Strategic Planning

A cursory glance at the university's 2006-2011 strategic plan is perhaps a fair illustration of the importance of the environmental sustainability agenda to current thinking about UWA's long-term future.

A section that deals specifically with how the Welsh Assembly's sustainable development objectives are being met seems, to me, a bit vague - and it is worth noting that a reason that this section exists in the first place is to meet, at least nominally, a HEFCW (HE Funding Council for Wales) requirement to mainstream sustainable development into university planning. In full:

Sustainable Development
"We will seek to ensure that our activities are sustainable through maintaining a broad portfolio of research (1.2) and teaching (2.3‐2.4 and 7.1) to maximise and sustain our level of recruitment, in particular seeking to ensure the sustainability of subjects of specific strategic importance to Wales (1.3). We also note our activities aimed at sustaining the level of research income (1.4). Our work to ensure that a strategic, sustainable approach to the provision of an IT infrastructure is noted (8.1 – 8.4).

"We note also our work to ensure a sustainable Estate, including addressing long‐term maintenance issues (9.6) and developing a University Energy and Water Management Policy (9.7). We are fully committed to improving our performance in relation to the 14 Key Performance Indicator Trigger Metrics provided b the Funding Council as a measure of sustainability (9.2). "

If, at the very least, sustainability is thought to be as where economic, societal and environmental considerations meet, I find it hard to see how the first section meets that aspiration at all. Sustainability, in that section, appears to me more the ability of the university to continue for the long-term without collapsing into itself - things like recruitment, research funding, and technological innovation. The bracketed numbers refer to specific paragraphs in the main text of the strategic plan and by way of illustration, I've picked out two of them:

2.3 Continue to review and enhance the portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in order to enhance the student larning experience and achieve our HEFCW funded number and our internal targets for taught postgraduate recruitment.
2.4 Continue to explore possible new areas in non‐traditional and lifelong learning in order to widen access to HE.

So where does any element of environmental sustainability fit in there? It may be an implicit point, but unless you went looking for it you would thinking of 2.3 and 2.4 in terms of environmental sustainability. The second section of the 'sustainable development' description appears to be only marginally more useful. Paragraph 9.7 is the only area that explicitly addresses what we would instinctively think of as belonging to the sustainable development agenda:

9.7 Improve energy management through developing the partnership with the Carbon Trust and developing and implementing a Univerity Energy and Water Management Policy.

I could go on and on - no mention of sustainability in the environmental sense in UWA's mission statement, or even remotely in the nineteen priorites that it sets out for the 2006-2011 planning period. I really don't think that I'm being too cynical here. Have a look at the plan yourself and tell me if you think I'm drastically misreading it. It seems simply like an outline for development - forget any idea of sustainability. More will follow on the particular point of an energy and water management policy.