental management system that led to operational savings from waste and energy efficiency measures
- Sustainability criteria built into funding investments, business support, and land and property development. This included a new carbon reduction target and reporting measures
- Developing a new sustainability standard for large sites, that was incorporated into Regional Planning Guidance
- Tailored training and support for the board, staff and partners to help them deliver their role in the SDAP
For further information on the project or to work with us in one of a variety of ways, please contact the SWM team at
enquiries@swm.org.uk.
