Our Progress To-date
Working within the recommendations of the Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education, which was established in 2019, we have developed our “Road Map” for the future.
The college has a formal commitment to statement, which identifies the importance it places on developing and delivering sustainable practice.
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Sustainability and Net Zero Commitment Statement
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As the foundations for our actions:
- Leaders have set net zero targets
- We have published net zero targets and progression milestones towards achieving them
- Signed the Global Climate letter.
- We use our established Sustainability Committee to drive activity across college
- We have incorporated net zero ambitions into Strategic Plan and establish ring fenced budget.
Our approach to sustainability is informed by the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. These 17 goals were adopted by all UN member states in 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
They can be summarised as (select a goal to find out more):
Eradicating extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030 is a pivotal goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Sustainable Development Goal 2 is about creating a world free of hunger by 2030.
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development.
Providing quality education for all is fundamental to creating a peaceful and prosperous world. Education gives people the knowledge and skills they need to stay healthy, get jobs and foster tolerance.
Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. There has been progress over the last decades, but the world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030.
Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being. Billions of people will lack access to these basic services in 2030 unless progress quadruples.
Goal 7 is about ensuring access to clean and affordable energy, which is key to the development of agriculture, business, communications, education, healthcare and transportation.
Goal 8 is about promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.
Goal 9 seeks to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Economies with a diversified industrial sector and strong infrastructure sustained less damage and are experiencing faster recovery.
Reducing inequalities and ensuring no one is left behind are integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Inequality within and among countries is a persistent cause for concern.
Goal 11 is about making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Today, more than half the world’s population live in cities. By 2050, an estimated 7 out of 10 people will likely live in urban areas.
Goal 12 is about ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, which is key to sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations. Unsustainable patterns of consumption and production are root causes of the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
The global temperature has already risen 1.1ºC above the pre-industrial level, with glaciers melting and the sea level rising. Impacts of climate change also includes flooding and drought, displacing millions of people, sinking them into poverty and hunger, denying them access to basic services, such as health and education, expanding inequalities, stifling economic growth and even causing conflict. By 2030, an estimated 700 million people will be at risk of displacement by drought alone. Taking urgent action to combat climate change and its devastating impacts is therefore an imperative to save lives and livelihood, and key to making the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals.
Goal 14 is about conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources. Healthy oceans and seas are essential to human existence and life on Earth. They cover 70 per cent of the planet and provide food, energy and water.
Goal 15 is about conserving life on land. It is to protect and restore terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and stop biodiversity loss. Healthy ecosystems and the biological diversity they support are a source of food, water, medicine, shelter and other material goods.
Goal 16 is about promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. People everywhere should be free of fear from all forms of violence and feel safe as they go about their lives whatever their ethnicity, faith or sexual orientation.
Goal 17 is about revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda is universal and calls for action by all countries – developed and developing – to ensure no one is left behind. It requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society. The Sustainable Development Goals can only be realized with a strong commitment to global partnership and cooperation.
We look to embed actions that support these goals in our day-to-day operations. We will continue to promote the positive actions we have already taken and scale up our activities to meet our objectives. We do this through our Sustainability Steering Group.
Our future actions
Our future actions to drive ownership of this agenda across all staff, students and stakeholders will include:
- Developing a way to measure audiences’ perception of the college’s impact on sustainability
- Working closely with third party consultants develop a more sophisticated measure for our carbon footprint
- Deliver training to our Wider Management Team to ensure this agenda is part of the core behaviours of all staff and students and built into schemes of work.
