Green Gown Awards 2017 - Canterbury Christ Church University - Winner

Building a sustainable future: From start to beginning

As a Church of England Foundation, sustainability is part of our core mission and values. Not until 2010 was this explicitly stated through strategy, or the first person to take an institutional lead was appointed. Since then, a strategic and evolutionary approach has transformed the University, both operationally and academically.

Sustainability is a cross-cutting theme that is supported by a strategic framework. It is managed through a strategic management group that is an executive committee of the SMT. The University has held ISO14001 certification since 2013, supported by the LiFE Index performance improvement framework. Since 2015, sustainability has been built into the annual Business Planning process for all Schools and Departments, and innovative use of the 6 Capitals Model is increasing the understanding of value creation and non-financial reporting.

Christ Church started late in taking explicit action on sustainability, but is now beginning to make a real tangible difference!

Top 3 learnings:

1 Build a resilient infrastructure to support a long-term change programme.

2 Bring stakeholders together around purpose and allow them to lead!

3 Give away what works: No one will remember who started it!

Videos

• Video #1 (click to hide)