APPENDIX 60
Memorandum from Sustainability Alliance
INTRODUCTION
Members of the Sustainability Alliance welcome
the opportunity to make an input into this important inquiry.
The aims of the Alliance (see annex) include providing independent
advice to government from an interdisciplinary perspective. This
response has been drawn up and endorsed by the following professional
institutions:
— Chartered Institution of Wastes Management;
— Chartered Institution of Water and
Environmental Management;
— Institution of Civil Engineers;
— Institution of Electrical Engineers;
— Institution of Environmental Sciences;
— Institution of Incorporated Engineers;
— Royal Institute of British Architects;
and
— Royal Town Planning Institute.
All of the professional bodies cited (with a
total membership in excess of 200,000) play a role in accrediting
higher education courses. This is because many professions have
phased out their own examinations and now rely on "accredited
"degrees and diplomas as the educational route to membership.
The scale of accreditation varies but for some such as the engineering
professions it is a major component of their work. Continuing
professional training and development for existing members is
also a substantial component of the services offered by professional
bodies to their members. Consequently, professional bodies have
a major influence on the supply side to employment and also in
updating the existing workforce.
In making this collective response we believe
that a fundamental review is required in all phases of education
and training in order to respond to the challenge of how society
handles the destructive effects of human activities on Earth.
Ultimately this should provide a strategy to achieve effective
change in mainstream educational thinking, policy and practice.
The review process should not only determine where each sector
is at present, but also engage as many institutions as possible
in the review process, making sure that it is driven by their
needs. We recognize that a lot of expertise has been built up
over the past decade, even though it might only be visible in
small pockets of good practice. To multiply these efforts we need
co-operation and partnership, not only between institutions, but
also with industry, local authorities and society at large. But
this bottom-up approach has to be complemented by Government commitment
to an educational system with sustainability at its core, and
there is no better way of doing this than linking funding to performance
measured against sustainability indicators. It is significant
that Charles Clarke as Minister of State for Education stated
in 1999 in the House of Commons, that "sustainable development
needs to be at the core of the education system".
We set out below why some of the UK's major
professional bodies believe this to be essential.
THE PROFESSIONS
AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Among the 5.5 million people in the UK who call
themselves professionals, there is a growing realization that
they need help in understanding how to put the principles of sustainability
into practice. The reason they are beginning to call for more
help and guidance from their professional associations is because
they are being required to demonstrate their competency throughout
their professional life, in complying with a growing and complex
set of environmental, social and ethical issues. In short, for
doctors, engineers, accountants and many other professions, there
is a growing emphasis on occupational standards, competency, ethics
and codes of conduct. In our view sustainable development is as
much about ethics and values as it is about environmental protection
and mitigating environmental and social impacts. Every time a
transport engineer asks about the adverse effects of traffic pollution
on human welfare he/she is dealing with an ethical issue about
limiting activities which cause serious harm to others. Every
time a manager considers how to balance the value put on safety
against the value put on reducing costs, they are dealing with
an ethical issue and are being required to make an ethical judgement.
The real dilemma for professionals is that ethics
and values are not given the same priority as science and technology
in our educational systems. Professionals are really no different
from anyone else in that their beliefs and values are largely
defined by their education, training and experience particularly
in their basic discipline.
We believe that the challenge of sustainable
development has profound implications for the engineering, planning,
chemical, environmental, accounting and other professions in both
the practice and role of the professional. Professionals
are responsible not only for the safety, technical and economic
performance of their activities, but they also have responsibilities
to use resources sustainably; to minimize the environmental impact
of projects including wastes and emissions; and to use their influence
to ensure their work brings social benefits which are equitably
distributed. These responsibilities heighten the importance of
ethics and social responsibility in curriculum design and will
require greater emphasis on codes of conduct and the role of the
professional as social change agents.
CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS
Outlined below are examples of some of the initiatives
undertaken by some professional bodies:
1. A significant number of
professional bodies play a key role in defining the curriculum
of higher education programmes, which prepare students for a specific
profession. This is because many professions have been phasing
out their own examinations and now rely on "accredited"
degrees as the educational route to membership (see annex for
Institution of Civil Engineering draft accreditation guidelines).
2. Some professional bodies
are actively revising and updating their Code of Professional
Practice and setting up working groups to discuss topics such
as ethics, values and the sustainability agenda.
3. The Institution of Environmental
Sciences along with the Environment Agency and 12 other professional
bodies has pioneered a generic inter-professional training programme
on sustainable development for the professions. (see www.ies-uk.org.uk
for more details).
4. The Royal Town Planning
Institute has been a major player in developing a European Sustainable
Development Guide for practitioners in the EU.
All of these developments need to become more
widely adopted amongst the UK's professional bodies. The Sustainability
Alliance is currently seeking ways of supporting this process
through publications, conferences, and continuing professional
development. It is also seeking ways of implementing the sustainability
agenda through government and associated agencies such as the
Environment Agency, Higher Education Funding Council, Universities
UK, SCOP and the Learning and Skills Council. Sustainable development
programmes need to be integrated into the work of the Teacher
Training Agency, the Civil Service College and the various leadership
programmes that are being created.
We also believe that there may be a case for
establishing a European-wide standard or system of professional
accreditation to ensure greater societal relevance in higher education.
It might for example include an agreed common sustainable development
knowledge base.
KEY ISSUES
FOR THE
GOVERNMENT
We believe this inquiry is timely for the following
reasons:
(1) Sustainable development is now a mainstream
policy issue in the UK and EU.
(2) There is a greater demand for graduates
(and hence professionals) with a broader interdisciplinary training
in sustainable development and problem solving[54].
(3) Greater accountability is required of
all professionals, especially in health, financial services, construction,
planning, food and farming sectors.
(4) There is increasing emphasis on ethics
and corporate social responsibility in industry and commerce.
(5) Employment in the so-called eco-industries[55]
is increasing.
(6) There is strong support for enhancing
the role of professional bodies in helping graduates into the
environmental employment sector[56].
(7) There are skill shortages in many key
professions, which impacts on the government's ability to deliver
its own agenda eg its 10-year transport plan.
(8) Government and Professional bodies need
to promote the role of professions in sustainable development.
SOME KEY
SUPPLY-SIDE
ISSUES
— Throughout the EU there have been
few attempts to relate existing environmental courses in HE to
the changing needs of the labour market and the sustainability
agenda. However pockets of good practice demonstrate what can
be achieved. The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management has
been actively involved in promoting sustainability in HE courses,
and has been instrumental in the development of two M.Sc programmes
at Southampton and Leeds Universities, both of which are entitled
"M.Sc in Sustainable Wastes Management".
— The qualifications required for many
jobs in the emerging labour market are very different to those
that have previously characterized the professions in Europe.
— The need for people with an interdisciplinary
problem-solving capability, rather than a traditional and often
over-specialized competence.
— Graduates from current environmental
programmes in Europe are finding employment difficult.
— The use of practical training and
internship in our existing university graduate and postgraduate
programmes is underdeveloped.
— Ethics as a common shared curricular
element needs to be developed for undergraduate and post-graduate
programmes. We suggest it should be taught in both a problem orientated
context (ie in actual environmental / economic / social conflicts
and debates) as well as a theoretical and philosophical context.
For further information on this response or
the Alliance, please contact its secretary, Andrew Crudgington,
Institution of Civil Engineers, 1 Great George St, LONDON, SW1
P3AA. Telephone: 020 7665 2249 email: Andrew.Crudgington@ice.org.uk
February 2003
Sustainability Alliance Terms of Reference
MISSION
Progressing contemporary debates to enable sustainable
living.
1. TERMS OF
REFERENCE
(a) To act as a focal point and clearing
house for professional and learned bodies on sustainability
issues;
(b) To act as a point of contact between
government, other relevant groups and the professions on sustainability
issues;
(c) To co-ordinate events and initiatives
and make outputs available to members of participating organisations,
for example to facilitate the development of a common framework
for the integration of sustainable development education, training
and CPD;
(d) To draw together member organisations
activities at the regional level; and
(e) Members to remain free to pursue unilateral
activities as they see fit.
54 This clearly implies that graduates of every discipline
will need a sound working knowledge about sustainability. Back
55
Recent data indicates that the eco-industries supply approx Euro183
million of goods and services a year and directly employ over
2 million FTEs in the EU(ECOTEC Research and Consultancy, March
2002). Back
56
The waste management industry has seen the most growth in recent
years and a significant shift from the public to private sectors.
There has also been a substantial growth in environmental consultancy
and research and a growing non-governmental sector of public interest
organisations and not for profit consulting firms. New posts are
emerging within the agencies of the EU itself. There is clearly
an increasing range of new and demanding career trajectories. Back
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