This blog post is about identifying mutual benefits and partnership building to encourage sustainable development. To make a good partnership you have to build rapport. To build rapport with someone you have to respect their needs, opinion and objectives. Partnerships between stakeholders are key to the achievement of sustainability.
Students are vital for sustainable development..in fact they are the Universities’ biggest opportunity to encourage sustainable development.
The universities based in the UK alone educate 2 million students per year- if those universities are teaching sustainable life skills, then this changes the ethos of nearly half an entire generation in just a decade!
Newcastle University promotes sustainability through its operations and a range of practical actions taken on campus to reduce environmental impact are increasingly linked to the curriculum.
We offer our composter for awareness raising, we lecture on sustainability issues and every year the Sustainability Team employ a graduate from the Clean Technology masters course.
This week we have two new student members who are working on important projects to reduce environmental impact: Adam White is working on the Eco campus EMS for the summer
Lucy Latham is investigating travel related emissions as part of the Carbon Management Plan.
For the first time this year we have been using the students to carry out audit work.
Ayo found a nice rose in the first bin they sampled!
In the forthcoming months, in partnership with the careers service as part of the graduate apprenticeship scheme, we are also employing a recent graduate to help with the Environmental Co coordinator network.
“It’s amazing what you find in the cardboard recycling.” said Ben Green
These types of partnership have numerous benefits. The students get real practical experience in environmental management, giving them a head start when they graduate. And the university gets a high quality piece of significant work which otherwise may not have been done due to resource pressures.
Ben Green, Adam White, Nisha Sheety try not to touch the nice car…
Sustainability requires active partnership working, so that the knowledge and skills emerging in the University community can have real impact beyond the campus as the students graduate and take their skills across the world.