Exploring the current position of ESD in UK higher education institutions

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the position of education for sustainable development in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector with respect to the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and Higher Education Academy (HEA) Guidance for education for sustainable development (ESD). Design/methodology/approach: By means of a mixed-method approach underpinned by a concurrent triangulation design strategy, this research presents evidence from an online questionnaire survey and in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings: Insights are presented from case studies of a group of UK Higher Education Institute (HEIs) which have made significant progress in embedding ESD in the curricula. Research limitations/implications: Central to this study is an exploration of the ESD integration process of this group including a description of the approaches to integration, the challenges faced and overcome and the critical success factors. It examines the role of a guidance instrument in simplifying and accelerating the ESD curricular integration process. The results of the study show that there is a multitude of integration approaches applied varying in their emphasis. Practical implications: The main challenge HEIs face is engaging staff that may question the relevance of the ESD concept, and that lack an understanding regarding its implications for their discipline. Critical success factors identified are institution-wide people support, high-level institutional support and funding. The QAA and HEA guidance has successfully supported HEIs in developing their ESD commitments. Originality/value: The results of this research can support HEIs in developing their own approach to ESD, as they learn from similar UK HE providers, particularly with respect to overcoming barriers and enhancing critical success factors to ESD curricular integration

Review of the contribution of Green Capital: Student Capital to Bristol’s year as European Green Capital

• Students in Bristol have given over 100,000 hours of their time to engaging with local organisations and tackling issues of sustainability in the city and wider region. This equates to 56.3 years’ worth of work provided to date, and an economic contribution of £642,061.• The Student Capital project has been instrumental in engaging over 7,500 students in the Green capital year. • The Student Capital project has celebrated and rewarded the efforts of students through the new Change Maker award. This award is given to students that have given both their time and effort to tackling the sustainability challenges we face. There is also the Gold Change Maker award, which is given to those students who have made an outstanding contribution.• In addition to the dissemination activities described above, the Student Capital was also a finalist for the national 2015 Green Gown Awards in the Student Engagement category, based on only the first six months of the project.• Student Capital has generated significant academic output about student sustainability engagement which demonstrates the value of involving Higher Education institutions in tackling the key challenges we face in society today. This knowledge base will be made available via the Student Capital Repository.• The Student Capital project has created Skills Bridge as a legacy for the ongoing partnership between students, the Universities, and organisations across the city and the region

Bristol urban integrated diagnostics project. Challenge theme report: Carbon neutral city

This report presents the key findings of the Carbon Neutral City theme of the Bristol Urban Integrated Diagnostics (Urban ID) pilot project, one of its four themes and five case studies. Urban ID was one of a small number of projects funded by the seven UK Research Councils and Innovate UK’s Urban Living Consortium to explore sustainability in city contexts. Urban ID brought together researchers from the two universities in Bristol, representatives of Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire Council, the Bristol Green Capital Partnership, Bristol Health Partners, community groups and companies to explore and co-create means of diagnosing urban sustainability problems and potential solutions.The carbon neutral city theme explored four key questions:•What does ‘carbon neutrality’ means for the Bristol Urban Area (and what is the Bristol Urban Area) and over what timescale should such a vision be achieved?•What are the barriers to decarbonisation across the three scopes of carbon emissions (energy use; energy supply; consumption of goods and services)?•Can Urban ID co-design top-level aims and aspirations for the Bristol Urban Area in relation to carbon neutrality up to 2050?•Can carbon neutrality for the Bristol Urban Area include ‘all embodied carbon’ as well as emissions from energy use and supply?The project team concluded that in order to develop a pathway to carbon neutrality for the Bristol urban area there are several key questions to be addressed:1) What is the carbon budget for the urban area associated with energy production and use in the city region across different sectors – energy supply, domestic, transport, industrial and commercial?2) What are the current emissions from scopes 1, 2 and 3 (energy use; energy supply; and consumption of goods and services)?3) What are the ‘business as usual’ projections for emissions to 2030 and 2050 and how do these differ from a carbon neutral pathway?4) What mitigation actions are needed in different sectors to ‘zero’ the per-capita emissions value and how can carbon budgets assist with this?5) What is the embedded carbon in goods and services consumed and items purchased in the urban area and is this included in the carbon neutral definition? 6) What level of carbon sequestration is it appropriate to consider to offset any remaining emissions after mitigation actions across sectors?7) What are the geographical and economic boundaries of the Bristol Urban Area in relation to the carbon neutrality definition?8) What is the baseline year and what is the end point/target year for the Bristol Urban Area?The project reveals significant challenges in attempts to design and implement a pathway to a carbon neutral city, but also offers a range of insights and suggestions as to how the above questions might be addressed

Enhancing the communication potential of smart metering for energy and water

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The success of water and energy smart metering is highly contingent on a successful communication strategy. We report on the findings from a qualitative study involving discourse analysis of customer messaging and focus groups with utility professionals. Discourse analysis suggests that the primary framings applied are “control” “convenience and “savings”. Focus groups revealed paradoxes contained in these framings as the participants associate metering with the loss of control over private data, inconvenience during the installation process, and lack of financial gains if customers’ lifestyles cannot support “smart” decisions. Future communications should be tailored to the values and needs of consumers

Co-designing food waste services in the catering sector

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present results from the action research project, where sustainability professionals, local businesses and academic researchers collaborated on exploring barriers for food waste recycling in SMEs food outlets in order to inform local policy and business practices in Bristol, UK. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers conducted face-to-face, qualitative surveys of 79 catering businesses in three diverse areas of the city. The action research methodology was applied, where a range of co-researchers contributed towards study design and review. Findings: The research reveals the main barriers to recycling and how such perceptions differ depending on whether the respondents do or do not recycle, with “convenience” and “cost” being the main issue according to the already recycling participants. On the other hand, participants who do not recycle state that their main reason is “not enough waste” and “lack of space”. Practical implications: Participants recommended a range of measures, which could improve the current food waste services in Bristol. For example, they suggest that business engagement should address the barriers voiced by the participants applying the framings used by them, rather than assuming restaurants and cafes are not aware of the issue. By inviting a variety of non-academic stakeholders into the process of research design and analysis, the project addressed the imbalances in knowledge production and policy design. Originality/value: Despite the local and qualitative focus of this paper, the results and research methodology could act as a useful guide for conducting food waste action research in the policy context

Residential-source emission inventory for the Niger delta: A methodological approach

This paper describes the methods applied to construct a GIS-based emission inventory infrastructure for specific air pollutants and greenhouse gases released from domestic cooking and lighting in the Niger Delta using publicly accessible data. The purpose is to identify and enhance knowledge of existing data gaps in order to progress the development of appropriate mechanisms to collect data in formats required for more accurate emission estimation. The major data gaps identified, which are demographic, activity-based, emission factors and spatial distribution of sources, are consistent across the majority of developing countries. Consequently, the methodological approach focuses on the use of a series of assumptions, emission factors from regions similar to the Niger Delta, and population estimation techniques to generate input data to support the limited publicly available government and research-based data. Developing countries with similar data limitations will benefit from the transferrable methodology. The infrastructure, which is constructed at 10 km-grid resolutions, produced total emission estimates of 70 kt/yr CO, 50 kt/yr NOx, 3 kt/yr PM10, 2.4 kt/yr SO2, 60 t/yr VOC, 5.7 mt/yr CO2 and 2 kt/yr CH4. Domestic lighting using generators and domestic cooking using firewood and kerosene constitute sources of significant emissions of air pollutants in the region. Due to the limited accuracy and completeness of currently available data, the estimates generated have high uncertainties

Facilitating stakeholder dialogues on a carbon neutral city: We need to talk about carbon (and air quality)

© 2018 WIT Press. The issues surrounding successful public engagement with climate change mitigation policy and decision-making have been extensively researched and identified as barriers to long-term civic and civil engagement. The challenge of transforming our urban spaces to mitigate and adapt to climate change was a key theme of the Bristol Urban ID project, which explored the “business as usual” approaches in policy, practice and engagement that limit truly transformational actions. As part of the project, a Carbon Neutral Bristol 2050 roundtable was held with civic leaders and stakeholders. Discussions focussed on defining carbon neutrality targets, “scopes” and boundaries for Bristol, exploring the opportunity for Bristol to be a carbon neutral city leader, how to build political, business and citizen space for engagement with carbon neutrality, and the role of Bristol Green Capital Partnership (BGCP), a cross-sector network of over 800 organisation working for a sustainable city, as an enabler and facilitator of change. The findings demonstrate a need for organisations working on interconnected environmental, social and wellbeing, and economic issues in cities, such as carbon neutrality and air pollution, to communicate and collaborate. Partnership working is essential to improving city-wide engagement in carbon and air quality management decision making, and to developing integrated city sustainability management strategies that recognise co-benefits and trade-offs. A set of guidelines highlight the need to create political space for people and organisations to talk about carbon and air pollution to develop city plans

Policy disconnect: A critical review of UK air quality policy in relation to EU and LAQM responsibilities over the last 20 years

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd This paper critically reviews United Kingdom (UK) air quality policy in relation to European and Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) responsibilities over the last 20 years. The arguments articulated in this paper highlight the gulf between national and local air quality management in the UK, including differences in legislation, legal responsibilities, scales of operation, monitoring and modelling requirements, exceedence reporting and action planning. It is argued that local authorities cannot be held responsible for the UK's failure to achieve the European Union (EU) nitrogen dioxide (NO2) limit values due to fundamental differences between local government responsibilities under LAQM and the UK compliance assessment reporting to the EU. Furthermore, unambitious and counterproductive national policies and the failure of EU light-duty vehicle type approval tests and Euro standards to reduce real-world emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) are the main reasons for continued NO2 limit value exceedences. This failure of EU and national air quality policies has effectively undermined local authority action to improve local air quality, resulting in delays in achieving the standards, wasted resources at local and national levels, and, ultimately, unnecessary loss of life and increased morbidity in the UK population. This paper concludes that the current emphasis that the UK government is placing on implementation of Clean Air Zones (CAZs) to achieve the Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) (AAQD), and avoid substantial fines imposed by the European Court of Justice (CJEU), is flawed. Based on the arguments presented in this paper, a series of recommendations is proposed for the European Union, the UK government, devolved administrations and local authorities