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Towards leadership for sustainability

The CEL sustainable development strategy

November 2007

Publisher

Published by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL).

© CEL November 2007

The text in this document may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific permission, on condition that the source is acknowledged, that the material is not used in a derogatory manner or in misleading context and that the findings are not misrepresented.

This publication is available in electronic form on the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) website: www.centreforexcellence.org.uk

Publication reference: SUS11007-HGWhen you have finished withthis report please recycle it.

Contents

Foreword 4

Executive summary 6

1. Introduction 8

2. Background to the strategy 10

3. CEL’s objectives 13

4. Proposed actions and timescales 15

5. Summary action plan 24

6. Next steps 26

Appendix A: Useful documents and links 27

Appendix B: Acknowledgements 28

Appendix C: Response form – Towards leadership for sustainability 29

4 | Towards leadership for sustainability: The CEL sustainable development strategy

ForewordSustainable development is perhaps the single greatest challenge that affects every one of us in the world today. Evidence comes at us from every side showing that we need to change how we live our lives if our children and future generations are to enjoy a good quality of life.

I think this strikes a chord with everyone in education. It’s what education is all about, and is surely part of what brought us into an education career in the first place. For me, it is intertwined with the mission and values of our sector – to simultaneously promote opportunity, create economic prosperity, support social inclusion, build communities and promote responsible and ethical living.

CEL is a young organisation, and we are still growing and learning. As we have become experienced in leadership development, we have increasingly looked at how we can help the sector to address strategic leadership challenges such as equality and diversity, embedding elearning, and talent management. We have also entered the policy arena, exploring what the White Paper, Leitch and other agendas mean for sector leadership.

Sustainable development soon rose before us as both a leadership challenge and a policy imperative that we could and should respond to. Discussions across education sectors and our membership of the Sustainability Integration Group (SIGnet) did much to stimulate the development of our own sustainable development strategy. Since then we have been on a steady journey towards that strategy, which has been informed by research, consultation and learning from people and organisations within and outside further education. Some of our partners have been following a similar path and are at different stages on the journey where each of us can learn from and be helped along by those further ahead.

November 2007 | 5

The strategy you have before you sets out how we will support leaders in the sector in developing their capability to be ‘leaders for sustainability’. We will do this in collaboration with our partners, and not least with the Learning and Skills Council, to give coherence and added value to what we all do. CEL will build its own capacity and practice in sustainable working, so that we can both strive to be an exemplar and be equipped to achieve our objectives for the sector.

The bedrock of our strategy has been consultation with you and learning from your experiences. Continuing in the same spirit, we welcome your comments and ideas about the strategy, now and into the future, and will offer a number of forums for you to debate and discuss the challenges, share experiences and practice, and review our objectives and action plan.

Many individuals have contributed to this strategy, and I thank you all; but in particular I must thank Conrad Benefield and Trisya Roberts for their untiring dedication to this project, their constant support to CEL colleagues and their inspiring leadership.

I look forward to meeting, talking and working with you as we move forward together.

Lynne Sedgmore CBEChief Executive, Centre for Excellence in Leadership


Executive summaryThis strategy sets out how CEL will help develop the capacity and capability of leaders at all levels in the FE system to lead and support the embedding of sustainable development across every aspect of their role and the business of their organisation. The strategy arises from CEL’s recognition of the critical role the FE system has in supporting individuals and society to understand and implement sustainable development.

The strategy is founded upon:

discussions within the FE system which revealed the relevance of leadership to embedding sustainable developmenttwo ‘leadership for sustainability’ research projects extensive consultation with partners, influencers and staff members strategic partnerships with stakeholders in the FE system and beyond.

This process identified a mandate for each of the following objectives:

Build leadership : support the development of leaders’ and organisations’ capacity and capability to be leaders for sustainability.

Build partnership : actively contribute to policy development and practice in sustainable development at sector level.

Build CEL : develop CEL’s own capacity and practice to both support other strands and become more sustainable itself.

Build practice : lead, support and contribute to debate, discussion and improvement in leadership for sustainability.

Objective 1: Build leadership

What we propose to do:

Complete a full review of the CEL Leadership Qualities Framework to ensure it reflects the key qualities for leadership for sustainability.

Review our portfolio , so CEL’s curriculum helps develop leaders’ skills, qualities and knowledge for leadership for sustainability.

Develop appropriate knowledge and skills of those developing and delivering CEL programmes.

Develop a leadership for sustainability consultancy programme .

Identify and develop appropriate support for governing bodies .

Develop a toolkit, in partnership with the Learning and Skills Council, to support sustainability champions and other staff in developing and presenting the business case for sustainable development.

November 2007 | 7

Objective 2: Build partnership


With the LSC, focus on providing support in several areas including:

making the business case for sustainable development. implementing the LSC’s sustainable development action plan. disseminating the LSC’s sustainable development toolkit. working with Ofsted around how the inspection framework can account for practice supporting sustainable development.

With Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) , explore how the appropriate capacity and capability of the FE workforce as a whole can be developed.

With a range of partners , work on the implementation and development of the CEL strategy, and co-host, with LSC, a partnership forum.

Objective 3: Build CEL


Operations: review transport and procurement policies and calculate and reduce our carbon footprint.

Staff development: support members of staff to develop individual action plans and incorporate sustainable development as a key theme of CPD.

Partnerships : contribute to local sustainable development initiatives.

Objective 4: Build practice


Research : include sustainable development in the range of themes for the 2008 round of practitioner research projects and commission our own further research.

Identify and disseminate good practice : commission and disseminate practical case studies of successful approaches to leadership for sustainability from across the FE sector and within other sectors.

Establish forums for debate and discussion: hold an annual conference on leadership for sustainability and an annual forum for principals and CEOs.

Support champions : hold an annual forum, co-hosted with the LSC, for sustainability champions, and develop coaching support for sustainability champions.


1. IntroductionSustainable development is one of the most widely aired and hotly debated issues of our time. More than ever, and in more ways than one, it is becoming a global issue, and one which does not seem likely to go away.

This is not to say it is a new problem. Twenty, thirty or forty years ago, a substantial number of analysts and experts were wary of the longer-term impacts of post-war economic growth, resource consumption, industrialisation and globalisation, but the concepts have their origins further back still.

Almost a century ago, the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset said,

“I am myself and my circumstances, and if I do not preserve the latter I do not preserve myself”1 ,

expressing the role of our environment in who we are and how we live. In the 19th century, Henry David Thoreau had expressed the same sentiment when he asked:

”What good is a house, if you haven’t got a decent planet to put it on?”

Martin Luther King Jr emphasised the place of social integration and cohesion in sustainable living when he said, in 1967, that

“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

The report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (‘The Brundtland Report’)2 is commonly cited as a milestone in the development of thinking on sustainable development and not least because of the definition it provides of sustainable development, one which has retained a good degree of currency over the past 20 years:

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

One thing that has perhaps changed is the global understanding and perception of sustainable development. Issues such as the deterioration of the ozone layer, the destruction of the rainforests and more recent phenomena such as the severe floods in England in 2007 and the Al Gore film, An Inconvenient Truth, have made sustainability and climate change issues that most of us know something about, that many of us have experienced first-hand, and that concern us. A recent survey for the BBC World service3 suggests that nine out of ten people across the world, in developed and developing countries, believe action is necessary on global warming, with two-thirds believing major action is needed very soon.

1 y Gasset, J O, Meditaciones del Quijote (Meditations on Quixote), 1914

2 Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment & Development, Oxford University Press, 1987; available online at www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm

3 Climate Change Poll for the BBC World Service, conducted by Globespan Inc and the Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland, September 2007 www.pipa.org

November 2007 | 9

Global issues such as climate change still, rightly, dominate the agenda, but with them has come a growing awareness of broader principles of responsible daily living (doorstep recycling, energy saving light bulbs), social co-operation and community cohesion – which the media remind us of daily – against a background of economic growth and prosperity, emphasising the breadth of the sustainable development challenge of meeting economic, social and environmental needs, and giving a real focus to the Brundtland definition.

Local and national governments, groups and individuals are increasingly conscious of the longer-term economic, social and environmental impact of current policy, practice and behaviour. It is a challenge to which the further education system, with its critical role in education, economic growth and community development, is increasingly responding.

Part of the challenge for further education, and its leaders, is how to balance and satisfy the very clear economic, social and environmental imperatives that it faces. The primary aim of every learning provider, and every CEO or principal, is learner achievement, particularly with a view to economic outcomes for the individual – a good job, a good standard of living and, from this, a good quality of life. But how can leaders realistically embrace and deliver on the social and environmental imperatives at the same time – not just in delivering skills outcomes for learners and employers, but in every aspect of their business?

Within this document, we set out how, over the next 18 months, CEL will look to help develop the capacity and capability of leaders at all levels in the FE sector to lead and support the embedding of sustainable development across every aspect of their role and the business of their organisation. This last point is critically important: the challenge is to embed sustainable development into every part of leadership, not just – through purchasing and procurement – into aspects of estates management, learning delivery and operations, but into curriculum design (in all subject areas), strategic planning, business development and workforce development. It is through achieving this that we can achieve truly sustainable organisations, where ‘leadership for sustainability’ is a way of life and how we run the business, not just something we apply to particular tasks or departments.

Predictably, a large part of the focus of the strategy is on the design and delivery of current and future programmes, services, consultancy and other activities that CEL offers to the sector, but to achieve our goal we must also focus on the additional support that we can offer the sector, on our own business operations and practice, on the development of our own organisation and its people, and on building strong sustainable development partnerships with other strategic bodies across the sector. Within this strategy we set out the actions we will undertake over the next 18 months in all of these areas to build leadership, build partnership, build CEL and build practice.


2. Background to the strategyThe themes, objectives and proposed actions have all been developed on the basis of CEL’s research into ‘leadership for sustainability’.

A leadership strategy

The origins of this work lie in early discussions within the sector around the end of 2005, where the relevance of leadership to embedding sustainable development within the further education sector was made clear to CEL, in that:

Embedding sustainable

development in providers

needs impetus from

leadership at all levels

Those leaders need the skills,

knowledge and qualities

to lead and support

sustainable development.

and

From this came the decision by CEL to begin work to develop its own sustainable development strategy and action plan, which quickly gained support from providers and strategic bodies within the sector, and we developed a working definition of ‘leadership for sustainability’:

Leadership for sustainability promotes and supports sustainable development principles in all aspects of the role of the individual leader and the organisation:

Estates and resources Curriculum Learning delivery Continuing professional development (CPD) Strategic planning.

This definition supports a systemic approach to sustainable development which extends into every part of the organisation’s business.

November 2007 | 11

A research-led strategy

However, we were clear that this strategy should be informed and led by the sector and by what is currently happening on the ground. This led to us undertaking two research projects to help us better understand ‘leadership for sustainability’4 and how best to support its development:

interviews with over 40 leaders from across the sector, conducted for CEL by the Education for Sustainability team at London South Bank University action research in four FE colleges and an adult and community learning provider, conducted for CEL by Forum for the Future.

The research projects aimed:

to build understanding of catalysts and blocks to leadership for sustainability in the learning and skills sectorto test the inseparability of good leadership from leadership for sustainability to inform this strategy.

Our findings were that most participating leaders understand why a more sustainable way of life is necessary and that the sector has a responsibility to help realise that way of life. Many, however, feel themselves on a steep learning curve.

With reference to CEL’s Leadership Qualities Framework (LQF), the research found that effective leaders demonstrated many of the key change management skills necessary for sustainability, including:

Distributed leadership Taking account of the organisational climate and culture Employing a wide range of influencing strategies Building organisational capability Cultural sensitivity Commitment to equality and fairness.

Unsurprisingly, however, given the newness of the agenda for many leaders in the sector, the research identified some skills and knowledge in the LQF which need to be strengthened if sustainable development is to be embraced. These include:

Systems thinking to understand interconnectedness and manage complexity Futures thinking to create a compelling vision of a sustainable college of the future Demonstrating broad organisational awareness by astutely perceiving political, economic, social trendsCreating and capitalising on learning opportunities for sustainability Incorporating sustainability into core strategies and into college business Performance accountability in the absence of exemplars on which to benchmark Exhibiting self-belief and confidence to develop learning opportunities in absence of regulatory ‘permission’.

4 The research projects and their findings are set out in Leadership for sustainability: Making sustainable development a reality for leaders, final research report, CEL, September 2007


A consultative strategy

The outcomes of this research were discussed and built upon at a conference on 16 May 2007. Reports on the research and on this conference were published in September 20075.

The strategy has been further informed by presentations and discussions in a number of fora, including:

The Learning and Skills Network/LSC From here to sustainability conference, June 2006 A Leadership for Sustainability consultation seminar on 13 September 2007 The LSC West Midlands Regional Sustainability Conference, October 2007 The CEL Advisory Group A number of internal CEL staff events and meetings

as well as in countless informal discussions with colleagues across the sector.

A partnership strategy

From the beginning, we have sought to engage and collaborate with our strategic partners in the development of the strategy. As one of the founder members of the Sustainability Integration Group (SIGnet), we benefited from the insights and experiences of a range of colleagues from across further and higher education, many of whom were in the process of developing, or were implementing, sustainable development action plans. Those partners were among the first to hear and comment on our earliest thinking on the strategy.

As our work has progressed, deeper, logical and valuable partnerships have begun to evolve with some of our partners in the FE sector, most notably with the Learning and Skills Council: we will take forward a number of strands of activity in partnership with the LSC, and will actively support them in the implementation of their own strategy and action plan. Even as we publish the strategy, new avenues for co-operation with other partners are emerging which we will look to develop over the coming months.

5 Leadership for sustainability: the sustainable development challenge for leaders in further education, CEL, September 2007

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3. CEL’s objectivesThe remit and role of CEL, as outlined in section 2, in supporting the embedding of sustainable development in the further education system, and our research and consultation with the sector, has led us to identify four distinct but inter-related objectives that should underpin CEL’s activities in this area.

Build CELDevelop CEL's own capacity and practice

both to support other strands and to become more sustainable itself

Build leadershipSupport the development of leaders'

and organisations' capacity and capability to be leaders for sustainability

Build partnershipActively contribute to policy development and practice in sustainable development

at sector level

Build practiceLead, support and contribute to debate,

discussion and improvement in leadership for sustainability

While leadership will be the core theme of CEL’s strategy, at its heart lies the importance of developing learners’ knowledge, skills and qualities to understand and demonstrate sustainable development as citizens, and instil it in others, often described as ‘sustainability literacy’. Leaders at all levels in the sector have an indirect but instrumental role in making this happen. At the same time, what happens at the level of teaching and learning can influence, inform and impact on leadership. Furthermore, the relationships between the four objectives, and activities under them, will be complex. By building practice, we will build leadership; building CEL is desirable in itself but will make us better equipped to meet all the other objectives. And building partnership will improve the quality and impact of everything that we and our partners do to achieve the other objectives. We attempt to describe these inter-relationships in the diagram on page 14.


Build CEL

Build practice

Build partnership

Build leadership

LearnersEmployers Community

Teaching and

learningOperations

LeadersPartners and

their sustainable development

strategies

November 2007 | 15

4. Proposed actions and timescalesBelow we present what we propose to do in support of each of the four objectives outlined in section 3. In each of the sections below we set out:

The objective itself

The mandate – this summarises the evidence and messages we have received from the sector through our research and consultation to date, and the needs that we should be looking to address through the action we take under the strategy. We see ‘mandate’ as an ideal word to describe this evidence, which both directs and gives permission to CEL to take action

CEL’s response – this summarises, in broad terms, our response to the mandate given to us

What we will do – this begins to set out, in detail, the activities we plan to undertake.

Objective 1: Build leadership

Build leadershipSupport the development of leaders'

and organisations' capacity and capability to be leaders for sustainability

The mandate

Research has confirmed that there is a critical need for CEL to help develop, in sector leaders at all levels, the skills, knowledge and qualities to lead sustainable development in all aspects of their role and the organisation’s business. Research has identified for CEL those leadership qualities (within the CEL Leadership Qualities Framework) that are an integral part of leadership for sustainability (as set out in the published report of that research). However, CEL’s approach should – in general – be to embed and mainstream sustainable development across its programmes and services, rather than through bolt-on or specific sustainable development programmes, modules and events. Respondents have made clear to us that this should extend to support for governing bodies to help them to successfully lead and contribute to the agenda within their colleges.


CEL’s response

CEL will review the extent to which those qualities, skills and knowledge are currently embedded in and developed through programmes, consultancy and services across its leadership and organisational development portfolio, and where those interventions need further development.

The key themes that CEL will reflect across its portfolio are:

understanding of sustainable development and why it is desirable and necessary leading organisational and cultural change the importance of leadership styles the importance and role of values systems thinking in organisational development and talent management, to recognise inter-relationships and to cope with uncertainty and complexitydistributed leadership and development of leadership talent at all levels risk taking and risk management the importance of the learner voice in leadership of learning the business case for sustainable development.

We have already incorporated sustainable development into the Quality Assurance Framework that will support the ongoing development and quality assurance of existing and new programmes and services within CEL’s portfolio.

What we propose to do

Conduct a phased review of our portfolio , to implement changes to the CEL curriculum over time, so that the CEL curriculum fully reflects and helps to develop in leaders the key skills, qualities and knowledge required to lead sustainable development.

We will review four programmes between now and March 2008, which will be:

Routes to success (fast-track programme for aspiring senior managers)Gateway of leadership development (talent management consultancy)ConnecT programme (to support work-based learning (WBL) leaders in developing information and learning technology (ILT) strategies)Managing better programme for leaders in adult and community learning.

and complete the review of all other programmes and services by March 2009.

Identify and develop appropriate support for college governing bodies , to both develop their own capacity, capability and understanding of sustainable development, and support them in leading and contributing to the embedding of sustainable development across the organisation. This process will be initiated through consultation with governors and clerks through the CEL Governance Advisory Group and through a joint workshop with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) at the CEL Governance Conference in March 2008, which will inform us about what support is needed and how best to offer it.

November 2007 | 17

Develop the knowledge and skills of those developing and delivering CEL programmes so that they are equipped to:

Understand and embrace the sustainable development agenda, and CEL’s position on sustainable developmentEmbed leadership for sustainability into programme design Develop and deliver programmes in ways which support sustainable development, eg through the effective use of distance and online learning and the responsible use of resources.

To this end we will:

Engage in discussions across programme teams and associates to share and embed understanding of sustainable development and of CEL’s commitmentDevelop in consultation with CEL programme teams and delivery associates, guidelines and principles for the development and delivery of programmes that all programme teams sign up toMake the application of these guidelines and principles a requirement in commissioning associates to design or deliver programmesInclude appropriate questions in programme evaluation forms to assess whether this has been achievedEncourage the mapping of all CEL programmes to a revised Leadership Qualities Framework (see below).

This process will begin in December 2007 and be ongoing. We will review progress in June 2008.

Develop, and launch, by June 2008, a leadership for sustainability consultancy programme, which will provide support to senior leaders in:

scoping, developing and implementing sustainable development strategies conducting self-assessments, audits and cost-benefit analyses to support long-term planning for sustainable businessexploring priorities for embedding sustainable practice within the organisation.

This programme will draw on learning from the action research projects conducted for CEL by Forum for the Future in 2006-07 and which have informed the development of this strategy.

Develop and launch, in May 2008, in partnership with the Learning and Skills Council, a toolkit to support sustainability champions and other staff in developing the ‘business case’ for sustainable development, and articulate sustainable development within organisational strategies and business plans.

Complete, by April 2008, a full review of the CEL Leadership Qualities Framework (LQF) to ensure that the key qualities for leadership for sustainability are fully reflected in it.


Objective 2: Build partnership

Build partnershipActively contribute to policy development and practice in sustainable development

at sector level

The mandate

Our research suggested that leaders in the sector see CEL as well-placed to be a catalyst for sustainable development, to support and influence partners and give legitimacy to the sustainable development agenda. Those we consulted have encouraged CEL to work with partners to progress sustainable development in the sector.

CEL’s response

CEL welcomes the mandate and opportunity given to contribute to the broader sustainable development agenda within the sector. We have begun to develop promising partnerships with a number of partners, which we will look to grow, and in the implementation of the strategy we will identify and explore a number of specific areas for further consideration and development.


Develop our current partnering strategy with the LSC, focusing initially in a number of areas:

Providing practical support to SMTs and sustainability champions in developing the business case for sustainable development.Supporting LSC, through membership of its Implementation and Delivery Group, in the implementation of its sustainable development action plan.Supporting the LSC and the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) in the dissemination and implementation of the LSC sustainable development toolkit, which will be available through the EAUC websiteWorking jointly with LSC on a number of activities to build practice (see objective 4 on page 21).

Support the LSC in its work with Ofsted, looking at how the inspection framework and process can best take account of activity and practice that supports sustainable development, including, within the inspection of leadership and management, how evidence of the strength of leadership in this area should be considered.

November 2007 | 19

Through strategic discussions, explore with Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) how we can collaborate to help develop the capacity and capability of the FE workforce as a whole, including teachers, trainers and leaner support staff, to deliver learning sustainably and support the development of sustainability literacy within learners.

Engage a range of partner organisations in the implementation and further development of the CEL strategy.

Initiate and inform these and many more activities by co-hosting, with LSC, a forum in January 2008 with key sector partners and influencers, including the Association of Colleges, the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges, the Learning and Skills Network, the Quality Improvement Agency, Lifelong Learning UK and the 157 Group.

Objective 3: Build CEL

Build CELDevelop CEL's own capacity and practice

both to support other strands and to become more sustainable itself

The mandate

Sector colleagues rightly stressed the importance of senior level endorsement and commitment to CEL’s sustainable development strategy, and saw a need for CEL itself to demonstrate, in principle and practice, a commitment to sustainable development in its own policy and operations. Two actions recommended were an internal communication campaign and staff development workshops to raise awareness of sustainable development and CEL’s strategy.

CEL’s response

We wholeheartedly welcome the sector’s encouragement to develop our own capability and competence to lead and practice sustainable development. We already have an internal Sustainable Development Group which comprises around 40 per cent of our permanent staff plus a number of associates. The group has been working in partnership with the rest of CEL to identify priorities for individual, team and organisational action and improvement. The group will lead and support the development and implementation of plans to address those priorities. We made presentations to our Executive Leadership Team (ELT), following the conference on 16 May, and have secured their full support for the agenda.



The activities we propose to take forward to develop our own capacity and practice will extend across a number of themes:

Operations

In December 2007, a move to new offices in London, which have been planned and designed to make the best possible use of resources and minimise carbon emissions and our wider impact on the environment, for example using recycled or recyclable materials wherever possible, and working towards recycling 100 per cent of our office waste.

A review – by March 2008 - of our transport policies, to encourage travel plans that minimise the impact of business travel on the environment.

Identifying and implementing by February 2008 a process to calculate and reduce CEL’s carbon footprint.

Embedding sustainability into our procurement policies and procedures, by April 2008, to encourage more environmentally friendly practice among our suppliers and associates and to ensure that we buy from suppliers who share our commitment to sustainable development and responsible business practice.

Identifying actions (eg in relation to saving energy) that all staff can sign up to to make CEL more sustainable, and signing up to them by March 2008.

Staff development

Supporting every member of staff in developing an individual action plan for more sustainable ways of living and working, and in taking action to reduce their individual carbon footprint. We will incorporate this into our performance management processes for the year beginning April 2008.

Making sustainable development a core theme in staff development and team building events with immediate effect.

Supporting and providing opportunities from April 2008 for staff to engage in environmental and community development projects, programmes and groups as part of their professional development.

Partnerships

Making links with and contributing to local sustainable development initiatives within CEL’s local area – this will be ongoing following the move to our new offices in December 2007.

November 2007 | 21

Objective 4: Build practice

Build practiceLead, support and contribute to debate,

discussion and improvement in leadership for sustainability

The mandate

Much of the sector’s thinking in this area is linked to the ideas set out under ‘build leadership’ and ‘build partnership’ above. In particular, colleagues have encouraged CEL to look for ways to support sector-wide debate and discussion and share and develop policy and practice. The specific areas that CEL should focus on are:

Research

Publish a critical review of the debate and tension between economic growth and sustainability and how some colleges are responding to this challenge.

Extend current CEL research projects into leadership for sustainability.

Identifying and disseminating good practice

Collate and share generic examples and specific case studies, to learn not only from the learning and skills sector, but also from schools, higher education and local government.

Disseminate examples of processes for implementing sustainable development, including effective strategic planning, technical issues and how to enhance leadership through an estates building project.

Forums for debate and discussion

Provide a safe place for principals and CEOs to go to discuss sustainable development if they feel vulnerable, applying, for instance, the Chatham House rule.

Work with sustainability leaders at all levels, not just senior people.


CEL’s response

We welcome the mandate to lead and support the sharing and development of practice in leadership for sustainability. The research and the event on 16 May 2007 told us very strongly that the most effective way to support and develop leadership practice would be through discussion, debate and learning from each other.

We particularly see a need to provide greater support for sustainable development ‘champions’ or leads within providers, in addition to some of the initiatives already set out, such as the business case toolkit (see objective 1 on page 15).

We would also like to explore ways in which our position in the sector enables us to raise the profile of sustainable development, and promote the recognition of leaders for sustainability.

What CEL will do

Research

Commission further research, building on the existing recent research into leadership for sustainability, to explore in more depth the organisational, cultural, policy, economic and other factors that have a bearing on the embedding of sustainable development within organisational policy and practice in the sector. We will aim to complete this research by June 2008.

Include sustainable development in the range of themes for the next round of practitioner research projects in May 2008.

The findings of this research will inform the ongoing development and implementation of the strategy.

Identifying and sharing good practice

Commission practical case studies of successful approaches to leadership for sustainability from across the FE sector and within other related sectors, including HE, schools and central and local government, and disseminate and explore these through a volume and through seminars for sector leaders. We will initiate this process in December 2007

Support the annual Green Gown awards, for example through helping to raise awareness of them, encouraging people in the sector to make nominations, and helping to publicise the results.

Forums for debate and discussion

Hold an annual conference, with the next in May 2008, on leadership for sustainability, where leaders at all levels across the sector can come together to share practice, debate issues and challenges, review the implementation of CEL’s strategy, and inform future developments.

November 2007 | 23

Hold an annual forum for principals and CEOs, with the next in March 2008, to share practice and challenges in the strategic leadership of sustainable development. Under the Chatham House rule, this seminar would inform the annual forum with strategic partners proposed on page 19 under ‘Building partnership’.

Support for champions

Hold an annual forum, co-hosted with the LSC, and with the next in February 2008, for sustainability champions, to facilitate networking and sharing and support their own professional development and practice as leaders and influencers in sustainable development. This forum will also inform the further support which CEL and LSC can offer them.

Develop coaching support for sustainability champions, to develop and build their knowledge, skills and confidence in leading and influencing the embedding of sustainable development across the organisation, available from May 2008.


5. Summary action plan

December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008

Build leadership Review of four CEL programmes

Governance conference workshop

Development and implementation of activities to equip programme teams and associates

Build partnership Ongoing work with partners to identify and take forward joint working

Sector partners’ forum

Build CEL Collective actions identified and signed up to

Develop links on the theme of sustainable development with local initiatives and organisations

Move to sustainable offices

Carbon footprint calculated, for annual review

Review of transport policies

complete

Build practice Further research

Champions’ forum Principals’ and CEOs’ forum

Development and sharing of case studies

August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008

Build leadership Programme review completed

Build partnership

Build CEL Six-month review of action plans

Build practice Research outcomes emerge and are used to inform the strategy’s development and implementation

November 2007 | 25

April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008

Review remaining CEL programmes

Complete LQF review Launch business case toolkit

Launch consultancy programme

Development and implementation of activities to equip programme teams and associates

Ongoing work with partners to identify and take forward joint working

Individual action plans developed by all staff

Opportunities provided for staff to engage in

external projects

Procurement policies and procedures

updated

Further research

Commission practitioner research

Annual conference

Launch of coaching services for champions

December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009

Sector partners’ forum

Carbon footprint review

Research outcomes emerge and are used to inform the strategy’s development and implementation

Champions’ forum Principals’ and CEOs’ forum


6. Next stepsWe have begun to develop a number of processes to keep people informed about the implementation of the strategy and about forthcoming events. These will include:

A sustainable development page on the CEL website at www.centreforexcellence.org.uk

A quarterly e-newsletter (also available via the website)

Regular email reminders about forthcoming activities and events being run by CEL and its partners

We will continue to develop and update this strategy, both as we make progress against our milestones and as new activities or issues arise, either from the events set out in the strategy or from feedback we receive from our colleagues across the sector.

Please give us your comments on any aspect of this strategy. You can use the form at the back of this document, or contact us:

Conrad BenefieldProgramme Director, Sustainable [email protected]

Trisya RobertsSustainable Development [email protected]

Centre for Excellence in Leadership

FREEPOST Plus - RRJZEETLXXCLCentre for ExcellenceLondonSW1P 1SB

We look forward to hearing from you.

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Appendix A: Useful documents and links

Centre for Excellence in Leadership www.centreforexcellence.org.ukFor CEL’s sustainable development pages go to Strategic projects then Sustainability

Association of Colleges www.aoc.co.uk

Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges www.eauc.org.uk

ESD Forum, Yorkshire and Humber www.efscarbontrading.org/esd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=93&Itemid=2

Forum for the Future www.forumforthefuture.org.uk

Learning and Skills Council www.lsc.gov.uk

LSC sustainable development action plan (2007) readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/lsc/National/nat-lsc-sustainable-development-action-plan2007-08.pdfFrom Here to Sustainability – LSC’s sustainable development strategy (2005) readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/lsc/2005/ourbusiness/strategy/from-here-to-sustainability-lsc-strategy-for-sustainable-development.pdfLSC online sustainable development toolkit This will be hosted on the EAUC website at www.eauc.org.uk

Learning and Skills Network www.lsneducation.org.uk

Sustainable Development in the Learning and Skills Sector: a national baseline (2006) www.lsneducation.org.uk/pubs/Pages/062427.aspx

London South Bank University Education for Sustainability Programme www.lsbu.ac.uk/efs

London Sustainability Exchange www.lsx.org.uk

Sustainable Development in London’s Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges (October 2006) www.lsx.org.uk/docs/page/2608/Sustainable Development in London’s Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges.pdf

Teachernet - Sustainable Schools www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/


Appendix B: Acknowledgements

CEL is indebted to the great number of individuals and organisations who have contributed to the development of this strategy:

Fellow members of the Sustainability Integration Group (SIGnet), whose own efforts to develop and implement action plans were part of the inspiration for CEL to do the same.

Forum for the Future and the Education for Sustainability Team at London South Bank University, for their support, advice and expertise, for the quality of their research into leadership for sustainability, and for the way they have worked together to add real value to that research

Nigel Rayment for his enthusiasm and wise advice throughout the project and for his creativity and skills in drawing together both the research report and the report of the 16 May conference

Sector partners, and particularly the LSC, for their commitment to working collaboratively to achieve our shared goals for the sector.

The CEL Sustainable Development Group, for their inspiring passion and commitment to making CEL a more sustainable organisation.

All those colleagues in the sector – far too many to list here – who participated in one or both of the research projects, attended the 16 May 2007conference, or have contributed to the development of the strategy in one way or several.

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Appendix C: Response form – Towards leadership for sustainability

If you would prefer to type and email your response, please download this form in Microsoft Word format from the Sustainability page on CEL’s website: www.centreforexcellence.org.uk

Name

Job title

Organisation

Email

Telephone

Do you have specific responsibility for sustainable development within your organisation?

Yes No

Please provide any comments in relation to:

1. The strategy’s objectives

2. Proposed actions to:

Build leadership

Build partnership


Build CEL

Build practice

Do you have any other comments or questions?

Would you like to be included on our email distribution list for future news and information about the strategy?

Yes No

Which of the following events would you be interested in attending?

Partners’ forum Champions’ forum

Principals’ and CEOs’ forum Annual conference (May)

Thank you for completing this questionnaire. Please return it to Conrad Benefield:

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by fax: 020 7222 3081

by email: [email protected]

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Contact informationCentre for Excellence in LeadershipTelephone 020 7960 6035Enquiry line 0870 060 3278Facsimile 020 7222 3081Email [email protected] www.centreforexcellence.org.uk

Centre for Excellence in LeadershipThe Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) was launched in October 2003 to develop organisational leadership in the learning and skills system. CEL’s remit is to foster and support leadership improvement, reform, transformation, sustainability and quality improvement.

It serves the existing and future leaders of all providers within the further education system, including FE colleges, training and work-based learning providers, adult and community providers, offender learning, specialist colleges and voluntary organisations.

CEL is a learner-driven organisation – learners and their improved learning are the focus and purpose of everything that CEL does.

CEL now operates through a charitable trust formed by its operating company on 1 April 2006.

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