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Tomorrow is here, it’s time for action!

Assessing ESD in LAIBS Curriculum Project Proposal 2014 - 2015

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Foreword !The GoGreen Future is a new project created by the GoGreen Movement together with the National Unions of Students (NUS) aiming to promote the practical application of education for sustainable development (ESD) in higher education institutions.!Followed by the success of the previous GoGreen projects (e.g. GoGreen Pilot’12) we want to continue to share our passion and enthusiasm towards education for sustainable development. Working together with the NUS we want to assist Lord Ashcroft International Business School in achieving their sustainability goals.

GoGreen Team

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GoGreen Future !Mission To support higher education institutions across the world to produce future-ready sustainably minded graduates through practical methods.!Vision Education for sustainable development as a core element in the higher education sector to help overcome the challenges of sustainability.!

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What do we do? We promote a model of action learning and action research, in which students participate actively in the discussions, research and ongoing embedding of education for sustainable development. We work in partnership with academics and stakeholders like the National Union of Students and the LAIBS Centre for Innovation in Business Education (CIBE).!How can we start? We are working with the National Union of Students to develop the internationally-used Green Impact model to provide educators with the tools they need to embed ESD in any curricula.

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Objectives a. To have a group of students working with NUS and LAIBS in order to create, test and evaluate a pilot on Green Impact Education.b. To establish a creative dialogue with the LAIBS Centre for Innovation in Business Education, and make this idea one of the themes of CIBE.c. To create a platform for action learning and action research for the students who will be doing their dissertations or research in this area, liaising with the Internship Programme or any other student engagement program at ARU.

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Assessing ESD in LAIBS Curriculum Project Proposal 2014 - 2015 !Background NUS has been developing and delivering a portfolio of pro-environmental change programmes at students’ unions, tertiary education providers and community organisations since 2007. They have a strong reputation in the UK and have developed these programmes to help strengthen students’ unions and provide excellent extra-curricular opportunities for students as well as helping organisations meet their environmental needs and normalising sustainable behaviours. !This document outlines a proposal for how the GoGreen Future with the Green Impact model will work for LAIBS at ARU, looking in greater detail at the presence of ESD in the curriculum and allowing students to audit and suggest ideas for enhancement. !!!!

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The Green Impact Model Green Impact is a sustainability accreditation scheme that historically encourages pro-environmental behaviours by staff in departments at universities. It empowers sustainability champions, providing them with a framework of practical actions, helping them gain recognition for their efforts in making the organisation more sustainable, whilst playing on the competitive spirit of staff working in teams. At the same time it provides local students with skills development, learning and research opportunities as well as volunteering time; aiding their personal development. Green Impact is run in students’ unions, universities, colleges, NUS’ own offices, hospitals, local government, national government departments, charities and private-sector organisations amongst others. !!ESD in the curriculum Embedding ESD in the curriculum is becoming of increasing importance in the UK and this can be seen in activity from both the academic and student communities in the last few years. The GoGreen Movement and NUS feel that the time is ripe to start to look at what they can do to support this movement, and one way to do this would be to pilot using the Green Impact model to provide a more detailed audit of the curriculum in a particular school or faculty at a university.

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ESD in the curriculum of ARU Sustainability is included in the aims and objectives in the Corporate plan 2012 - 14 and Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy of ARU. Embedding ESD is found in both documents. For example, the ARU Corporate Plan 2012-14 states “Incorporate sustainability across the curriculum and embed generally in student life and activities. Achieve a place in the top ten of at least one environmental benchmarking scheme” (ARU, 2012, p.17). !Moreover, in 2014 ARU aims to achieve a 50% mark, which represents the percentage of students who say that sustainability was a feature of their experience (ARU, 2012, p.17). The Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy, with regards to student engagement and support, states: “Embed an ethos of education for sustainability, which will feature throughout a students study and support processes. (ARU, 2011, p.10).!!!Following is a project proposal for how GoGreen Future in collaboration with NUS will work with LAIBS to apply the Green Impact model in a way that positively engages the staff and student community at the business school to assess and to recognise the existing ESD practice in the curricula, and to academic staff on how to further enhance the curricula.!!

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How will GoGreen Future embed the Green

Impact model in LAIBS? Each cycle of Green Impact consists of six main steps, and this will be the same process for Green Impact in the curriculum. These are repeated each year to promote continual improvement. It’s vital that a flexible approach to delivery is taken so that the programme is suitable to the needs of the faculty. The model outlined in this document should be not taken as absolute but instead considered as guidelines for discussion and approval by LAIB, the participating students’ union and NUS. !

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Step One Planning, staff and student engagement and workbook development !A kick-off meeting involving stakeholders such as ARU SU, senior management of LAIBS, NUS and the GoGreen Future team, will be held in order to plan the year ahead in terms of engagement and to develop the workbook. Workbook development will be led by NUS and will have feed in from ESD academics from across the UK. Once drafted this will be shared with LAIBS as a first draft and will be further developed with input from a selection of academics at the business school and GoGreen Future team. Staff and student engagement will be led by the GoGreen Future team with input and training from NUS as required. Fully engaging with the academic community at the Business School before their curriculum is audited by trained students is of vital importance, as the point of Green Impact is to engage people in a positive way with the sustainability agenda.!Step Two Planning, staff and student engagement and workbook development Staff members in different areas of the Business School will then be encouraged to form teams who then complete the workbook to achieve as many of the criteria as possible. Much of this will be asking staff, potentially with the support of trained student Green Impact Project Assistants, to discover what is already being taught in the Business School that is good practice ESD and being aware of this. In addition, staff will be looking to set plans to target areas for improvement. As this is the first year running Green Impact in the curriculum, a baseline survey of staff can be undertaken before they begin to enable their behaviours and attitudes towards sustainability in education to be analysed and used as a baseline for on-going monitoring and evaluation of the programme.!

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Step Three Support, communications and student involvement It is vital staff feel well supported throughout the project. Central support will be facilitated by NUS but delivered by the GoGreen Future team. Support available will depend on what staff request but could include a mix of webinars, workshops, newsletters and the provision of tools and resources to help staff to use the workbook easily. In addition, team members will be provided with Green Impact branding that they can use in publicity and communications in their area. NUS and the GoGreen Future team will be in regular contact to ensure relevant resources are available and strong communications are maintained. !!Step Four Workbook submission and audits After a set time frame, staff in different areas of LAIBS will submit their workbooks, having uploaded their evidence if applicable and shown what they have achieved to date. A team of volunteer student auditors will be recruited and trained to remotely audit each participating area of the curriculum. Students will review evidence on the workbook and conduct a half an hour interview with a representative staff member from the curriculum area. The audit process is vital to verify the results of the programme, provide staff with support, and identify good practice examples of ESD in the curriculum. NUS’ auditor training is approved by IEMA and is beneficial for student employability, as well as introducing them to ESD and the working practices of curriculum development at ARU. Following the audits, workbooks will then be amended as required, and staff may be required to submit further evidence. !!

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Step Five GoGreen Future Awards 2015 Once results have been verified, a GoGreen Future Awards 2015 event will be held to celebrate the individual and collective achievements of those involved. Senior management and key stakeholders will be invited and will hopefully result in positive local media stories. Awards will be given for silver and gold winning curriculum areas, certificates for all participants including those who are ‘working towards’ an accreditation. Winners’ digital logos will be provided for use in their publicity. In addition, a number of special awards will be awarded to people, ideas and innovations that have been nominated by staff and the GoGreen Future team.!Step Six Feedback and evaluation Finally, a two-way feedback process will be facilitated. Each curriculum area will receive a confidential and bespoke feedback report showing what they achieved, how they compared to others in LAIBS, and which areas they can improve upon. LAIBS will also receive an impact report showing the extent to which the programme has effected change across the participating sites. In return, NUS will collect feedback from participants to evaluate the value of the programme and to ensure it is being delivered to its full potential. Participant’s feedback will also feed into Green Impact’s development for future years. As this is the first year, we can also focus groups with people involved to gain deeper insight into the impact of the programme as well as running follow-up behavioural surveys for staff. NUS will highlight any good practice case studies from the programme in our wider Green Impact communications, once the project cycle closes in 2015. The programme is cyclical in nature, and is based on the principle of continual improvement. Each year a number of additional criteria are added, raising the bar so teams have to improve. Similarly, the Green Impact team often develop additional aspects of the programme between each cycle based on ideas from participants to ensure that the programme itself continually improves. The whole experience will be reflected on in a journal article written by the GoGreen Future team.

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For any other information please contact: !

Dr. Beatriz Acevedo (ARU)beatriz.acevedo@anglia.ac.uk

!Romas Malevicius (ARU)

romas.malevicius@anglia.ac.uk!

Charlotte Taylor (NUS)charlotte.taylor@nus.org.uk

!GoGreen Team

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