SRC Sustainability Report 2022/23

Sustainability Report 2022/23

Southern Regional College is committed to establishing the highest possible standards of sustainability across all our core activities.

We recognise the role of education in enabling students to develop the knowledge, skills, values and behaviours needed for sustainable development, ensuring they are equipped to meet the rapidly changing demands of the world. We recognise our role in contributing to local and national initiatives regarding carbon reduction and the climate emergency

Creating a Sustainable Inspired College is one of the College’s strategic aims and we aim to use our position as an education and training provider to inspire and promote a sustainable culture in everything that we do.

To help us achieve this we have three underpinning objectives namely:

• To develop and support a sustainable workforce.

• To embed the UN Sustainable Development Goals in all aspects of college life and to provide students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to promote sustainable development.

• To embed sustainable practice in all aspects of college operations.

We have recently signed up to the SDG Accord and have committed to reporting annually on the progress we make in contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Reports from all signatory institutions are collated to provide a summary report of how both the Higher and Further Education sectors are contributing to the SDGs globally which is presented each year to the UN High Level Political Forum.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals

The UN Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked Global Goals that are designed to be a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.

They are an urgent call for action by all countries, both developed and developing, in a global partnership.

They recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth, all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. The SDGs were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.

Our Sustainability Framework

To aid in our commitment to establishing the highest levels of sustainability across all our activities, the College has a Sustainability Working Group that promotes, co-ordinates and monitors the development and implementation of sustainability initiatives across the College.

Each Academic and Business Support area are required to annually evaluate and report on the progress made in embedding the SDGs within their practices as part of their sectional reviews.

The team includes four Heads of Faculties who throughout the year, promote and encourage student awareness and engagement with Sustainability and the SDGs within the context of their specialist areas.

To guide and support our activities we have a Sustainability Framework that operates within three top level headings of People, Place and Process which naturally interlink and overlap.

Sustainability Framework

Our Sustainability Goals

Our Sustainability Goals outline our aspirations for the forthcoming year informed by the findings within our annual SDG Accord Report. Progress against our goals is monitored at each Sustainability Working Group meeting.

1 2

Engage students with the Sustainable Development Goals through Teaching and Learning by:

• Raising student awareness of SDGs within the context of their course

• Exploring ways in which the SDGs can be further highlighted and promoted within the curriculum

• Exploring ways to effectively and accurately map where and how the SDGs are embedded within the curriculum

3

Take climate action by:

• Replacing the College Carbon management plan with a new Sustainability plan for all sections of the College to ensure we have an integrated road map for achieving carbon neutrality

• Sourcing Carbon Literacy training for staff

• Ensuring sustainable procurement practices are embedded in our procurement policies, procedures and guidelines

• Collaborating with key regional stakeholders on the climate emergency

Raise awareness of sustainability and the SDGs across the College by:

• Establishing and maintaining a Sustainability SharePoint resource for staff

• Roll out Sustainability and Environmental training for College lecturing and support staff

• Incorporating Sustainability as part of the SRC Corporate Health & Wellness events

• Working collaboratively with the Student Union to increase engagement

4

Build partnerships for the SDGs by:

• Consolidating our existing partnerships

• Establishing new partnerships

Key achievements this year

Established SRC Sustainability Working Group

Reduction in carbon emissions:

• Upgrades and investments across the Estate have contributed to a reduction in energy consumption and carbon emissions. Our emissions from heating have reduced by 16% against the 2016/17 baseline year and electricity emissions have reduced by 53%

Signed up to the UN SDG Accord

Sustainability Framework established to inform all aspects of our activity

Further development of our process for mapping sustainability across the curriculum:

71% of courses mapped coverage of the SDGs within student projects, demonstating student engagement across a broad range of SDGs, particularly with SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing, SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Key aspirational Sustainability Goals identified for the forthcoming year(s)

Extended our engagement with local and national networks and partnerships

Rolled out Sustainability Training to 184 full-time curriculum staff

Student Services have established a series of workshops that can be linked to our SDG targets

Our Students

Key Activities this year

In 2022/23 the Southern Regional College Students’ Union (SRCSU) elected 3 Sustainability Officers whose role ensures student representation and input into both the College and Students’ Union sustainability activities. Sustainability Officers have benefited students by creating awareness, providing opportunities for involvement, fostering skill development, and making the College campuses a more environmentally conscious and responsible community.

SDG addressed in 2022/23

Our Students’ Union

SRC partnered with Friends of the Earth to deliver extracurricular youth leadership programme called ‘My World My Home’. My World My Home is a programme that trains young people aged 16-24 to understand and begin to change problems in their community and beyond. Friends of the Earth delivered training on climate justice and support students in creating a campaign that solves a problem they see in the world around them. The success of this program has led to the SRC Sustainability Working Group inviting a student to represent the student body in the working group.

The Student Engagement Team have developed an extensive club and societies programme to address and promote equality and diversity within the student body. Students participate in:

• Women’s Society

• LGBTQ+ Society

• Cultural Diversity & Inclusion Council

• Neo Diverse Lunchtime Club

The Pink Present Initiative, funded through the Department for the Economy, offers a range of FREE sanitary products available across all campuses

Our Students’ Union

A Sustainability Induction is delivered to SU Officers and course reps to promote the sustainability development goals of SRC, UN Sustainable Development Goals and the My World My Home programme.

The Student Engagement Coordinator, a referral agent for local foodbanks, can refer students and staff at SRC to access food parcels and support from the relevant community partners. 11 SRC students and 4 staff members being assisted.

The Student Engagement Team, supported by Southern Regional College Student Union (SRCSU), launched the College’s toy appeal in November as part of the College’s commitment to the #GoodforMeGoodforFE initiative and focused on asking staff to donate a present. This appeal aimed on supporting all College students who have presented as experiencing family and financial pressures due to Christmas. This was a hugely successful initiative with a closing tally of 300 toys and £200 toy vouchers, helping 12 students and 21 children.

The ‘Educational Eats’ initiative operated in all SRC Campuses and offered all students the chance to avail of a free breakfast every morning.

The Student Engagement Team distributed Winter Wellness Packs to all students. These packs consisted of a woollen hat, coat, scarf and a snood. To coincide with this and to raise awareness and increase the number of students availing of the initiative, the student engagement team organised a Mental Health Roadshow. The event was successful in recognising and celebrating the challenges and successes that people deal with on a daily basis and showcasing innovative developments within the sector and share best practice methods.

Through these various initiatives, 13,451 items were donated (figure includes free breakfasts, Warm Clothing and Hygiene packs and foodbank items).

The Survey

All teaching and learning at the College ensures that students acquire the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to enable them to progress into employment within their chosen industries.

For the first time in 2022/23 we have developed a process of mapping the contribution of courses to the goals across all courses, recording where the SDGs are integrated in curriculum content and delivery. This will inform how they are embedded within individual students' projects. 71% of courses have mapped the coverage of the SDGs within the curriculum and student work.

Within each course there is a natural alignment with many of the SDGs, with student work demonstrating engagement within the context of their individual practice.

This year a review was conducted to align courses with the SDGs

321 186 81 25 135 24 116 103 49 44 6 146 5 169 53 108 11

Our Teaching, Learning - Higher Education student work

Digital Construction Sustainable Design Project

As part of the Digital Construction Foundation Degree course, students used BIM models to provide a digital representation of a building’s physical and functional characteristics and to model prefabricated components and modular construction systems. They investigated the use and impact of more efficient sustainable materials and techniques. The project showed how incorporating eco-friendly materials and sustainable construction practices, such as green roofs and passive solar design, helps reduce the environmental impact of construction and how using different technologies could influence the College’s future carbon footprint. The work considered the impact of human behaviour with that of sustainability and considered where global resources are known to be insufficient to support future generations.

Peter Farrelly Retrofit Installers

As part of the Rural Economic Accelerator Programme

Peter delivered training to 49 students on the installation of modern retrofitting technologies and keeping the integrity of the original building protected. Retrofitting will be a key skill required to improve the carbon efficiency of our existing housing stock.

HND in Computing Project Electronic Recycling Project

The HND students completed a project on the environmental impact of digital transformation and the resultant e-waste as part of their course. The amount of data created and stored globally is expected to reach 175 Zettabytes by 2025, a six-fold increase from 2018.

This will demand additional hardware and power consumption, which in turn, will increase the environmental impact of the digital sector and there is already increasing attention on the environmental footprint of ICT equipment and services. The students’ project included addressing the challenges of climate change whilst continuing to support and drive innovation, whilst addressing the global climate emergency for a greener and fairer future. They carried out both primary and secondary research and analysed the data presenting both local and global solutions.

Agrifood

Influence & Information

We were delighted to host the AgriFood Infrastructure Enabling Growth Shared Island project, a unique collaboration with a shared commitment of Galway and Leitrim County Councils partnered with Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. The project aims to develop Excellence Centres in Food Innovation and Agritech across three key themes and eight actions of Priming Capital Plans, Climate Action and the establishment of the first cross-border Food + Agritech Innovation Network. We will test the feasibility of new investment projects to be delivered by our cross-border Local Authority partnerships.

Kaloyan Stefanoy Project Based Learning Sustainability Award

Kaloyan presented a project based on his work with the Greenpower Electric G0-Kart and how his team have developed the design for supplementary parts to improve performance and efficiency of the vehicle as part of their project.

Further Education Staff Feedback

Do you think a College should play our part in addressing sustainability by integrating the UN SDGs into the curriculum where possible?

94% of Respondents (134 of 143) answered this question

How confident do you feel about addressing sustainability as part of your course

Are sustainability issues addressed on your course

Actions to Date

Introduced Electric Vehicles to our fleet

Completed LED Lighting upgrades across the campuses (value £1.1m)

Designed and built our new campuses to BREEAM Excellent Standard

Plans to replace our older less efficient campuses with new, energy efficient buildings

Focus on paperless processes and a reduction in printing of our prospectus

Delivered ED session to 184 lecturing staff

Monitoring of energy usage with 7% reduction against baseline to date with a target of 30% by 2030

Have worked with Friends of the Earth on “My World My Home”

Have courses on Electric Vehicles, Solar PV and other green technologies

Established a Sustainability Working Group

Implemented a Sustainability Framework

Added a section to the College Development Plan

Signed up to the SDG Accord and reported to EAUC on progress

College Free Breakfast initiative

Provided a Sustainability Tile on SharePoint landing page. Completed an initial audit on our curriculum alignment to the SDG Goals

SRC “Women Returners” programme

Procurement Policy - responsible sourcing

Online meetings

Reductions in evening campus opening saves energy

Delivery retro-fit training to 50 students in partnership with SWC

Appointed a H&S and Environmental Systems Officer

SRC Estate

SRC’s programme of ongoing estate improvements, including the College’s new build strategy, has supported the optimisation of energy efficiencies throughout our campuses.

Southern Regional College has been reporting utilities consumption since 2017 as part of The Energy Management Strategy and Action Plan for Central Government to 2030. The Action Plan sets a 30% Consumption reduction to 2030, based on a 2016/2017 base year. When measured against a 2016/17 baseline year our total 2022/23 heating consumption has reduced by 7%, whist our carbon emissions have decreased by 16% as we moved from high oil consuming campuses to more energy efficient buildings and heating methods. Further planned upgrades of the estate will assist heating consumption reduction and reduce our carbon footprint.

Further planned upgrades of the estate will assist heating consumption reduction and reduce our carbon footprint. Since 2017, 100% of our electricity supply has been procured from green, clean, renewable sources which supports the decarbonisation of our estate. Overall, there has been a 53% reduction in carbon emissions from electricity.

In addition, our small but powerful solar panels at Armagh and Banbridge have generated over 120,000 kwhr of electricity

As we returned to full occupancy post pandemic, we have sustained a steady position in the annual reduction of consumption and carbon. The Estates Team continues to seek innovative and effective opportunities to further reduce the energy we use.

Our Energy Consumption

Total heating consumption in kWhr and carbon emissions in tCO2e Total consumption (Kwhr) 8,000,000

Total Kwhr

Total tCO2e

Total electricity consumption in kWhr and carbon emissions in tCO2e

consumption (Kwhr)

Total Kwhr

Total tCO2e

Initiatives to reduce consumption & improve our carbon footprint

LED Lighting

We have invested £1.1 million in energy efficient LED lighting upgrades in Newry East, West and Greenbank with further upgrades planned for Portadown and Lurgan.

Automated Meter Reading

Automated meter reading technology has been rolled out across the estate to enable reading of real time utility data to improve reporting and reduce consumption.

Boiler upgrades

New energy efficient boilers have been installed in Newry West and Newry Model.

Electricity

We procure our electricity from 100% green renewable sources which supports decarbonisation of the estate.

Electric Vehicles

The College fleet has been upgraded to include three fully electric cars.

Waste

In partnership with RiverRidge, we recycle or generate an energy source from at least 97% of our waste. Waste Derived Fuel created from our waste heats industry such as Belfast Harbour Estate.

Water

Grey water harvesting is used at Armagh to flush all toilets and urinals, reducing mains water consumption.

Electric Vehicle Charging

Electric vehicle charging is available for staff and students at Armagh, Banbridge, Newry West and Greenbank. We plan to expand the roll out to Portadown and Newry East.

Great Careers Start Here

info@src.ac.uk www.src.ac.uk 0300 123 1223 facebook.com/SouthernRegionalCollege twitter.com/srcchat instagram.com/SouthernRegionalCollege linkedin.com/company/southernregionalcollege