Staff sustainability representatives

The introduction of Staff Sustainability Representatives aims to improve the implementation of environmental sustainability in all Schools and Directorates across the University. Five main responsibilities will make up the Staff Sustainability Representative role to enable this aim to be achieved:

  • Encouraging colleagues to get involved with sustainability activities
  • Co-ordinating sustainability activities within the School/Directorate
  • Instigating ideas to improve sustainability within the School/Directorate
  • Co-ordinating the Sustainability Benchmark Audit
  • Contributing to the Staff Sustainability Network

These five responsibilities will be achieved through communication and engagement activities within Schools/Directorates, completion of the Sustainability Benchmark Audit, and engagement with the Innovation and Best Practice in Sustainability Awards scheme. It is anticipated that Staff Sustainability Representatives will spend an equivalent of 30 minutes per week / 2 hours per month completing tasks as part of this role.

Staff Sustainability Representatives will help the University engage a wider audience with sustainability through various communication and engagement activities:

1. Disseminating information from Sustainability Team within School/Directorate

  • Promote sustainability events and activities to colleagues through email/social media/Root and Branch Noticeboard.
  • Sharing case studies and best practice from other Schools/Directorates/ Institutions to promote progress in embedding sustainability

2. Feeding back information to the Sustainability Team to:

  • Highlight problems or improvements that could be made to increase sustainability at Keele. Feedback would be collated by the Sustainability Team and reported to the Environment and Sustainability Steering Group (ESSG)
  • Share best practice for promotion through Week at Keele, the Root and Branch Newsletter, as news items on the Green:Keele web pages, or through the Root and Branch social media channels

3. Providing introduction to sustainability at Keele to new members of staff in the School/Directorate as part of the University Induction, such as:

  • Green:Keele web pages, social media accounts, School/Directorate noticeboard for finding out about sustainability activities
  • Sustainability events and activities (benchmark audit, projects, Education for Sustainability (if appropriate), etc) new staff could get involved with
  • Green:Keele and ‘Root and Branch’ Campaign
  • Contributing to Sustainability Newsletter to share positive news and best practice
  • Sustainability-related CPD workshops

4. Attending/Contributing to Best Practice in Sustainability at Keele Conference

  • Present session to share best practice/lessons learned through sustainability activities in School/Directorate

Additional activities could include:

Organising School/Department specific events to promote sustainability, either in-house or with support from the Sustainability Team, which could include:

  • Introduction to sustainability for multiple new members of staff
  • Sustainability Benchmark Audit training session
  • Embedding Education for Sustainability in the curriculum session.