Using the SDGs to progress sustainability - Webinar

At Macquarie University, in Sydney, Australia, we are taking small yet significant steps to align our work with the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. But this has not been an easy task. To date, we have done work to understand what our high-level University goals, objectives, strategies and policies are saying; we have looked at our research priority areas to map our strengths and gaps; and we have mapped our sustainability in learning and teaching framework to the goals and identified some positive and some negative findings. So what has all of this told us? In this webinar, Leanne will go through work to date, presenting the outcomes, the challenges and the questions that have arisen, whilst positioning next steps for the University. While the webinar will present the findings from all the work done, the focus will be on Macquarie’s curriculum efforts, with a few lessons from the Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS).

Leanne Denby has been working at Macquarie University as the Director of Sustainability since March 2008. Reporting to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academics and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer, her primary responsibility is to strategically embed sustainability into policy, process and practice. This involves working across the campus with the various Faculties, departments and offices within four key areas:
 
• Leadership and Governance: Enhancing skills and guiding leadership towards more sustainable decision-making processes and outcomes
• Learning and Teaching: Embedding sustainability holistically across the formal and informal curriculum
• Partnerships and Engagement: Providing avenues for active participation and awareness building for staff, students and community members
• Facilities and Operations: Improving resource efficiency through implementation of practical initiatives in support of small and large-scale projects

For the past seven years, Leanne has also held the role of President of Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS), a not-for-profit organisation committed to advancing sustainability best practices within the operations, curriculum and research of the tertiary education sector in Australia and New Zealand. As the President, Leanne has doubled the capacity of the association, developing and adopting significant programs of change, and positioning ACTS as a national and international player in the sustainability field. Previous to her role at Macquarie, Leanne worked as a Project Director with the Australian Research Institute of Education for Sustainability (ARIES) and as a casual teaching academic at the University of Sydney.
 
Pre-register here.