How Sustainable is UCT? (Part 1)

1. Increase Awareness of Environmentally Sustainable Development

Use every opportunity to raise public, government, industry, foundation, and university awareness by openly addressing the urgent need to move toward an environmentally sustainable future.

UCT's student-led Green Campus Initiative (GCI) has been instrumental in voicing concerns around environmental sustainability. They have yet to receive committed institutional support, however.

The SRC has formally voiced its commitment to encouraging a more sustainable UCT via their Environmentalism Charter, published in 2012.

The African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI) was established quite recently as the primary channel for climate change-related messages within UCT and beyond, although this initiative is academic by nature.

2. Create an Institutional Culture of Sustainability

Encourage all universities to engage in education, research, policy formation, and information exchange on population, environment, and development to move toward global sustainability.

Sustainability as a permeative goal is yet to be achieved at UCT, especially since it does not even appear as one of the Strategic Goals. To date, the institutional policies that have been adopted have not raised the bar: they are modest enough as to be achievable in the short term.

However, UCT has committed to publishing a biennial sustainability report via the ISCN-GULF charter, and a regular carbon footprint report is starting to become the norm. This consistent documentation will hopefully encourage more sustainable operations.

3. Educate for Environmentally Responsible Citizenship

Establish programs to produce expertise in environmental management, sustainable economic development, population, and related fields to ensure that all university graduates are environmentally literate and have the awareness and understanding to be ecologically responsible citizens.

While “environmental sustainability” appears in the curricula within the faculty of engineering faculty and the department of environmental sciences, there are currently no plans to introduce, for example, a half-course for undergraduates that is required for graduation.

4. Foster Environmental Literacy For All

Create programs to develop the capability of university faculty to teach environmental literacy to all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.

There has been no formal policy to encourage faculty to incorporate environmental literacy into their teaching, with the exception of curricula that already have overlap with environmental issues.

5. Practice Institutional Ecology

Set an example of environmental responsibility by establishing institutional ecology policies and practices of resource conservation, recycling, waste reduction, and environmentally sound operations.

The Green Campus Action Plan, which is driven by UCT’s Sustainability Coordinator and is the responsibility of the Environmental Management Working Group (EMWG), has resulted in several changes towards more sustainable operations on campus, including:

• recycling on campus (which was initiated and driven by students of the GCI, and is now managed by Properties and Services);
• retrofitting with energy-efficient lighting, a project that is on-going;
• Ridelink, a web-based carpooling platform with a dedicated parking lot for carpoolers (this was also initiated within the GCI); and
• bicycle lanes.

Although these are significant changes, there are still many actions to be taken under the Green Campus Action Plan, which currently have no targets.

6. Involve All Stakeholders

Encourage involvement of government, foundations, and industry in supporting interdisciplinary research, education, policy formation, and information exchange in environmentally sustainable development. Expand work with community and nongovernmental organizations to assist in finding solutions to environmental problems.

While there might be some involvement of external parties with researchers or practitioners at UCT, there are no clear policies outlining such collaborations.

A dedicated “sustainability fund” for projects initiated by individuals within the UCT community could help to achieve this commitment to stakeholder involvement—an example is that of McGill University.

7. Collaborate for Interdisciplinary Approaches

Convene university faculty and administrators with environmental practitioners to develop interdisciplinary approaches to curricula, research initiatives, operations, and outreach activities that support an environmentally sustainable future.

There are no targets to achieve this goal as yet, however as long as there is no “home” for campus sustainability at UCT, it will be difficult to drive this particular effort.

8. Enhance Capacity of Primary and Secondary Schools

Establish partnerships with primary and secondary schools to help develop the capacity for interdisciplinary teaching about population, environment, and sustainable development.

While no targets have been set for this goal, there is much potential to work with groups such as the Schools Improvement Initiative (one of UCT’s four Strategic Initiatives) or with the student-led SHAWCO, which is well-established and has a large following.

9. Broaden Service and Outreach Nationally and Internationally

Work with national and international organizations to promote a worldwide university effort toward a sustainable future.

UCT has joined the ISCN-GULF as a signatory, which commits the university to submitting an annual sustainability report, thereby enabling meaningful comparisons between UCT and other institutions.

BlueBuck is a student-governed umbrella organisation which facilitates networking between groups like the GCI—however, it is not supported by the university.

The ACDI is an academic initiative that seeks to foster communication and collaboration between researchers on climate change-related topics, but is not involved with campus sustainability initiatives.

10. Maintain the Movement

Establish a Secretariat and a steering committee to continue this momentum, and to inform and support each other's efforts in carrying out this declaration.

This appears as an item on the Green Campus Action Plan, but no targets have been set, and “campus sustainability” has not found a home in anyone’s office.