2. 2
Contents
About 3
Awards 4
Accreditation 5
Key Events 6
Curriculum Projects 8
Supporting Students 9
Training 10
The Bigger Picture 11
Publications 12
Report compiled by
Aisling E. P. Tierney, Research Associate, August 2016
For more information on ESD activities email esd-team@bristol.ac.uk.
3. 3
About
Initiatives undertaken by the ESD Team
Our Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) project is an
ambitious, University-wide venture which aims to enable every
one of our students to gain the knowledge, skills, attitudes and
values needed to create a sustainable future.
Our understanding of ESD is based on the UNESCO definition of
sustainability, which calls for respect for:
the dignity and human rights of all people throughout the world,
with a commitment to social and economic justice;
cultural diversity, with a commitment to build a culture of
tolerance, non-violence and peace;
the rights of future generations, with a commitment to
intergenerational responsibility;
the greater community of all life forms, including the protection
and restoration of the Earth’s ecosystems.
This framework also stresses the importance of critical thinking,
using interdisciplinary approaches to challenge existing ideas
about what – and how – we learn.
The ESD team works closely with students and academic staff to
embed these concepts into our curriculum. In doing so, our
students learn how the decisions they make will impact on the
world, and how they can challenge and build upon existing
concepts of ecological sustainability and social justice.
To ensure that we understand the changing nature of the formal
curriculum, we conduct regular reviews of the ESD content within
all our units and programmes. This helps shape our engagement
with academic schools. We provide a wide range ofonline
resources, tailored for each school, as well as delivering training
sessions to staff and students as part of the CREATE scheme, the
University’s continuing professional development scheme for
academics.
A key method for embedding ESD within the curriculum is through
the Green Apple Scheme, a funding mechanism that supports
academics who wish to develop new teaching and learning
practices. Through this scheme, teaching staff receive support to
develop projects that embed ESD principles within their discipline,
and students can contribute ideas and suggestions to help shape
the future of their courses.
Did you know?
Over 85 per cent of undergraduates have an
opportunity to study sustainability within
their course.
4. 4
Awards
Celebrating success for ESD
Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service 2016
The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award
given to local volunteer groups across the UK to recognise
outstanding work in their communities. The awards were created
in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, and winners are
announced each year on 2 June – the anniversary of the Queen’s
Coronation.
University of Bristol students who work in the community have
been honoured with the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.
Thirty-nine per cent of students at Bristol gave time to
volunteering in 2016, with more than 100,000 hours given in total.
Students volunteered on projects ranging from sustainability
initiatives to work helping children with disabilities, young carers,
adults with learning disabilities and isolated older people.
The Green Gown Awards 2015 & 2016
The Green Gown Awards recognise the exceptional sustainability
initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges across
the UK. The University was shortlisted for the Student
Engagement category in both 2015 and 2016
Green Gown Awards 2015 & 2016 - Student Engagement
Finalists
University of Bristol and University of the West of England -
Student Capital: Green Capital: Unleashing the power of Bristol
Students
Green Gown Awards 2015 - Student Engagement Finalists
Bristol SU - Learn Act Engage Create: a four-step approach to
embedding sustainability into the student experience
Bristol Post’s Green Capital Awards 2016
The University and Union were nominated for several Bristol Post
Green Capital Awards. The Student’s Union was up for the
innovation award, while ESD Academic Lead, Chris Willmore, was
in the running for green hero. On the night, the University won the
Green Public sector award.
University Awards 2016
The ESD Team's Hannah Tweddell was awarded the University
Award for Enhancing the Student Learning Experience.
Guardian Award 2016
The Guardian University Awards honour universities for projects
that transform the lives of students and communities. Bristol SU’s
Sustainability project was shortlisted in the Sustainability Project
Category.
Bristol SU Awards 2015
Two members of the ESD Team shortlisted in this year's Bristol
SU awards: Martin Wiles, shortlisted for UoB Staff Member of the
Year, and Aisling Tierney, shortlisted for the Sustainability Award.
5. 5
Accreditation
External benchmarking for ESD
Responsible Futures 2015-2018
Responsible Futures certification is awarded to a whole institution
in recognition of fostering an environment where sustainability
learning can thrive. The Responsible Futures accreditation mark
provides a framework that helps cultivate top-down institutional
change and develop social norms around sustainability education
in both the formal and informal curriculum.
The University, in partnership with Bristol SU, was one of 13 UK
institutions to take part in the recent Responsible Futures pilot,
coming out with full accreditation at the end of a two-day audit that
assessed how well the partnership embeds social and
environmental responsibility in all its activities. The auditors
praised Bristol for its strategic approach to embedding educational
sustainable development (ESD) across the institution, stating that
levels of knowledge and understanding of ESD were ‘well
developed and robust’.
Environmental Management System 2014-2016
We have achieved certification to the world’s most recognised
environmental management system (EMS) standard: ISO 14001.
ISO 14001 is an international standard that provides a framework
for organisations to understand, manage and improve their
environmental impacts and performance. It helps us put
environmental management at the heart of everything we do,
enabling us to achieve success in our sustainability goals. This
includes our teaching and learning initiatives.
well developed
and robust
6. 6
Key Events
Making ESD visible
A Student's Guide to Sustainability Conference 2015 & 2016
Organised by students from the Green Curriculum Team, this
annual conference aims to demonstrate that students are
conducting a wide variety of interesting sustainability related
research as part of their courses. Undergraduate and
postgraduates alike gather to review posters and talks presented
by fellow students. In 2016, topics included research on
smokeless cook stoves, human rights and population growth, CF4
emissions and their risks, the benefits of veganism, biomass
willows and their potential to help the bee population, and what
you can do to become sustainable.
Engage Café 2015 & 2016
Bristol SU Get Green hosted the monthly Engage Café, a
sustainability network with different discussion themes at each
event. Past themes have included Future Cities and Fairtrade.
The Green Curriculum Team also led
Bristol SU Get Green Engage Café meetings were very
successful, exploring a range of environmental, economic and
social topics. Over 285 students attended six Cafes through 2015
to discussed issues including divestment, Fairtrade and future
cities. Each Engage Café was led by a different individual or
group of students.
Sustainability Speaker Series 2016
In the run up to the sell-out student-led research conference, A
Students' Guide to Sustainability, the Green Curriculum Team
hosted a series of exciting speakers who are challenging their
field to make a more positive impact on the World.
The series challenged students to think about how their courses
equip them with the skills to change the world, and see how their
skills could be used for good in the community.
BIG* Bristol is Global 2015-2016
The ESD Team supported the launch of the Bristol is Global
(BiG*) project. Seven teams came up with concepts to answer the
question "How can we further emotionally engage students, senior
University management and the wider community in tackling
climate change?". The University-wide competition and movement
for global change announced 'The OR Campaign' as the overall
winners with their concept for interactive campus installations that
visualise environmental issues.
7. 7
Key Events
Making ESD visible
International ESD Symposium 2016
The University of Bristol and University West of England hosted
and international symposium Learning from the sharp end:
implications for sustainability in higher education. The joint
university event was well attended with high-profile speakers
including Justin Dillon, Andrew Smith (HEFCE), Jamie Agombar
(NUS), Sara Parkin (Forum for the Future) and Carolyn Roberts
(Gresham Chair of the Environment). Core themes explored
included student-led activities, skills and engagement in the formal
curriculum, and the campus and city as living laboratories.
EAUC Annual Conference 2016
The ESD Team were delighted to be part of this year's EAUC
conference (Environmental Association of Universities and
Colleges). The theme for the 2016 Annual Conference was
Learning and Legacy: The Role of Education in Creating
Healthier, Happier Cities.
Our academic lead, Chris Willmore, was a keynote panel session
chair on Bristol's year as the 2015 European Green Capital.
Aisling Tierney spoke on "Achieving Curriculum Change for ESD
in Cash-Strapped Times" (presented jointly with Peter Rands,
Director of Sustainability Development, Canterbury Christ Church
University).
Sustainability in Higher Education Conference 2016
Canterbury Christ Church University’s Sustainability in Higher
Education: Challenges and Opportunities conference opened in
the grounds of St Augustine's Abbey and featured a talk on
Sustainability and Heritage. The main event featured an
impressive line-up of fascinating talks and workshops, including
our own well received sessions. Academic lead Chris Willmore
spoke on Bristol’s Green Capital student project while Aisling
Tierney presented on the suite of Green Apple Scheme projects
support by ESD funding.
Whole Earth Exhibition 2015
WHOLE EARTH? is based on the premise that the future belongs
to today’s young people and that students and universities
everywhere can play a major role in making society more
sustainable. The exhibition provides the kind of evidence
students need to join the debate about their future. It serves as an
invitation to students and their tutors to articulate the kind of world
they want to live in and show political and business leaders
support to take the difficult long-term decisions that underpin
security for all.
8. 8
Curriculum Projects
Enhancing teaching and learning for ESD
Bristol Futures
While studying at Bristol, our students gain a wide range of
knowledge and skills that are not only vital to getting the most out
of their time at university, but also in preparing them for whatever
comes next.
Bristol Futures is being designed with input from academic
schools, prospective applicants, current students, and employers
to clearly define what makes the ‘Bristol Graduate’ unique. The
development of these transferable skills and attributes will be built
around three pathways, including Sustainable Futures. The ESD
Team is working closely with the project group to deliver
sustainability-related support within this pathway.
Green Apple Scheme
The Green Apple Scheme targets all areas of the institution,
including estates, research, the informal and formal curriculum.
This Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) small grants
scheme offers students and academics at the University of Bristol
the opportunity to develop projects that are discipline specific but
also relate to ESD. Individuals and teams can apply for any
projects relating to taught programmes (including undergraduates
and taught postgraduates). In 2015 and 2016, five projects were
funded by the Green Apple Scheme.
Ethics and Anatomy: student skills and reflection during an
excursion to the Hunterian Museum
Centre for Comparative and Clinical Anatomy, Faculty of
Biomedical Sciences
Green Impact for Health
Centre for Academic Primary Care, Faculty of Health Sciences
Teacher Education for Sustainable Futures
Graduate School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences and
Law
Site-Specific and Immersive Performance
Department of Theatre, Faculty of Arts
Embedding Sustainability Thinking into Fieldwork: placing student
learning at the heart of community engagement
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts
9. 9
Supporting Students
Enhancing the student experience for ESD
Green Capital: Student Capital
The Green Capital: Student Capital project aimed to place
students at the heart of Bristol’s European Green Capital 2015
year, encouraging and facilitating student engagement in a wide
range of both curricular and extra-curricular placement and
volunteering activities with a Green Capital focus.
The University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) and the
University of Bristol – with their respective students’ unions –
worked in partnership with the city and local communities, using
Higher Education Funding Council for England Catalyst (HEFCE)
funding to promote student involvement in Green Capital activities
across Greater Bristol.
Student Capital created a broad programme of citywide impact
during European Green Capital. It delivered a programme of
student and staff engagement in enhancing sustainability within
the city and has developed student and staff engagement with
sustainability action.
Students in Bristol gave 109,730 hours of their time to engaging
with local organisations, tackling issues of sustainability in the city
and wider region. This equates to 64.5 years’ worth of work
provided to date, and an economic contribution of £1,051,736.
The Student Capital project engaged with over 7,500 students in
the Green Capital year.
NUS Sustainability Survey 2016
Understanding our students’ views on sustainability helps us to
respond to what students want and reflect on what we are doing.
74% of students agree that universities should be obliged to
develop student’s social and environmental skills as part of their
courses.
74% of students agree that the University of Bristol takes action to
limit the negative impact it has on the environment and society.
66% of students agree that being a student at the University of
Bristol encourages them to think and act to help the environment,
and other people.
Change Makers
The Green Capital Change Maker Award was created to mark the
contribution of University of Bristol students to European Green
Capital in 2015 and beyond. To achieve the award, students need
to have completed 7 hours of volunteering or engagement with the
city in a social, economic or environmental sustainability related
activity. Students also need to have shared their action, to
encourage others to take action too. For Gold Change Maker
students need to have completed 20 hours. Students have taken
part in an exciting range of activities and have written blogs about
their experiences.
10. 10
Training
Developing confidence for ESD
Teaching and Learning Workshops
CREATE (Cultivating Research and Teaching Excellence) is the
University of Bristol's continuing professional development
scheme for academics. It provides academic staff an opportunity
to enhance their practice within a world class research-intensive
university and to gain national recognition for their commitment to
developing their role. The scheme contributes to the University’s
commitment to research and educational excellence.
The ESD Team regularly deliver ESD workshops to both staff and
postgraduate students who teach, embedded within CREATE.
Student Leader Training
ESD training was provided for Bristol SU course reps during
induction and again at the Bristol SU Leaders conference.
Attendees were encouraged to join the Green Curriculum Team,
consider the sustainability-related open units available at the
University, and think about different types of learning strategies for
sustainability.
11. 11
The Bigger Picture
The University’s wider vision
Vision and Strategy
The launch of the University's new Vision and Strategy highlighted
how important sustainability is to the institution. Sustainability is
embedded in everything we do: the research we support, our
curricula, the student experience we offer and the way we behave
as an organisation.
The Vision and Strategy identifies the institution’s key aims:
Seek to mainstream sustainability in the minds of all our students
and nurture future leaders in sustainable thinking.
Boost our world-class research capacity and promote policy
innovation in sustainability.
Continue to set ambitious institutional targets in areas such as
transport, water usage and energy usage.
UNESCO GAP Commitment
The overarching goal of the Global Action Programme (GAP) on
ESD is “to generate and scale up action in all levels and areas of
education and learning to accelerate progress towards
sustainable development”. The University signed up to the
UNESCO programme to ensure ESD opportunities are part of
every students experience at Bristol.
Global Sustainable Literacy Test
Bristol was amongst the first wave of collaborators with the Global
Sustainability Literacy Test. This is a global initiative to develop a
way of assessing how prepared our students are to tackle some of
the key challenges in social, economic and environmental
sustainability facing the planet in a manner which is culturally
sensitive but enables comparisons.
The test was designed to measure the knowledge and skills
students have for dealing with sustainability challenges, not their
attitudes to it – it thus measures how future fit our students are in
terms of their capacity to handle key global challenges. The
average score for Bristol students was 55.8%. This compares to
an average score in England of 53.82% and a global average of
53.28%.
Skills Bridge
There are currently nearly 50,000 studying across both
universities of Bristol on a range of courses. Many of these
students work with organisations across the city not just as a way
of learning new skills, but also being part of the community. They
volunteer, do projects and dissertations as part of their courses,
and take up paid roles in organisations either as interns, parttime
work or on placements. The University of Bristol and the
University of the West of England have set up a new web
platform, Skillsbridge, to make it easier for organisations to
connect with students across both Universities on these
opportunities.
12. 12
Publications
Sharing best practice
Press
Read interviews with the ESD Team in the special Bristol's green
light edition of Nonesuch magazine: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/
alumni/news/read-nonesuch-online/spring-2015/
ESD Team member Hannah Tweddell featured in the EAUC's
Meet a Professional series. Read about her role as a
Sustainability and Engaged Learning Coordinator on the EAUC
website: http://www.eauc.org.uk/
meet_a_sustainability_and_engaged_learning_coor
Reports
Clayton, W., longhurt, J., Willmore, C., Bigg, M., Brooks, I., Dare-
Edwards, E., Darwen, J, Corpo, Rd, Gough, G, Heywood, G, Hills,
S, Howells, L-K, Hyland, F., Idle, J., Khan, H., Miller, K., Owen, D.,
Sharratt, J., Talbot, H., Tierney, A., Tweddell, H. & Walsh, A.
2016, ‘The Bristol Method: Green Capital: Student Capital: The
power of student sustainability engagement’. UWE, Bristol
Willmore, C., Longhurst, J. & Clayton, W. 2016, ‘Review of the
contribution of Green Capital: Student Capital to Bristol's year as
European Green Capital’. UWE, Bristol
Journal Articles
Willmore, C., 2016, ‘Student Capital in Green Cities: Building -
university-student-city coalitions’. in: Leal Filho, W., Brandli, L.
(eds) 2016 Engaging Stakeholders in Education for Sustainable
Development at University Level. Springer Berlin, Berlin
Tierney, A., Tweddell, H., Willmore, C. 2015 "Measuring education
for sustainable development: Experiences from the University of
Bristol", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education,
Vol. 16 Iss: 4, pp.507 – 522
Willmore, C. 2015, ‘Reflective Action: linking informal and formal
curriculum learning’. in: Education for Sustainable Development
Pedagogy: Criticality, Creativity, and Collaboration: PedRIO
Occasional Paper 8., PLymouth, pp. 23-28
Willmore, C. 2015, 'Experimentalist governance and ESD;
Deproblematising decentralization'. in Education for Sustainable
Development: Towards the Sustainable University: PedRIO
Occasional Paper 9. vol. 8, Plymouth, pp. 23-25.
Willmore, C. & Tweddell, H 2015, 'Experiences of ‘Reflective
Action’: Forging Links Between Student Informal Activity and
Curriculum Learning for Sustainability'. in W Leal Filho (ed.) 2015
Transformative Approaches to Sustainable Development at
Universities: World Sustainability Series., Chapter 36, Springer
International Publishing Switzerland, Switzerland.
Willmore, C. 2015, 'City Student Sustainability engagement as a
locale for developing intercultural competencies'. in Copernicus
Alliance European Network on HE for Sustainable Development
Madrid.
Resources:
Search for Bristol ESD wiki online to access our
extensive open-source database
13. Aisling E. P. Tierney, Research Associate
Academic Quality and Partnerships Office: Academic Registry
Room 2.04, Senate House, Bristol, BS8 1TH
Email a.tierney@bristol.ac.uk
bristol.ac.uk/green/doing/sustainability-courses/
