The Executive offered a Sustainable Action Grant (£39,500 in 2005-06 and in 2006-07 and £39,950 in 2007-08) to the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges - Scotland Branch for a Campus Sustainability Programme delivering a review and action plan for promotion of sustainable production and consumption within Universities and Colleges in Scotland. This was given the title Campus Sustainability Programme (CaSPr).
The project engaged with Estates and Procurement professionals across the Further and Higher Education sector and with the student body to promote reduction of the key resource streams of energy (measured in CO2), travel (local community impact and impact of business travel), resources / waste (especially the contribution to the National Waste Plan).
The aim was to engage with 50% of Scottish Universities and 30% of Scottish Colleges in the initial information gathering, deliver six workshops in Year 1 and in Year 2 and at least three workshops in Year 3, design and launch a web-based service to capture the lessons learnt from the project and provide an on-going set of case studies and a body of guidance, and achieve measured improvement in performance of monitored institutions in respect of reduced energy consumption, increased diversion of waste from landfill and a reduction in the proportion of single occupancy vehicle journeys.
The Scottish Association of University Directors of Estates and the Scottish Funding Council for Further and Higher Education identified EAUC-Scotland as the one-stop-shop for guidance and advice on embedding sustainability issues into institutional practices in Scotland. The project built on a similar initiative by EAUC aimed at the Further and Higher Education sector in England.
The EAUC publicised the project at a Campus Sustainability conference in Edinburgh in November 2005. A total of 133 individuals attended representing colleges, universities, government, local authorities, business, non-governmental, educational and environmental related organisations. Speakers included Simon Pepper, then external member of the Scottish Executive's Cabinet Sub-Committee on Sustainable Development, Leith Sharp, Director of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative, and Professor Brian Chalkley, Director of the HE Academy Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences based at the University of Plymouth.
The feedback from the conference was excellent and those attending took home an awareness of the urgency of sustainability issues facing the sector and the opportunities available to improve sustainability performance.
Programme managers for the project were Inga Burton, IAB Consultants, and John Forster, John Forster Associates. The CaSPr steering group was also the EAUC-S Branch Committee and a member of the EAUC-S Committee was appointed as the CaSPr Sponsor to oversee the project. Baseline information (e.g. consumption patterns) of participating institutions were collected. An evaluation strategy was developed.
With additional funding from the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council, CaSPr made contact with all of the Scottish Colleges and Universities and achieved well beyond the target of 30% participation of colleges and 50% Scottish Universities (a total of 24 institutions). By early 2006 29 institutions had applied to participate in CaSPr and commit to improving their sustainability performance with an encouraging response from the college sector (19 colleges and 10 universities).
Feedback from CaSPr participants identified drivers, obstacles and principal areas of support specifically required by the Scottish further and higher education sector. The types of support included training and awareness raising of senior management; opportunities to share information, knowledge, problems and solutions; provision of case studies, development of a knowledge base; and guidance on sources of funding and support.
The project developed a programme of events. Workshop reports and good practice guides were developed for each workshop and made available on the website. Strategic partners were involved with the delivery of all workshops. A student workshop was held. The project established 5 topic support networks and developed individual reports for institutions completing a baseline questionnaire in 2005-06.
On completion of the project there was a Campus Sustainability Conference at Queen Margaret University, Musselburgh, in May 2008. Delegates commented that the structure of the event was very good and that it provided excellent opportunities for networking and learning about what other practitioners were doing in the sector. Delegates commented on the great enthusiasm shown and the evidence of a growth in interest in environmental issues across the sector. Some delegates expressed frustration that higher education institutions were not doing more and emphasised the need for practitioners to persevere as although much was being achieved there was still much to be done.
In 2008, on behalf of EAUC CaSPr, a State of the Campus Survey by the Scottish Funding Council followed the initial survey in 2005-06. This found that more institutions had undertaken waste, energy and travel/ transport audits than audits of other environmental issues. Energy was the issue for which the greatest percentage of institutions was committed to developing a specific policy. Only 29% (8) institutions had a policy on biodiversity, 14% (4) were committed to developing a policy and 32% (9) indicated there was currently no intention to develop a policy on biodiversity. This lack of commitment caused concern because all institutions have a duty to promote the conservation of biodiversity.
Travel and transport budgets were generally in place to enable the implementation of a travel plan which itself had been created because of a planning condition. For nearly all issues, more institutions take action than have policy statements.
39 respondents to the end of programme feedback between them attributed 135 sustainability improvements to their involvement in CaSPr. Respondents reported nearly twice as many improvements deriving from attendance at events compared with accessing the website. Participants commented that CaSPr had helped raise performance and had been high quality work combining a strong grasp of theoretical background to sustainability with good practical experience.
See also the EAUC Scotland website which has information specifically about CaSPr.