Table 6 - How do your projects help broaden definitions of sustainability
beyond recycling?
A helpful analogy from Southampton: when you buy an apple at a supermarket, you can
consider the social aspects of who grew it and in what conditions; the economic impacts
of supply chain and wages and how your choices contribute to market forces; and the
environmental implications of fertilisers, food miles and production methods. Something
as simple and commonplace as buying an apple demonstrates the three pillars of
sustainability.
Finding common interest
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Language can be a huge barrier, because many people hear ‘sustainability’ and
automatically think ‘green stuff’ isn’t what they’re into. How can we frame things
to make the issues feel as universally applicable as they actually are? Is making it
an issue of ‘fairness and equality’ helpful? References to the future? Opportunity?
Find which aspects of sustainability naturally overlap with people’s existing
concerns. At Gloucestershire, healthy eating and nutrition was used to engage
sports teams in what has now become a much further reaching programme of
sustainability and behaviour change
The local currency project at Falmouth beautifully ties together the social,
economic and environmental pillars of sustainability – demonstrating how big
finance fuels environmental destruction, and opposing this through a localised
economy builds stronger community resilience, enriching everyone.
Appealing to values
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We should more strongly resist accepting market-infused definitions of buzzwords
like ‘employability’. Universities and corporates have a specific, unsustainable
definition of what that means. SUs are uniquely placed to resist adopting the
same measurements of success, and can develop careers services built around
students’ values; how their work will fit into their life; and the contributions they
want to make to society.
Making more explicit the links between how social, economic and environmental
sustainability supports widely shared, treasured values (self-acceptance, sense of
community, wellbeing, fairness and equality etc.) can deepen engagement more
strongly than constant warnings.
Sharing a positive vision of the future
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Nobody is empowered to act through fear, guilt or warnings. We need to paint a
stark, ambitious picture of how society and planet can be enriched by pursuing
sustainability
A helpful resource mentioned on this subject was Futerra’s ‘Sell The Sizzle, Not
The Sausage’ which is a quick, accessible read, and highly recommended.
In moving beyond thinking of sustainability as ‘doing the recycling’ we have to
transcend thinking of individuals doing less bad, and collectives doing more good.
Sustainability can often meet derision owing to the reasonable argument that
individual action can only go so far – and systemic change needs to be achieved
too. Happily, this contributes to other values-led benefits, like social cohesion,
community resilience, and providing meaning and purpose to people’s lives.
Can we do more to collaborate between SUs regionally, particularly across HE and
FE? Could these collaborations and resource sharing become part of the GI
criteria?
A fantastic idea from Birmingham which bridges individual and systemic change,
while amplifying collectivist values: they’re putting solar panels on their halls.
This will be accompanied by behaviour change campaign telling students: our
new panels will reduce our carbon emissions by 6%. Can you make changes in
your life to match us, and make it 12%?