Overall, Scotland’s colleges have responded well to the Scottish Government’s Greener Scotland strategic objective. Almost all colleges have embedded sustainability within their strategic plan aims and objectives and the majority have clear policies and strategies to address sustainability in most aspects of their operation. Most colleges have supported the University and Colleges Climate Commitment for Scotland (UCCCfS) and those that were not are expected to have signed up by the end of 2009. In the context of the Kyoto Protocol and the European Union Burden Sharing Agreement, this represents an important public commitment from colleges and universities to allocate time and resources to implementing measures that will reduced their greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints.
There is good leadership for sustainability in colleges. In most colleges visited, a senior manager has overall responsibility for sustainability, while often this is shared by two senior managers with one having responsibility for curricular issues and one for estates. Across the colleges, there are good examples of initiatives to raise staff awareness of sustainability issues. Many staff have undertaken continuing professional development on sustainability within their specialist areas. A few colleges include induction training in sustainability for new staff. However, the majority of colleges have not developed sufficiently in this area.
Overall, staff and learners have a good general awareness of sustainability issues. More than a few colleges have used the web successfully to raise staff and learner awareness of sustainability issues. However, in most colleges sustainability issues are not embedded systematically within design of programmes. Only a few colleges included sustainability with their programme delivery guidelines. More than a few colleges are identifying sustainability within their policies and strategies for developing essential skills or soft skills. However, most colleges have not defined sustainability skills sufficiently or unpacked these skills into their constituent elements.
A few colleges have developed systematic approaches that require curriculum teams to audit their curriculum and nominate opportunities to embed sustainability skills within programmes and to prepare plans for doing so. In all colleges, sustainability issues are promoted within learning experiences in more than a few subject areas. However, only a few colleges have embedded sustainability within their learning and teaching strategies. In all colleges there are good examples of learners contributing to sustainable development. These include student associations championing Fairtrade products, volunteering work in communities, recycling materials and products including mobile phones, carbon offsetting, and community garden schemes.
In all colleges, sustainability is a key priority in the management of college estates. Estate developments embody the principles of sustainable development and there are excellent examples of sustainability in the design of an educational building. A majority of colleges have developed systems to monitor and improve their environmental performance. More than a few colleges have or are pursuing accredited Environmental Management Systems under ISO 14001. They are engaged in projects to improve the operating efficiency and addressing sustainability with their existing estates. Colleges give high priority to reducing, reusing or recycling waste. Recycling points that segregate waste are common across colleges. A sustainable accounting project is exploring how colleges can report on their sustainability performance in annual reports.
In a few colleges, there are good examples of how estate developments that embody the principles of sustainable development encourage learners to act sustainably. However, in most colleges there was little evidence of the impact of campus sustainability learning on students. Students were often unaware of sustainable features within the design of the college buildings.