How our work in Scotland will continue to benefit Members

15th April 2014

Universities and colleges in Scotland have received a firm commitment of support from the Scottish Funding Council to drive carbon reduction, embed sustainability, improve reporting and produce sustainability literate students.

We are delighted to announce that the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has awarded the EAUC a grant of £400,000 over 3 years to deliver support for Scottish institutions on carbon reduction and reporting. The aspiration is to inspire further improvement and commitment from the rest of the UK and internationally.

Jenny Jamieson, Policy Officer for SFC comments, “The Scottish Funding Council are proud to support the pioneering work that EAUC deliver and the effect that has had in reducing carbon in Scottish universities and colleges. The EAUC are putting sustainability at the heart of the sector ensuring we have effective institutions and engaged students.”

This funding will put sustainability at the top of agendas  reflecting the post Diamond sector efficiency ambitions ensuring that students are actively engaged with sustainability through learning and teaching across Scotland.

The EAUC has been running a similar programme in Scotland, which ended on 31 March 2014, and we’re delighted that the SFC has recognised this and confirmed their support for EAUC-Scotland ‘added-value’ activity by providing funding for the next 3 year period.

We have already achieved a great deal through the programme in the last 3 years:
• 100% of Scottish universities and colleges signed the Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment for Scotland (UCCCfS)
• Climate Change Action Plans - establishing a valuable progress report which assesses the sector contribution to Scotland’s wider carbon reduction commitments - we will continue to explore if there is a potential wider sector application
• The valuable Topic Support Networks will continue within the new programme - we share insight and knowledge from these Networks to the wider Membership and to our UK wide communities of practice
• Events and training to support the development of the UCCCfS activity - we replicate successful training events in the rest of the UK at discounted rates for Members
• A reporting template has been development with the sector and representative bodies to ensure a consistent but light touch approach to progress against an individual’s Plan. A sector progress report is then submitted to the Scottish Funding Council - we will work together to explore if the template could be used wider across the sector
• We offer bespoke institutional support - beyond the invaluable support Membership provides via the EAUC team and by linking you to others via our networking groups, our Scotland team are able to provide detailed bespoke support for each institution in Scotland. This increases your capacity and efficiency.   

The new 3 year programme will develop collective carbon reduction measures for the sector by 2017 in line with the SFC Outcome Agreement Guidance and Scottish Government priorities. We will provide further support and guidance in this area to increase the quality of data and collation methods. Reporting is vital to demonstrating progress in Scotland, not just to the SFC and the Scottish Government, but also to the wider public sector and beyond.

We will be partnering with key sector agencies, working together to support the delivery of effective learning and teaching practices for sustainability, such as Learning for Sustainability Scotland, the Higher Education Academy and the College Development Network.

As part of the new programme, along with the delivery of the UCCCfS programme, we will be:
• Delivering training and support on sustainability skills to careers advisors in Scotland
• Delivering an enhanced focus on leadership in Scotland

The increased activity in employability and skills is to ensure students can demonstrate they have desirable skills to potential employers and can contribute to a low carbon and sustainability literate society within and beyond Scotland. As a core aim of the programme we will continue to share the good practice, resources and guidance to all of our Members across the UK.

Iain Patton, EAUC CEO says:

“As part of the EAUC-Scotland programme we will be delivering a leadership programme to encourage Scotland's colleges and universities to include sustainability and social responsibility in their policies, strategies and teaching to encourage a more holistic approach to sustainability improvement and accountability.

This will result in increased cost efficiencies and environmental, economic and social benefit throughout institutions with a more holistic approach to social and environmental responsibility. Scotland leading the way will be a blueprint for the rest of the tertiary education sector in the UK and the world.”

Find out more about UCCCfS