Aligning Campus Strategy with the SDGs …
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medicinal value of plants. The new strategy will commit BU to extend developments
to secure further opportunities for staff and students to use the estate as a living lab
for health and wellbeing, and sustainability.
Concurrent with strategy development, the SDGs are being promoted through various media (including electronic screens in buildings), workshops and presentations
with the aim of raising awareness amongst both staff and students of their importance, but importantly, to highlight collective responsibility for achievement. Both
the main staff engagement tools, Green Impact and Green Rewards (where staff are
rewarded for taking positive action for the environment and their health and wellbeing), now link directly to the SDGs. For Green Impact, this involves team members
demonstrating how they have incorporated the SDGs into their professional practice,
teaching or research. For Green Rewards, the various activities are all linked to the
appropriate SDGs and so staff are able to see how what they do on a day to day basis
contributes, for example, staff receive 400 points if they sign up to the SDG Accord.
As of January 2018, 83 people had signed up but numbers are increasing rapidly.
Further developments are currently in the planning stages to accelerate participation and action; evaluation will take place as the new institutional strategy rolls
out.
7 Discussion and Reflections
A substantial amount of effort is going to be required on the part of many stakeholders
if by 2030, under Goal 4 of the SDGs, all learners will have acquired:
the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among
others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human
rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship
and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
(United Nations 2015, p. 15).
It is imperative that universities contribute fully to sustainable development and
particularly the SDGs. However, making progress on such agendas within higher
education settings has always been criticised as a slow process (Sterling et al. 2013)
with barriers to be overcome (Leal Filho et al. 2017b). BU is by no means at the
forefront of developments but it is currently further along than many institutions,
in developing a strategic and holistic approach which began in 2005 (Shiel 2007).
Continual progress is only achieved where mechanisms are in place to track the
success of initiatives and to develop new course of action and this paper has described
some of the steps that are being taken to move forward. Currently actions at BU are
evolving with the SDGs referred to frequently in strategy development workshops
and becoming a feature of BU2025. It is recognised that further work will be needed
to develop indicators to evaluate achievement and impact.
The approach at BU, as might be expected in an institution that has sought a holistic
approach from the outset, has exemplified each of the patterns that Barth and Rieckmann (2013) suggest are distinct ways that institutions engage with sustainability:
21
medicinal value of plants. The new strategy will commit BU to extend developments
to secure further opportunities for staff and students to use the estate as a living lab
for health and wellbeing, and sustainability.
Concurrent with strategy development, the SDGs are being promoted through various media (including electronic screens in buildings), workshops and presentations
with the aim of raising awareness amongst both staff and students of their importance, but importantly, to highlight collective responsibility for achievement. Both
the main staff engagement tools, Green Impact and Green Rewards (where staff are
rewarded for taking positive action for the environment and their health and wellbeing), now link directly to the SDGs. For Green Impact, this involves team members
demonstrating how they have incorporated the SDGs into their professional practice,
teaching or research. For Green Rewards, the various activities are all linked to the
appropriate SDGs and so staff are able to see how what they do on a day to day basis
contributes, for example, staff receive 400 points if they sign up to the SDG Accord.
As of January 2018, 83 people had signed up but numbers are increasing rapidly.
Further developments are currently in the planning stages to accelerate participation and action; evaluation will take place as the new institutional strategy rolls
out.
7 Discussion and Reflections
A substantial amount of effort is going to be required on the part of many stakeholders
if by 2030, under Goal 4 of the SDGs, all learners will have acquired:
the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among
others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human
rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship
and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
(United Nations 2015, p. 15).
It is imperative that universities contribute fully to sustainable development and
particularly the SDGs. However, making progress on such agendas within higher
education settings has always been criticised as a slow process (Sterling et al. 2013)
with barriers to be overcome (Leal Filho et al. 2017b). BU is by no means at the
forefront of developments but it is currently further along than many institutions,
in developing a strategic and holistic approach which began in 2005 (Shiel 2007).
Continual progress is only achieved where mechanisms are in place to track the
success of initiatives and to develop new course of action and this paper has described
some of the steps that are being taken to move forward. Currently actions at BU are
evolving with the SDGs referred to frequently in strategy development workshops
and becoming a feature of BU2025. It is recognised that further work will be needed
to develop indicators to evaluate achievement and impact.
The approach at BU, as might be expected in an institution that has sought a holistic
approach from the outset, has exemplified each of the patterns that Barth and Rieckmann (2013) suggest are distinct ways that institutions engage with sustainability: