Senior Management

Why you are important

Sustainable Development is about ensuring that development "meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Brundtland, 1987). Further Education can play an important role and you are a big part of that. See Why is Sustainable Development Important? for more.

You are ideally placed to provide some real leadership and vision to your learning provider. You have an overview of many different aspects and roles of your provider. This means you can help departments see the connections and work better together to give learners, your provider and the wider community to contribute towards sustainable development.

Your leadership and vision can enable, empower and engage students, staff and the wider community.

Showing your commitment to sustainable development and leading by example can be a really powerful way of engendering change in your learning provider and beyond.

How to get the most out of SORTED

As a senior manager, you do not need to have a full understanding of all aspects of sustainable development in relation to Further Education, but a basic grasp of the issues involved and a level of commitment is vital.

The Leadership and Management section is the obvious place to start and gives you an overview of the sustainable development issues in relation to Further Education, some background into the policy driving this agenda, as well as some practical ideas on how to embed sustainable development into your organisation at the highest level.

Depending on where you are in your sustainable development journey, any of the other sections may be useful to you. For example, if you feel that sustainable development has been successfully embedded into the curriculum, but that you still have some way to go in managing your estate sustainably, then the Buildings and Estates section will offer some useful guidance.

Useful Resources

SIGMA (Sustainability – Integrated Guidelines for Management) provides a simple model for its leadership and management process in relation to sustainable development.

The Five Capitals provide a useful framework for prioritising action on sustainable development within your learning provider.

Leadership for Sustainability: Making Sustainable Development a Reality for Leaders is a recent research report conducted by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL), London South Bank University and Forum for the Future and provides some useful insights.