Approach
Leadership and Vision Phase
The overall purpose of this phase is to raise awareness of
sustainability issues and how they may affect the
organisation’s quality and performance.
The first step for leaders in the FE system will be to clarify
and revisit their strategic mission and vision in the context of
sustainable development. As a first step the actions contained
under the leadership and vision phase in the SIGMA table are a useful
guide:
- To secure board level and senior management understanding and
commitment to integrate sustainability into core management
processes and decision-making
- To identify stakeholders and consult them on key impacts and
approaches
- To develop a business case for sustainability
- To formulate a long-term sustainability vision and high-level
strategy.
The World Wide Fund
for Nature's document ‘Learning for
Sustainability’, The Earth
Charter, and The Land Based
Colleges National Consortium Sustainable Development Learning
Pack, all provide useful suggestions. All three will help your
organisation define sustainable development and think about the
approaches you should take.
Key questions that you should be asking yourself (ves)
are:
All of these questions will be based on an assessment of where
the organisation currently is in relation to its sustainable
development objectives and the need to review progress and track
trends.
Who needs to be involved?
Initially, this will be the senior management team along with
governors or board members.
You may choose to establish a dedicated team or appoint key
individuals (e.g. sustainable development champions).
Key activities
Formulate the (business) case for sustainability. One suggested
resource is
Project SIGMA; also
see the CEL’s September 2007 publication: Leadership for Sustainability,
Making sustainable development a reality for leaders;
Raise awareness and begin the process of cultural change throughout
your organisation through meetings and workshops.
When do these activities start?
Now is a good time!
Expected outcomes
- an internal business case for sustainable development.
- a revised vision and mission statement
- a communication plan for the revised vision and mission
- a stakeholder consultation report
Useful tips
If you choose to develop a separate vision and mission for
sustainable development they will need to be clearly linked to the
overall vision and mission and ultimately they will need to be
integrated. You will need to think about what your
organisation’s limits or boundaries are in relation to
sustainable development and identify any trade-offs.
For example existing building fabric may mean that there will be
limitations as to how sustainable a building can be.
The Sustainable Development Education Panel, produced
a good step-by-step guide to establishing a Sustainability
Management System, which you may find useful at this stage.
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Planning
Key questions that you should be asking yourself (ves)
are:
- Where are we now?
- What is our current level of performance against the vision and
mission and operating principles?
- What are our legal requirements in relation to sustainable
development?
- Do we comply?
- How do we integrate sustainable development into our management
procedures?
- What short-term actions do we need to take?
Who needs to be involved?
Initially it needs to be senior management, champions (if
appropriate) and key internal and external stakeholders.
Key activities
When do the activities start?
Integrate into the timescales of the existing management and
reporting cycle.
Expected outcomes
- Baseline review report.
- Implementation and management plan.
- Stakeholder feedback report.
- Compliance and improvement report.
- Training and development plan.
- Actions, impact and outcome report.
- Identification of strategic priorities and actions.
- Board level consultation and signoff.
At this stage it will be worthwhile revisiting policy statements
for adaptation and reissue.
Commit to review strategies after initial implementation. Review
the skills, knowledge and competencies of key managers.
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Action
Key questions that you should be asking yourself (ves)
are:
- What organisation change is necessary and desirable?
- What management processes do we need to change?
- How will we communicate the sustainability message and changes
identified?
- Are the links between words and action strong enough?
Who needs to be involved?
Senior and middle management, board members, sustainable
development champions and/or implementation team.
Key activities
- Agreeing and implementing a sustainable development action
plan, with timescales and milestones.
- Assigning roles and responsibilities for specific actions in
line with skills and competence.
- Implementing sustainable development awareness and training
programmes as required.
- Consulting and communicating on the agreed actions.
- Reviewing and refining corporate governance and sustainable
development reporting arrangements.
- Identifying opportunities to influence external agencies e.g.
community bodies, employers, trade organisations and suppliers in
sustainability terms.
- Fostering linkages at senior and middle management level
between those responsible for different areas of action e.g.
estates and curriculum. See this report from London
Sustainability Exchange (LSX) for ideas.
- Engaging with the community.
- Reporting on SD activity at management meetings and to
governors or board members.
A selection of useful guidance here includes:
SIGMA
research & development report on Learning, Innovation and
Culture Change. This report explores how organisations can
initiate change in line with the principles of sustainable
development.
A useful SIGMA
review of 20 standards and guidelines relevant to the
implementation of sustainable development. It includes the UN
Global Compact, EMAS, The Natural Step, Social Accountability 8000,
Investors in People, Global Sullivan Principles, The Ethical
Trading Initiative Base Code, Balanced Scorecard, the European
Foundation Quality Model Excellence Model, The Global Reporting
Initiative, AA1000 framework, Combined Code of Corporate
Governance, ISO family of standards, the London Benchmarking Group,
OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, Caux Roundtable
Principles for Business, Amnesty International’s Human Rights
Guidelines for Companies, the Principles for Global Corporate
Responsibility, Business Impact Task Force, UK Government
Sustainable Development Strategy.
Communicating
Sustainability. UNEP. (2005) This guide shows how communication
can be used to promote more sustainable lifestyles. It is designed
to be read by anyone who wants to develop and implement awareness
campaigns on these issues.
When do they start?
From the outset and ongoing.
Expected outcomes
- Record of sustainable development activities undertaken and
their impact on performance
- Sustainable development organisational chart showing roles,
responsibilities, reporting and communication lines
- Revised corporate governance sustainable development reporting
procedures
- New partnerships and collaborative activities with community
and businesses on sustainable development issues
- Organisational websites, prospectus and other communication
devices make explicit reference to sustainability actions and
impacts
- Sustainable Development should inform all CPD programmes, and
training should be incorporated into induction for new staff so the
knowledge base is maintained
Recognise that cultural change takes time. Take time to explain
change plans and identify benefits for those involved in the
change. Learn from previous change processes what worked well and
what was less successful?
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Monitoring
Key questions that you should be asking yourself (ves)
are:
- Are we doing what we say we do?
- Does our performance reflect significant sustainability
actions, impacts and outcomes identified from the baseline
review?
- Are our tactical and strategic approaches improving our
performance?
- Who are we reporting to and what are we reporting?
- How credible and transparent is our reporting?
- Should we include impartial assurance as part of the reporting
process (e.g. OFSTED reports)?
Who needs to be involved?
Board members, senior management, sustainable development
implementation team and/or champions. Possibly self-assessment
and/or independent audit team.
Key activities
- Collecting and evaluating objective evidence and stakeholder
perception surveys or questionnaires with regards to sustainable
development profile and 'performance'
- Assessing new opportunities for sustainable development
performance improvement
- Selecting and training internal self-assessment team on
relevant sustainable development issues
- Producing and communicating sustainable development progress
report
- Regularly review and improve knowledge transfer and
communication systems to ensure that key initiatives are widely
replicated both within individual providers and between
organisations
Further resources
OFSTED (2003) Taking
the first steps forward – towards an education for
sustainable development.
Good
practice in school self-evaluation and college self-assessment.
A practical guide for managers at all levels. It clarifies what
self-evaluation and self-assessment are and why organisations are
required to do them. This is followed by an identification of the
critical success factors in self-evaluation and self-assessment.
The annex contains a series of checklists and a summary of good
practice.
EAUC BITC Benchmarking
Report. This report is from a pilot project using this
monitoring tool in universities.
When do these activities start?
Throughout the delivery phase and at agreed time frames,
appropriate to the specific impact of the sustainability
objective.
Expected outcomes
- Progress report against sustainable development strategies,
tactical plans, objectives and targets
- Recommendations for improvement in terms of sustainable
development
- Integration of key elements of sustainable development progress
into organisational self-assessment report
The review process should result in clearly communicated
findings, which should form the basis for the next round of
strategic and tactical planning.
Both inspection criteria and self-assessment practice in FE need
to be aligned with appropriate sustainability criteria. To date the
common inspection framework does not contain any specific reference
to sustainable development. The performance review process
described above could be integrated into the organisational
self-assessment process.
The case for an integrated approach
Few organisations have yet to achieve a truly integrated
approach to the issue of sustainability. Do not let this stop you
from starting your journey. There will inevitably be confusion over
the scope and timeframes for achieving a sustainable organisation.
There will be competing and conflicting ideas and approaches. But
this is part of the learning process. By adopting a systematic
management framework as outlined in this section, and in
conjunction with the other sections of this toolkit, it is more
likely that you will achieve a more coherent and less fragmented
approach to your actions and performance. Fragmented approaches
tend to undermine the achievement of organisational
sustainability.
There are two good case studies of an integrated approach:
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