FEE EcoCampus Bangladesh

The first step involves establishing a viable EcoCampus Committee within the organisational structure of the institution. This may be linked to the constitution of the Students’ Union and/or Environmental Society, or become an official statutory committee within the college. The chairperson and vice-chairperson should have access to top-level management.

The Committee should be as representative of the whole organisation as possible. It should primarily be made up of students (making up the majority of members whenever possible) and also include academic and research staff, a member of the executive board or governing authority and non-teaching staff — particularly facilities management, canteen/restaurant management, purchasing, and any other interested members of the campus and local communities.

The Committee directs and addresses all phases of the programme. It is the driving force of the programme and should ensure that the other steps are carried out. Its purpose is:

• To ensure the views of all members of the college community are heard and acted upon.
• To ensure the six other steps of the programme are successfully adopted and implemented.
• To give students responsibility and to ensure that their ideas are valued.
• To ensure the continuity of the programme in the long term.
• To link the campus community to the locality and external stakeholders.

The aim of the Environmental Review is to identify the initial situation of sustainability on campus. Its results are used to derive the Action Plan. Environment should be seen in a broad sense, including social and economic aspects. The review helps to establish whether a change is necessary, urgent or not required, and assists in setting realistic targets and monitoring implementation.

The review should also consider how the institution’s research can benefit the wider community, and how the university can — or already does — work towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It can also become a participatory learning process, enabling the Committee to get more people involved at an early stage without requiring specialist knowledge.

Information gained from the Environmental Review is used to identify priority areas and create an Action Plan. It contains actions for the campus and its faculties, and for how the institution can better engage in community outreach.

Action planning involves:

• setting achievable, realistic targets with measurable metrics
• setting deadlines
• improving environmental performance on specific issues
• listing a number of agreed activities
• listing clearly allocated responsibilities for each action

Action Plans should:

• link to learning on campus
• show any cost implications
• specify arrangements for monitoring and evaluation

The Action Plan should be monitored regularly and continually amended to reflect the findings of subsequent monitoring and evaluation.

Monitoring and evaluation assess progress towards the targets in the Action Plan and identify areas that require further corrective action. They also enhance whole-college awareness by highlighting the successes of the actions undertaken, and should be developed in tandem with the Action Plan.

Monitoring is vital for identifying areas of the Action Plan that can be improved and amended. This aids performance and feeds back into further actions and new goals. Make sure the whole campus is aware of your progress by displaying results and figures.

Sustainability topics studied as part of certificate, degree and master’s programmes should influence the way the whole college operates. FEE EcoCampus offers opportunities to make learning links into a range of subjects at many levels. As part of the environmental review, curricular mapping should show where Education for Sustainable Development already is — or could be better — linked to ongoing courses. The programme can also be a catalyst for research on sustainability issues in the communities around the campus.

This type of learning develops investigative, problem-led learning with real results, providing valuable graduate attributes and real-life experience. Ultimately, graduates of an institution involved in FEE EcoCampus should be aware of the steps they can take to be environmentally responsible throughout their future careers.

The aim is to spread the EcoCampus Committee’s message throughout the campus and the wider community through ongoing information and publicity. A campus-wide ‘Green Week’, intermittent ‘Days of Action’, or other student- and staff-led campaigns can further this agenda, as can a green media outlet or social media platform for sustainability events on campus.

Involving the wider community brings benefits in both directions: neighbours, local businesses, schools and the local authority can all provide advice and practical help. Make sure actions and events are well publicised to ensure maximum participation.

The Green Charter is essentially a ‘This is how we do things here…’ guide to environmental management on site. It may contain an environmental policy, but essentially it should be a concise guidance document on how environmental issues are handled on campus.