Following the recent publication of the 2014 People & Planet (green) league tables for 2014, here's a transcript of a conversation with the Director of Sustainability at one of the successful universities.
Interviewer
Thank you very much for agreeing to talk about your university's success in the People & Planet green league report that was published last week. You must be pleased with the outcome as you've continued to do well.
Director
Yes. It's very gratifying and reflects a lot of hard work by my team.
Interviewer
Memory tells me that you've always been in the top cohort of universities in the green league; how have you managed that?
Director
Yes; that is correct. As to how we've managed it, well, we treat it seriously. We look at the criteria and we work hard to maximise our scores. I know that sounds an instrumental way of working, but, happily, doing the right things to do well in the league, coincide with doing the right things in relation to sustainability.
Interviewer
That's good to know. I see that only 9% of the green league weighting goes to education. Isn't that a bit disappointing for your institution, given your reputation, internationally, for ESD? Would you not want a much higher proportion of the weighting to be focused on that? The university's main focus is learning, after all.
Director
You're right about reputation, of course, but there has to be a balance in all this between the various aspects of a university. It is a business, after all, with a wide range of ways that sustainability impacts on it – and it on sustainability. Education, and students, is only one aspect of that, albeit an important one, let me stress.
Interviewer
Yes; I see that. However, the UK has less than 2% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and universities only about 2% of the total UK emissions, but universities have 100% of the students, doesn't that argue for a much higher weighting in the green league for education – especially since NUS / HEA surveys keep illustrating how important sustainability is to students in HE? Or are you saying that other instruments do that and so there's no need for the green league to focus on it. In that sense, should the national student survey, be seen as a complement to the green league, perhaps?
Director
Well, as I suppose you know, the NSS doesn't focus on ESD at all, so you can't really add the two together.
Interviewer
But doesn't the NSS look at the student experience in the round? And, as such, it doesn't have to mention sustainability – or anything else – to be a useful measure of the student experience. And in this way, doesn't it have to be a complement to what the green league looks at? Or are you saying that the NSS methodology is flawed whereas the green league approach isn't?
Director
Well, all these approaches are approximations to one degree or another, if you'll pardon the pun. How they are constructed represents different framings of the university world. Many of us think that, given that we know how keen students are on sustainability (from the NUS / HEA surveys), and because the NSS doesn't include sustainability or ESD as a focus, then the NSS is not an adequate measure of the student experience today.
Interviewer
So, does that go some way to explaining why so many of those institutions that do well in the green league, do so badly in the national student survey. In 2014, for example, only 2 of the top 10 institutions in the green league (including your own university) appeared in the top 100 places in the NSS. Are you saying that, if the NSS took ESD seriously as a focus, then your scores (and those of like-minded institutions) would increase?
Director
Of course. This is why we have spend so much time lobbying HEFCE to change the rules.
Interviewer
That sounds rather self-serving.
Director
Not at all! If the NSS took ESD seriously, then all universities would have to do so as well, whether they liked it or not.
Interviewer
Thank you, Director. All the very best for 2015.
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