Visual Displays of the Sustainable Development Goals …
229
2 Commitment to the SDGs at Nottingham Trent
University
Located in the East Midlands of the United Kingdom, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) encompasses approximately 2820 staff and 30,000 students enrolled on
around 640 taught programmes. The university has a strong reputation of embedding
themes of sustainable development in both curriculum and the everyday activities,
supported by its accolades and accreditations. NTU has remained in the top ten of the
People and Planet University League, which ranks all universities in the UK since
2009, and it was also the first university in the UK to achieve Gold in the ‘Learning in Future Environment’ (LiFE) accreditation in 2015. It has also been awarded
a number of Green Gown Awards, presented by the Environmental Association of
Universities and Colleges (EAUC), as well as the Responsible Futures accreditation
from the National Union of Students (NUS) in the UK.
Since the launch of the SDGs in 2015, NTU has chosen to adopt the United
Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both as a joint definition of the
sustainable development concept and as a framework for all sustainability work
undertaken at the university (Erlandsson et al. 2017), with Vice-Chancellor Edward
Peck signing the SDG Accord in 2017 (SDG Accord 2017) to further establish
NTU’s commitment to the global goals. This commitment can also be seen in the
Curriculum Refresh (Simmons et al. 2016), a university-wide course review process,
where sustainability and the SDGs have received a key role in refreshing the taught
curriculum to be in line with the Strategic Plan, Creating the University of the Future
(Nottingham Trent University 2015). As programmes go through this process, they
are encouraged to embed at least one of the SDGs and explore ways of collaborating
with other subject areas to contribute towards the realization of the global goals. To
further establish the connection between the SDGs and programmes, each module
leader has the option to embed the goal(s) most relevant to their module in their
online learning room and other module materials (see Image 1). This will create a
coherent message around the global goals and give students opportunities to explore
their own connections to the SDGs.
In addition, the SDGs play an important role in a wide range of sustainabilityrelated projects across the university. The Education for Sustainable Development:
Future Thinking Learning Room is an online resource bank containing sustainabilityrelated resources which have been mapped against the SDGs. The learning room
also collates a range of community and estate case studies, showcasing the differing
projects across the university estates with local community connections related to
achieving the SDGs (Willats et al. 2017). The global goals are also the focus of the
Sustainability in Practice Certificate, an optional online module exploring sustainability issues that is available for all students and staff at NTU (Molthan-Hill et al.
2015).
The NTU Green Academy Team, first initiated as part of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Green Academy Change Programme (Puntha et al. 2015), are
229
2 Commitment to the SDGs at Nottingham Trent
University
Located in the East Midlands of the United Kingdom, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) encompasses approximately 2820 staff and 30,000 students enrolled on
around 640 taught programmes. The university has a strong reputation of embedding
themes of sustainable development in both curriculum and the everyday activities,
supported by its accolades and accreditations. NTU has remained in the top ten of the
People and Planet University League, which ranks all universities in the UK since
2009, and it was also the first university in the UK to achieve Gold in the ‘Learning in Future Environment’ (LiFE) accreditation in 2015. It has also been awarded
a number of Green Gown Awards, presented by the Environmental Association of
Universities and Colleges (EAUC), as well as the Responsible Futures accreditation
from the National Union of Students (NUS) in the UK.
Since the launch of the SDGs in 2015, NTU has chosen to adopt the United
Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both as a joint definition of the
sustainable development concept and as a framework for all sustainability work
undertaken at the university (Erlandsson et al. 2017), with Vice-Chancellor Edward
Peck signing the SDG Accord in 2017 (SDG Accord 2017) to further establish
NTU’s commitment to the global goals. This commitment can also be seen in the
Curriculum Refresh (Simmons et al. 2016), a university-wide course review process,
where sustainability and the SDGs have received a key role in refreshing the taught
curriculum to be in line with the Strategic Plan, Creating the University of the Future
(Nottingham Trent University 2015). As programmes go through this process, they
are encouraged to embed at least one of the SDGs and explore ways of collaborating
with other subject areas to contribute towards the realization of the global goals. To
further establish the connection between the SDGs and programmes, each module
leader has the option to embed the goal(s) most relevant to their module in their
online learning room and other module materials (see Image 1). This will create a
coherent message around the global goals and give students opportunities to explore
their own connections to the SDGs.
In addition, the SDGs play an important role in a wide range of sustainabilityrelated projects across the university. The Education for Sustainable Development:
Future Thinking Learning Room is an online resource bank containing sustainabilityrelated resources which have been mapped against the SDGs. The learning room
also collates a range of community and estate case studies, showcasing the differing
projects across the university estates with local community connections related to
achieving the SDGs (Willats et al. 2017). The global goals are also the focus of the
Sustainability in Practice Certificate, an optional online module exploring sustainability issues that is available for all students and staff at NTU (Molthan-Hill et al.
2015).
The NTU Green Academy Team, first initiated as part of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Green Academy Change Programme (Puntha et al. 2015), are