{"id":6218,"date":"2015-01-27T06:46:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T06:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6218"},"modified":"2015-01-27T06:46:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T06:46:54","slug":"interview-with-a-director-of-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/01\/27\/interview-with-a-director-of-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with a Director of Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the recent publication of the 2014 People & Planet<\/a> (green) league tables for 2014, here's a transcript of a\u00a0conversation with the Director of Sustainability at one of the successful universities.<\/p>\n

Interviewer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you very much for agreeing to talk\u00a0about your university's success in the People & Planet green league report that was published last week. \u00a0You must be pleased with the outcome as you've continued to do well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Director<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Yes. \u00a0It's very gratifying and reflects a lot of hard work by my team.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interviewer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Memory tells me that you've always been in the top cohort of universities in the green league;\u00a0how have you managed that?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Director<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Yes; that is correct. \u00a0As to how we've managed it, well, we treat it seriously. \u00a0We look at the criteria and we work hard to maximise our scores. \u00a0I 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.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interviewer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

That's good to know. \u00a0I see that only 9% of the green league weighting goes to education. \u00a0Isn't that a bit disappointing for your institution, given your reputation, internationally, for ESD? \u00a0Would you not want a much higher proportion of the weighting to be focused on that? \u00a0The university's main focus\u00a0is learning, after all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Director<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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 \u2013 and it on sustainability. \u00a0Education, and students, is only one aspect of that, albeit an important one, let me stress.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interviewer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Yes; I see that. \u00a0However, the UK has less than\u00a02% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and universities only\u00a0about 2% of the total UK emissions, but universities\u00a0have 100% of the students, doesn't that argue for a much higher weighting in the green league for education \u2013 especially since NUS \/ HEA surveys keep illustrating how important sustainability is to students in HE? \u00a0 Or are you saying that other instruments do that and so there's no need for the green league to focus on it. \u00a0In that sense, should the national student survey, be seen as a complement to the green league, perhaps?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Director<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, as I suppose you know, the NSS doesn't focus on ESD at all, so you can't really add the two together.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interviewer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But doesn't the NSS look at the student experience in the round? \u00a0And, as such, it doesn't have to mention sustainability \u2013 or anything else \u2013 to be a useful measure of the student experience. \u00a0And in this way, doesn't\u00a0it have to be a complement to what the green league looks at? \u00a0Or are you saying that the NSS methodology is flawed whereas the green league approach isn't?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Director<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, all these approaches are approximations to one degree or another, if you'll pardon the pun. \u00a0How they are constructed represents different framings of the university world. \u00a0Many 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.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interviewer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So, does that go some way to explaining why\u00a0so many of those institutions that do well in the green league, do so badly in the national student survey. \u00a0In\u00a02014, 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. \u00a0Are you saying that, if the NSS took\u00a0ESD seriously as a focus, then your scores (and those of like-minded\u00a0institutions) would increase?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Director<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course. \u00a0This is why we have spend so much time lobbying HEFCE to change the rules.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interviewer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

That sounds rather self-serving.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Director<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Not at all! \u00a0If the NSS took\u00a0ESD seriously, then all universities\u00a0would have to do so\u00a0as well, whether they liked it or not.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interviewer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you, Director. \u00a0All the very best for 2015.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the recent publication of the 2014 People & Planet (green) league tables for 2014, here's a transcript of a\u00a0conversation with the Director of Sustainability at one of the successful universities. Interviewer Thank you very much for agreeing to talk\u00a0about...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}