Interview - EAUC

TEACHING A GREEN FUTURE

Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Fiona Goodwin, Director of Operations and Planning at EAUC, about embedding sustainability throughout its members’ operations, how universities and colleges can lead the fight against climate change, and preparing students for a rapidly changing world.

By Daniel Baksi

Launched in 1996, the initial aim of the EAUC (the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education) was to raise the profile of environmental management and to facilitate the improvement of sustainability performance across universities and colleges in the United Kingdom. Over the last decade, as awareness of the need to address environmental issues has increased throughout the further and higher education sector, EAUC has expanded considerably. Today, the organization consists of over 300 institutional members across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and beyond.

GOOD BUSINESS

“It’s our goal to make sustainability good business – not an add on, or a ‘nice to have’, but an essential element that every university and college needs to place at the heart of their strategies,” says Fiona Goodwin, Director of Operations and Planning at EAUC. “We support universities and colleges on their sustainability journey, providing resources, case studies of good practice, and offering the support to help them replicate that success. To that end, we created the Climate Commission for Higher and Further Education – a unique partnership between sector bodies in the U.K., including the Association of Colleges, GuildHE, and Universities UK, helping to deliver the leadership so often lacking from government in terms of the role of universities and colleges in the climate crisis, and what they should be doing to play their part. Looking internationally, we also run an alliance with similar organizations around the world to share knowledge, promote the role of education, and bring voices together. It provides a platform to organizations already facing down the climate crisis – in low-lying or tropical countries – whose voices aren’t often heard. They’re institutions that for a number of reasons are already having to adapt and mitigate against damage, and they can offer a massive learning experience.”

EAUC is also the Secretariat for the SDG Accord, an initiative for universities and colleges worldwide to embed the Sustainable Development Goals and establish collaborations worldwide. “The SDGs provide universities and colleges with a framework by which to examine their operations, teaching and research, and to embed sustainability across the board,” says Ms. Goodwin. “The Accord is a commitment learning institutions are making to one another to do more to deliver the goals, to annually report on each signatory’s progress – and it’s part of our role to present those metrics at the annual UN High Level Political Forum.”

RACE TO ZERO

As part of the SDG Accord, EAUC is also leading the Race to Zero campaign, a global initiative at a higher education and further education level aiming to mobilize leadership and support ahead of COP26 for a healthy, resilient, zero-carbon recovery that creates jobs, unlocks sustainable growth, and reduc-

“WE HAVE NEARLY 700 INSTITUTIONS SIGNED UP, REPRESENTING NEARLY 8.5 MILLION STUDENTS ACROSS THE WORLD.”

es the risk of future shocks. “The EAUC is the secretariat for the Race to Zero campaign across universities and colleges,” explains Ms. Goodwin. “Through the campaign, we’re encouraging universities and colleges to take action to commit to the race to zero – to set challenging targets, to reduce and limit the emission of greenhouse gases, and to devise solid targets and plans on how that’s to be achieved. We have nearly 700 institutions signed up, representing nearly 8.5 million students across the world.”

The COP26 summit is scheduled for November of this year, but the fight to combat climate change doesn’t stop there. “It’s not up-to COP, it’s beyond COP,” says Ms. Goodwin. “We need to guarantee that the pledges and targets made this year are still being met in the future. We’re already working to do that through the Climate Commission for UK Further and Higher Education, and we’ve also developed two further key forms of support, including a Further Education Climate Action Roadmap designed specifically for further education or smaller educational institutions, and outlining a series of steps for how they achieve its targets. We also have a Higher Education Climate Action Toolkit, another useful tool that encourages a comprehensive and holistic approach to sustainability. For any institution, it’s not just about your carbon targets – it’s about your leadership, governance, research, and your teaching, and how you engage with your staff and your students.”

COMMUNITY ANCHORS

As part of its leadership and advocacy functions, EAUC works to ensure that their member institutions are recognized for their contributions to the community. “We need to ensure that universities and colleges are not only heard, but are perceived as anchors within their communities, bringing about real and lasting change,” says Ms. Goodwin. “The recent pandemic has underlined the value of science and research, when we think about which organizations are advising the governments of the world on pressing issues. The climate crisis demands nothing less. Within universities and colleges across the world, we have to find the scientists and experts who have the

knowledge, who understand what’s happening and what it’s possible for us to do – and we need to listen to them.”

EAUC recently hosted their International Green Gown Awards 2021, at which the winners of the Sustainable Institution of the Year Awards were Keele University in the Large Institution category and Polytech Montpellier in the Small Institution category. “The awards represent sustainability in the widest sense,” says Ms. Goodwin. “So many different universities are doing so many different things: promoting the green transition, improving access, achieving equality, and expanding diversity. We had one application that looked at supporting refugees, giving them life skills on how to adapt into the new communities in which they find themselves. Another provides teachers and parents with the skills and tools to help encourage girls get more involved in sport. The awards bring together all of those excellent examples – giving universities and colleges a voice to shout about their work, and providing a showcase for products, projects and ideas, which can then be implemented across an ever-broader range of institutions. Most inspiring of all, our applicants aren’t just big universities with ample resources – they’re small institutions in rural Mexico, in Brazil or Malaysia, all of whom are doing such innovative and groundbreaking work, and really making a difference in their local communities.”

A LEARNING PROCESS

“Within universities and colleges specifically, there’s a real, pipeline of issues that we have to tackle,” says Ms. Goodwin. “This is a pivotal year in terms of ensuring countries and governments take climate change seriously. The pandemic has been traumatic and devastating across the world, but we have to learn from it. We’ve been given a time to reset, to reflect on what our car-crash future was going to be, and to now decide what we can do avoid that. In the UK, we’re seeing change with the Build Back Better program, but it’s important that we’re able to see complete plans with a clear governmental direction.”

“We have to make sure that our teachers, academics, lecturers, and researchers have the experience and knowledge they need to be able to pass that on to students, starting at the very beginning of pupil learning, from primary school through all levels of education,” says Ms. Goodwin. “This isn’t just a topic for geography or environmental studies students. This is for everyone: for the engineers, for politics students, for art students. It cuts across all disciplines, and it has to be embedded throughout. The leaders of tomorrow come from our universities and our colleges, and we have to make sure they’re fit for purpose and equipped with the capabilities to solve these real life, worldwide issues. We’re facing a changing future, so it’s vital that we transform our way of working – both as a society, and as individuals.” c