Greening Up Your Centre: A Guide for Adult Education Centres

Transcription

1 Greening Up Your Centre: A Guide for Adult Education Centres

2 This kit was compiled by Katrina Shields in December 2010 to support the online professional development workshop called Greening Up Your Centre held on 23 November The webinar was developed and run by Richard Vinycomb and Katrina Shields of Byron Region Community College ( for Adult Learning Australia with funding from DEEWR. Thanks to Jacinta Lithgow and Jessica Hucksley for some of the images. Commonwealth of Australia, 2010 This report has been funded by the Commonwealth through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of DEEWR. 2

3 Greening Up Your Centre The international community has come to recognise that sustainability is essentially an On-going Learning Process Tilbury et al - Education and Frameworks for Sustainability Topics: Greening Up Your 1. Knowledge 2. Vision for Your Centre 3. Relationships and Networks 4. Courses and Marketing 5. Buildings 6. Procurement and every day behaviours 7. Staff 8. Projects and advocacy Throughout the resource we have reflection questions that would be good to discuss with colleagues, your board, users of your centre and to use for personal reflection. 3

4 Greening Up Your Knowledge Why Bother? We see two reasons why a centre should bother to integrate sustainability into their programs: 1. The realities of the environmental crisis including climate change 2. The larger policy context a shift to a lower carbon economy and urgent need for educational leadership Climate Change Predictions NSW Department of the Environment & Climate Change (DECC) and University of NSW forecasts the community in our area needs to prepare for: Higher temperatures (between 1-3 degrees), less rainfall in winter and spring and more rainfall in summer and autumn, more frequent and severe droughts, and more extreme storms including more high rainfall concentrations leading to flooding. There is likely to be sea level rises of at least 40 cm by 2050 leading to inundation of low lying coastal areas. These changes are likely to have significant impacts on agricultural production, water supply, settlements and infrastructure, natural resources, biodiversity and human health. See Summary of Climate Impacts North Coast Region, NSW Climate Change Action Plan, Sept 2008 Department of Environment & Climate Change NSW. 4

5 The Bigger Educational Picture We are in the middle of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable development There are International, National and State policies and action strategies to mainstream education for sustainability into all sectors. There is widespread recognition that adult education will play a key role in bringing about sustainable development. The adult education sector and the VET sector has been recognised as needing urgent up skilling and mainstreaming of education for sustainability. All training packages are currently being reviewed to embed sustainability skills which will require professional development for trainers. There is a an opportunity and responsibility for RTOs to walk the talk. Key Principles of SustainAbility The Precautionary Principle if there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation. Inter-generational Equity the present generation should ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations. 5

6 Biological Diversity and Ecological Integrity protect biological diversity and maintain essential ecological processes and life support systems. Integration the effective integration of environmental, social and economic considerations in decision making. Continual Improvement the declining environmental situation means there is an imperative to take immediate action to become more sustainable and to make continual improvement. Community Involvement recognition that sustainability cannot be achieved, nor significant progress made towards it, without the support and involvement of the whole community. Strong, Growing and Diversified Economy - which can enhance the capacity for environment protection, should be recognised. Improved Valuation and Pricing and Incentive Mechanisms environmental factors should be included in the valuation of assets and services. A key distinction that is worth making is between the notions of Education for Sustainability rather than Education about Sustainability. Sustainable development calls for additional and different processes than those traditionally thought of in education. The quest for sustainability demands new approaches to involve people, rather than convey just a body of knowledge. It requires more critical thinking skills, participation at all levels, innovation, new values and new behaviors. Daniella Tilbury et al in the National Review of Environmental Education and its Contribution to Sustainability

7 Key Principles of Education for SustainAbility Transformation and change equipping people with the skills, capacity and motivation to plan and manage towards sustainability Education for all and lifelong learning education and learning that includes people of all ages and backgrounds and at all stages of life Systems Thinking equip people to understand connections between environmental, economic, social and political systems Envisioning a better future engaging people in developing a shared vision for a sustainable future Critical thinking and reflection valuing the capacity of individuals and groups to reflect on personal experiences and world views and to challenge accepted ways of interpreting and engaging the world Participation participation is critical for engaging groups and individuals in Sustainability Partnerships for change focuses on the use of genuine partnerships to build networks and relationships, and improve communication between different sectors of society Source: Living Sustainably: The Australian Governments National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability, DEWHA, 2009 This challenges us to be more wholistic in our approaches to adult education and makes it even more important to walk our talk in terms of how our centres are run and the environmental impact of our operations. See epa.vic.gov.au/ecologicalfootprint/calculators/ Overall, does your centre communicate any commitment to sustainability? 7

8 Greening Up Your Vision Some of the key issues related to integrating sustainability into your operations are: What does your Governing body agree on? What is expressed in the long term plan? How does it relate to local community and business expectations? Does it take into account all levels of government policies in relation to education and sustainability? Do you have a Vision Statement that is out of step with greening up your centre? 8

9 Greening Up Your Relationships & Information Sources Getting connected for inspiration, information and activation. In our area we connected and formed working relationships with: Local Government sustainability officers, Landcare project officers, State Health Department health promotions staff, University & TAFE sustainability officers. We also looked for tutors amongst the dedicated sustainability practitioners. Even though some of these people did not have teaching experience they had real life experience, passion and commitment. This was particularly important in inspiring students. Also we made extensive educational use of their homes, gardens and farms that were able to demonstrate sustainable living in action. Other valuable resources further afield are: the National Centre for Sustainability at Swinburne Uni, ARIES Centre for Sustainability Education at Macquarie Uni, Australian Conservation Foundation, Dept Environment Climate Change and Water, Victorian Association for Environmental Education and EPA Victoria. Who is already active in sustainability activities or education in your area? 9

10 Some useful subscriptions we use are: E newsletters: ACF Greenhome e news, Landcare e news, Biological Farmers Association of Australia e news. Subscriptions to Magazines: G magazine, ABC Organic Gardener, Australian Alternative Technology Association magazine. Another reason for connecting with other groups is for pooling your resources to provide Education for Sustainability. We work with local government to run energy efficiency workshops, tours of the local water facility, provide composting and green cleaning workshops. We also have a formal partnership with the Mullumbimby Community Garden, with a joint committee to run the education program based at the garden (see the flyer in the appendix.). Are there any relationships that could be formalised for your sustainability education provision? 10

11 Greening Up Your Buildings This involves a combination of behaviour changes plus retro fitting. If you are renovating go for as many green features as you can - including passive solar design! The main areas to consider are - sourcing of renewable energy, energy and water efficiency, waste minimisation including recycling, installation of gardens and provision of bike racks. In the appendix there is a flyer with the features we were able to incorporate into our new campus building which included 30Kw Solar photovoltaic system involving 180 soar panels to feed energy back into the grid. Greening up your buildings involves 3 levels: 1. Encouraging Greener Behaviours could involve getting staff and students into recycling, double sided printing, turning off lights and air con, waste reduction, water saving behaviours and signing up for Greenpower. 2. Installing Minor retro fits could include more efficient lighting, standby power off switches, overhead fans, dual flush toilets, water saving taps, waterless urinals and compost bins. 3. Undertaking Major works if you are renovating or adding on could include installing solar power, solar hot water, integrate some passive solar design features and improve ventilation. All these features will have major energy and water savings over the life of the building. 11

12 Even if you are renting your building there are changes and choices you can make that will save money, power, water and resources as well as green house gas emissions. See The Green Lease Guide : available at wwwenvironment.nsw.gov.au/sustainbus/greenlease.htm The Green Lease Guide provides commercial office tenants with a guide of what to consider when choosing a building and designing an office fit out. The guide explains what a green lease is, what to look for when choosing a building and outlines what to consider when designing an office fit out plus provides valuable tips on choosing equipment and sources of further information. Are there any incentive schemes or sources of funding to help you retrofit or renovate? Federal? State? Local? Private? 12

13 Greening Up Your Procurement & Everyday Behaviours Sustainable Procurement means sourcing products that have environmental benefits or saving of resources: What sort of paper do you buy? Where do your catering supplies come from? Do you use recycled furniture or equipment? What alternatives do you provide to bottled water? Everyday behaviours: Do you encourage recycling? Practise separation of organics eg use a bokashi or other compost bin? Do you have default double sided printing? Turning off all non essential equipment and lighting? See: : for lots of practical tips. 13

14 What sort of signage do you or could you have to support this? For staff, students, teachers and visitors. Signs and posters can be about encouraging more sustainable behaviours as well as educating building users about your choices. (See appendix) What are your low hanging fruit? What is one sign you could put up or system you could put in place easily now? 14

15 Greening Up Your Courses and Marketing Education not only informs people, it can change them. As a means for personal enlightenment and for cultural renewal, education is not only central to sustainable development, it is humanity s best hope and most effective means in the quest to achieve sustainable development UNESCO 1 This includes general interest courses and accredited training. Some of the non accredited courses we have run include a wide range of backyard food growing topics; designing for water efficiency; green cleaning; energy efficient house design; solar technology; supporting biodiversity, bush regeneration, tours of sustainable houses, gardens, farms and communities. See the flyer in the appendix for a snapshot of one term. We try to keep up a variety These courses referred to officially as general interest courses but we believe they are much more important than that. Community adult education that is flexible and responsive is a key way of changing attitudes, skills and behaviours in the wider community in a shift towards sustainability.. Accredited VET training is another stream ripe for sustainability skills. This may involve introducing new qualifications eg Permaculture or organic agriculture etc. Or it may involve providing new skill sets eg Business sustainability units, organic horticulture units. Some of these have funding available, for instance in NSW the Greenskills program offers funding (see: To support the embedding of sustainability into VET teaching requires professional development of trainers to understand sustainability and how they can integrate appropriate sustainability content into their training and assessing of units of competency. 1 UNESCO 2002 Education for Sustainability, From Rio to Johannesburg. quoted in Tilbury 2005, Vol 1 p 7 15

16 There is an Australia wide Green Skills Strategy that is in the early stages of being implemented. On 7 December 2009, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed a new Green Skills Agreement that will enable individuals and businesses to contribute to a sustainable, lowcarbon economy in their workplaces and communities. The Agreement commits the Australian and state and territory governments to working with training organisations and business to ensure skills for sustainability are an integral part of all vocational education and training (VET) and are relevant to the needs of industry. This commitment will be achieved by: embedding skills for sustainability practice and teaching in vocational education and training, within the requirements of the national regulatory framework the up skilling of VET instructors and teachers to deliver skills for sustainability the strategic review of Training Packages to embed sustainability knowledge, skills and principles implementing a transition strategy to re-skill vulnerable workers. See: nskillsagreement.aspx Greening up your centre may also involve providing professional development for admin staff and trainers. We have started working with the new TAESUS501 Unit Analyse and apply sustainability skills to learning programs. Priority environmental themes for environmental education Climate change - the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the environmental, social and economic costs of climate change 16

17 Total water cycle management - the need for urban and regional catchment-based water cycle management to promote water conservation, prevent pollution of surface and groundwater resources, protect aquatic and floodplain biodiversity, and provide and maintain environmental flows Biodiversity conservation - the need to conserve terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, protect ecosystem health and maintain critical ecosystem services Landscape management - the need for systems-based landscape management to address cumulative impacts of unsustainable land use and promote healthy and productive landscapes Sustainable production and consumption - the need to stimulate change in production and consumption patterns, and encourage waste avoidance, resource recovery and active conservation of resources Pesticide and chemical management - the need to minimise the impacts of hazardous pesticides and chemicals on environmental systems and human health, and promote safer alternatives Air quality - the need for continued action to tackle indoor and outdoor air quality issues that affect environmental quality and human health Sustainable housing and transport - the need to promote innovative urban planning, green design techniques and ecologically sound transport alternatives and networks These courses may need extra or new forms of marketing. We use: A lot of media stories print and radio A special flyer (see appendix) Posters around town networking to target interest groups Work with partner organisations. What new or extra marketing strategies could you use to reach more people with education for sustainability? 17

18 Greening Up Your Staff This might include: Being clear on the management approach, developing a team approach, undertaking a restructure, to creating new position(s), and professional development. Changing attitudes, values and motivation towards more sustainable practices at your centre needs both the focus of one or more people driving and coordinating changes, as well as the general cooperation, motivation and activation of a majority if not all staff. Do you : Have a budget Have someone who is formally responsible to drive the agenda, Ways to develop a team approach Take time for staff team meeting to reflect on the green issues and form strategies Provide professional development opportunities in sustainability, both in-house and external Celebrate your good news stories in the media, 18

19 Greening Up Your Projects and Advocacy After developing the expertise, there is increasing scope for funded projects especially in partnership with community and industry groups. We developed a backyard food growing teaching kit Eden at Home for teaching backyard food growing for the NSW Health Department Health Promotions Unit. We also undertook funded research in VET teaching approaches in 2009: Green Thumbs & Green Goods under the NSW Greenskills in VET demonstration projects. This project investigated how the Retail and Horticulture training packages could wholistically integrate sustainability perspectives and skills. In 2010 we undertook to develop a professional development resource for retail trainers called: Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in Retail - Professional Development Resource Kit funded by NSW Department of Education and Training and NSW the Department of Environment Climate Change and Water. As well as sustainability projects under the E Learning Innovations Program. What programs and sources of funding are you aware of or need to research further? Who might you need to lobby or partner with? 19

20 How would you like ALA and other associations and networks to support you and others in this greening up process? In the Appendix we include a flyer highlighting one terms sustainability courses and a flyer we have for students and staff at our new campus. Bibliography Hopkins, R (2008) The Transition Handbook From oil dependency to local resilience. Green Books UK Learning for Sustainability NSW Environmental Education Plan , NSW Council on Environmental Education National Centre for Sustainability (2007) Standards for Sustainability Resource Manual, NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW Department of Education and Training (2008) Green Skills in VET Participant Manual Tilbury, D. and Cooke, k. (2005) A National Review of Environmental Education and its Contribution to Sustainability in Australia Vol 1: Frameworks for Sustainability& Vol 3: Community Education. Canberra: Department of the Environment & Heritage and Australian Institute in Education for Sustainability. Appendix 1: One of the Living and Working Sustainably workshops flyers. These are distributed alongside the main course catalogue and used in special promotions. Appendix 2: Information Brochure for the new main campus building that highlights the green features and encouraging green behaviours in building users. 20

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