Zofrea Room - Level 3, Campus Hub (Building C10A)

SUSTAINABILITY REPRESENTATIVE NETWORKMEETING

Tuesday 1May2012 10.00am-1.00pm

Zofrea Room - Level 3, Campus Hub (Building C10A)

MINUTES

Present:Huma Ahmed, Hiranya Anderson, Suzane Azzi, Belinda Bean, Keryn Boland, Iain Brew, Felicity Crombach, Cindy Cunningham, Leanne Denby, Emile Geodjenian, Francesca Giudici, Paul Howse, Carlene Kirvan, Juan Laverde, Alana Mailey, Sean Nazareth, Amy Pilkington, Claire Phelps, Steven Short, Sarah Jo Steinhoff.

Welcome

Cindy welcomed new SRN members to the network, includingFransesca Guidici from the Australian School of Advanced Medicine; Amy Pilkington from Informatics who is replacing Dhyana Scarano who has left MQ; Alana Mailey and Kathryn Bown from Learning & Teaching and Paul Govind from the Macquarie Law School.

Cindy introduced guest presenter Belinda Bean, from the Sustainability Team. Belinda’s role focuses on engagement, education and outreach. Belinda coordinates the sustainability communications and events at Macquarie University.

New Building Performance Data System – Manager Sustainability, Hilary Bekmann

Unfortunately, this agenda item was cancelled due to the presenter being ill. It will be added to the Agenda for the August 2012 quarterly meeting.

Student Sustainability Network – Sustainability Officer, Belinda Bean

Belinda discussed the importance of engagement and sustainability and provided a background on student engagement at Macquarie. The Student Sustainability Network (SSN) was established in 2011 in order to address the ad hoc approach to student engagement in sustainability on campus.

The SSN is a team of Macquarie University students seeking to mobilise and engage our community with sustainability. The network is fully supported by the Macquarie Sustainability team, who offer support through capacity building, professional development, community based social marketing program ideas, resource allocation and recognition.

The network provides students with an opportunity to:

Develop professional skills through free training and workshops;
Get hands on experience through volunteering;
Make a difference to our campus community and beyond;
Build their capacity as a change agent for sustainability;
Meet like-minded students;
Add experience to their CV with a completion certificate.

The SSN is flexible in its approach whereby students can be involved in the self-directed learning program, over the course of a year or over the entire degree program. Students on the network are expected to meet 6 specific requirements for successful completion of the program:

Meeting a member of the Macquarie Sustainability team;
Attending at least 2 training workshops;
Attending at least 2 general meetings;
Undertaking 30 or more hours as a volunteer internally or externally Working in a group to deliver one sustainability-related on-campus event;
Deliver one sustainability-related on-campus event;
Completing a reflection assessment.

SSN students have participated in a Fair Trade Football event, initiated a Bushcare Facebook Group and will be assisting with the Fair Trade Bake Sale on Wednesday 16 May.

James Hazelton asked about how SSN members were recruited and suggested that Belinda present at Planet Unit classes so the network can be promoted to students on campus.

Belinda informed the network about the student sustainability marketing group, ‘Less is More’ who are available to staff and students for developing marketing and communication materials for sustainability related campaigns.

Measuring Progress – Sustainability Engagement Officer

Cindy discussed the journey of the sustainability network to date. As the Coordinator of the network there have been questions and feedback from new and existing members about what they should be focusing on in their Department in terms of practical actions and how they can better foster a sustainability culture in their Department. In response to this Cindy looked at what other universities have done to evolve their sustainability networks and to capture progress within Departments. Cindy provided a presentation on the assessment type tools and processes used at Yale, Harvard and Monash to measure and monitor sustainability performance in Departments.

N.B A copy of the power point presentation on ‘Measuring Progress’ is available along with the agenda and minutes of the meeting. See link:

In light of the presentation, SRN members worked in groups and worked through four exercises regarding having a measurement system/tool for Macquarie. Responses to group discussion as follows:

Exercise 1 – What are the benefits of having a measurement system/tool?

Measure against other universities
Track progress
Identify areas of weakness
Validity to the system → controlled
Improve control and responsibility
Longer term value (rather than short-term)
Ongoing awareness
Opportunities to obtain ‘accreditation’ → markets sustainability
Likely to engage more people
Generates motivation
Recognition/rewards → websites, letterheads, email signatures etc
Reinforce positive message
Sends message that University supports sustainability
Questionnaire: attitudes and awareness survey. Yes/No questions and rationale at on-boarding/induction process to capture understanding of staff
Lead to regular reporting from statistics that can be obtained by such tools
Effective information gathering tool
Enables goal setting
Identify training needs – eg procurement/how to double side
Capabilities to modify checklist by Department/Faculty/Unit → specifics (innovation)
Standard Certification (University Accreditation)
Measurement tool to compare with other universities
Tracks progress
Identify strengths and weaknesses
Improves responsibility
Preference to levels/points
Clarity & transparency
Achievable and realistic
Focus on needs
Collaborative
Succession plans/no gaps
Accountability
Efficient use of resources
Incorporate ‘healthy campus goal’
Promote awareness
Sense of progress
Identify areas to work on
Promoting engagement
Keep us accountable
Levels to points
Tracking
Increase participation/engagement
Clarity & transparency
Visual identity
Achievable/realistic
Focus on needs
Collaboration
Succession Plan
Responsibility and accountability
Direction
Efficient use of resources
Specific and general actions
University promotion
Healthiest campus by 2015
Certification/standards

Exercise 2 – Identify 3 challenges in implementing a measurement system/tool?

How can these challenges be addressed?

Staff engagement/apathy
Credibility with measurement – how does it stack up?
Integration with other performance indicators – finance/student satisfaction
Making indicators relevant for niche areas

Ensuring measurements are relatable
Relevance – small robust set of indicators
Accurate timely data and feedback
Integration – physical units/measurements and costs → track change and impact and related information
Endorsement by a Government body or well known/respected group
Other universities using the same system → recognition
Leading by example – champions – senior management
How to tailor it so it is relevant
Review structure by building/by floor etc not just by Department (for example a few Departments share one floor or area of a building)
Compliance → getting people to participate → need accountability
Administration (how/when/who)
succession planning
Engaging management/obtaining support → PDR?
Recruitment/delegation
Training/professional development
Survey fatigue – timing (annual), on-boarding when staff are new, rewards for points and number of survey returns
Engagement of management – KPIs, incentives, advertising, branding
Staff engagement/apathy - measurements are relatable, tracking changes, measure energy consumption
Credibility of tool – endorsement, management support, make it relevant
Integration with other tools/measurements
Getting consensus on the tool
Being objective
Engagement of management and other stuff
Brainstorm topics and levels to be obtained and timeframes needed
Possibly engage a third body to consult
Incentives
Challenge 1 – general vs specific
Have one general level/stage
One specific to area/Department
Framework/model to work off
Challenge 2 – Administration
Checking on Departments
Design
Follow-up – validity
Eg sustainability module
Challenge 3 – Refresh/Renew
Who will come up with ideas/initative
Banging head on the wall
Broader sense of sustainability
Competitions – what staff want?

Exercise 3 – What would the system/tool like? Be creative.

Dashboard
Datamart
Checklists – data capture tool, feedback tool
Tool has an ability to identify training needs
Integrates challenge sections within each section/level
Flexible – tailored, adjustable, relevant to areas, innovation
Can be modified by units – accept feedback from other units
Basic template – scaffolding structure that covers a range of sustainability objectives eg transport, community, energy, procurement
Confidential
Various colours in logo eg leaves
Multi-university agreement that promotes competition
Point-based system (no locked levels)
Percentage based system (small and big campuses)
Is it possible to set data on resources used in order to compare who uses how much etc?)
Application to track
Growing tree/metamorphis from seed in ground to tree or from a pupae to a butterfly

Exercise 4 - How should the system/tool recognise achievements and progress?

Campus map which indicates poor/good performing buildings/Departments
Green Awards (x2 mentions)
Comparison over time to provide snapshots
Levels in sections
Ranking (x2 mentions)
Certification
Sirius stars/lighthouse beacons
Incentives
Personal/Departmental
Incentive/sponsorship (memberships)
Recognition

Next SRN Meeting

7 August 2012 – Zofrea Room, Level 3 Campus Hub

Page 131/10/2018