APPENDIX 35
Memorandum from The Royal Academy of Engineering
SUMMARY
Whilst environmental sustainability has attained
a higher profile amongst the general public in recent years, the
significance of economic and social sustainability seem relatively
poorly understood. Comprehension of the basic concepts and overarching
nature of sustainability is vital if the public are to engage
with the Government's sustainability agenda. Moreover, the Government
must ensure that measures are in place to back up their policies
with practical action that both demonstrate their commitment to
sustainability, and enable the public to participate in sustainable
behaviour, for example by recycling household waste. A perception
that the Government is pursuing short-term policies at the expense
of sustainability will inevitably lead to disillusionment and
disengagement of the general public.
It is imperative that the Government reviews
its approach to education for sustainable development. One key
aim should be to make behaviour that does not comply with the
principles of sustainability socially unacceptable. However, the
Government must also acknowledge that, particularly in the current
financial climate, businesses will probably need to be enticed
through rewards, or compelled through penalties, to adopt sustainable
practices. Finally, the Government must work to make sure that
practical, accurate and impartial information is available regarding
what constitutes sustainable behaviour, in order that consumers
and businesses can make well-informed decisions.
1. Is a lack of public engagement and understanding
a real obstacle to the Government's progress on its sustainability
agenda?
1.1 There is concern that the public still
equates sustainable development with traditional "green"
issues, such as recycling. Sustainability is, however, a broad
and complex concept that encompasses environmental, economic and
social components. Thus far the Government has not succeeded in
communicating this. Since all three elements are central to the
Government's sustainability agenda, a lack of public understanding
of the nature of sustainability is highly likely to impede Government
progress on its agenda.
1.2 The Government's efforts to promote
their sustainability agenda are further hampered by a lack of
public engagement. This in part stems from the impression that
the Government has not backed up their agenda with serious, practical
action.
1.3 For example, the long-term under-funding
of public services is in itself a serious barrier towards sustainability,
whilst the application of the Climate Change Levy to nuclear energy
called into question the rationale behind the tax. Other examples
of the Government's perceived lack of conviction in following
up its sustainability agenda include the failure to provide facilities
for processing disused fridges, resulting in the "fridge
mountain", and the dearth of convenient opportunities for
separating household waste.
1.4 The Government's efforts to promote
sustainability are also undermined by apparent differences in
interpretation of the sustainability agenda between Government
departments. The perception remains that for at least some departments,
rates of growth and productivity take priority over sustainability.
This belief represents a significant barrier to public engagement
with the Government's sustainability agenda.
Have there been any studies to show this? Please
refer to practical examples where possible.
1.5 A recent survey carried out amongst
second-year undergraduate students in the Engineering department
at Birmingham University revealed a lack of understanding of even
basic concepts relating to sustainable development. For example,
greater than 90% of these students had little or no understanding
of the Kyoto protocol. This lack of understanding and engagement
is almost certain to obstruct the Government's efforts towards
implementing their sustainability agenda.
1.6 Numerous other studies have been carried
out to examine awareness and take-up of specific voluntary schemes
relating to sustainable practice at a local level, including surveys
by the Advisory Committee on Business and the Environment and
other Green Business clubs, Business in the Environment, Groundwork,
the Eco-schools initiative and DEFRA (and its predecessors).
2. Is there a need for a national strategy
for education for sustainable development? Would additional infrastructure
be required to deliver a coherent, national strategy?
2.1 There is a need for a national strategy
for education for sustainable development. There is little point
in creating a new infrastructure for delivering the national strategy—the
existing infrastructure should be made to operate more effectively.
2.2 The impact of the Government Sustainable
Development Education Panel has been minimal, possibly due to
insufficient resources for funding of its research and promotion
of its activities.
2.3 The central aim of the national strategy
should be to make unsustainable practice of any form socially
unacceptable.
2.4 The strategy must address sustainability
at the economic and social, as well as environmental, levels.
It must be concerned with the global nature of sustainability,
placing it in an international context.
2.5 The national strategy should encompass
education of children from primary school onwards and the education
and training of adults, for example through community involvement
and continuing professional development.
2.6 The national strategy must include measures
to ensure that educators themselves are sufficiently well-informed.
For example, teachers need to be familiar with the three-pronged
nature of sustainability (environmental, economic, social) if
they are to explain this concept to students.
2.7 Furthermore, there must be sufficient
information to support the national strategy regarding what is
considered to be "good" or "bad" for sustainability.
At present, the sustainability debate tends to be dominated by
a number of interest groups promoting their own, often conflicting,
views. This leads to confusion amongst individuals or corporations
wishing to pursue sustainable practices.
2.8 For example, the water industry has
to discern whether the benefits derived by treating sewage effluent
to higher standards are outweighed by the energy intensive nature
of the treatment process. Similarly, the construction industry
needs guidance regarding which building materials are ultimately
more "sustainable". It is vital that accurate and unbiased
information is readily available if the national strategy is to
succeed.
3. Are existing awareness raising Government
campaigns such as "Are you doing your bit" effective
and well-targeted? Have past campaigns been evaluated? How could
they be improved in the future?
3.1 The general conclusion is that the Government's
campaigns have not been effective. Respondents to this consultation
were not aware of whether past campaigns have been evaluated.
3.2 For future campaigns to be successful,
they need to be translated into local terms and should address
local dissemination, monitoring and provision of feedback to participants.
3.3 The impact of Government campaigns could
be greatly increased by using prime time television programmes
to communicate the campaign message. It has been suggested that
a Government subsidy for such programmes might be a more productive
way of spending the advertising budget.
3.4 The effectiveness of future educational
campaigns may also be improved by encouraging industry to assist
in their instigation. An example of this is provided by BMW's
"Hydrogen—Mobility of the Future" education programme.
Universities could also play a similar role. In general, future
initiatives should enlist the cooperation of partners who can
help disseminate the campaign message and implement the campaign
recommendations.
4. Are there existing education programmes
relating to sustainable development which might be considered
good practice? These might include in-house training schemes for
education for sustainable development for employees and stakeholders
within businesses, the civil service, and other organisations.
4.1 The Royal Academy of Engineering has,
since 1998, run a highly successful scheme whereby leading-edge
industrial practitioners work as university Visiting Professors,
in unison with experienced lecturers, to develop teaching materials
based on case studies. This material enhances both the teaching
and understanding of sustainable development.
4.2 Other noteworthy schemes for education
for sustainable development include: the University of Surrey's
programme for senior members of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office;
HE21 programmes developed and monitored by "Forum for the
Future"; and the Eco-schools programme.
4.3 As alluded to earlier, there are also
educational initiatives operated by businesses. These include
successful programmes in which businesses have opened their in-house
training initiatives to the wider local community as well as their
own employees.
4.4 More specifically, BAA Plc has won praise
for its sustainable regeneration programme around Stansted Airport,
whilst Vauxhall Motors and Anglian Water Group both publish sustainability
reports about their local activities, prepared in accordance with
Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. These are just a few examples
of the many corporate programmes in operation.
4.5 Some development agencies and local
councils have also initiated or contributed to successful educational
programmes for sustainable development and issued sustainability
reports. Advantage West Midlands and Birmingham City council have
both participated in education for sustainable development initiatives.
Are there elements of successful strategic communication
programmes in other areas which could be applied to education
for sustainable development? For example, from other Government
awareness campaigns such as those for drink driving, AIDS and
smoking.
4.6 Awareness campaigns for drink driving,
AIDS and smoking convey a single, simple message. Sustainability
in its entirety is a complex issue, therefore various discrete
aspects of sustainable behaviour would have to be targeted in
individual campaigns. Such individual campaigns must not, of course,
be at the expense of communicating the global, over-arching nature
of the concept of sustainability.
4.7 Sustainability is an ethos that does
not yield direct, material, personal, or corporate, reward. Similarly,
failure to observe sustainable practices does not incur any punishment
or personal or corporate loss in the short-term. As such, it is
difficult to promote sustainability using campaigns analogous
to those for drink-driving, AIDS and smoking.
4.8 Moreover, it is hard to entice companies—and
to some extent individuals—to comply with a sustainability
agenda without invoking either penalties for unsustainable behaviour
or rapidly achievable, significant rewards for sustainable practices.
Hence, awareness-raising and educational campaigns are most likely
to succeed if coupled with measures for enforcement, whether in
the form of penalties or benefits for bad or good practice, respectively.
4.9 Perhaps the single most useful lesson
to be drawn from the above-mentioned examples was the success
of the drink driving campaign in attaching a significant social
stigma to this behaviour. The sustainability agenda would benefit
greatly if unsustainable practice—by both companies and
individuals—was rendered socially unacceptable.
February 2003
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