Dear CNU supporters and members,

our next meeting is coming up this Thursday and while we know several people will still be away, we really ask you to come if you are about. Please have a look at the agenda items below and see if you can help contribute.

But first...

Meeting details

• Thursday, 31 August
• 5-7pm
• The Diamond, Workroom 3 (room behind card barrier, we will wait for you at the barrier shortly before 5 to get you through)

Thank you
I wanted to thank Adam, Dan, Yahya and Max for their constant work on our 'Changing systems' guide and the associated editing of interviews and lectures. You have been doing great!
Just to remind all our members, we had a 2-day workshop on 'Changing systems' in May and we are still compiling, reviewing and distilling the material to make it accessible in a 'What works' guide. So thank you again for driving this through the summer holidays guys! I know there is more work...

Finally, here are our agenda items for the meeting

1. Welcome - meet new people
2. News and ideas to get inspired
3. Project presentations and discussions (see below points 1-6)
   
4. Summary of discussions
5. Next steps
6. Pub time from 7pm - Uni Arms :)

****Project summaries below

1. 'Making meetings more attractive'
We would like to improve the quality and organisation of meetings, to improve engagement and outcome. Our engagement specialist Nick Nuttgens, will give a brief overview, followed by team work aimed to improve future meetings and thereby also improve our ability to act on climate change through our various projects.

2. University sustainability governance
Importantly, I would like to discuss and have your input on the ongoing University governance review and how we can support it. This is very important to the network, and arguably one of the main reason we have been founded. > Creating a visionary, meaningful and functional sustainability structure to decarbonise university operations as we think it isn't just the right thing to do for our planet, but it is what we scientists know has to be done and brings plentiful opportunities to for improve our estate, teaching and research.

• Our vision
• Background on university governance changes - Task & Finish group

Discussion, will be initiated by a brief presentation of the research we already got and what we perhaps still need to support the Task & Finish group on sustainability governance. Their next meeting will be in early September, hence this meeting is important to decide on the materials to compile initially.

3. Recruitment: CNU coordinator positions - opportunity to get involved directly
We just recruited a great group of coordinators for our student society for a September start of term and now seek to replenish our main coordinator team. Several positions, from co-chair, co-secretary,  communications and treasury (new) are to be recruited for over the next few month and we are looking for interested candidates. During the meeting we will discuss the roles and plan recruitment.

• current roles

Related call-out: seeking staff member for CNU co-secretary role (staff)
In particular, I would like to put the word out for a staff member that would like to take on a network co-secretary role. It is not much work, but you would be essential for us to allow to book rooms and access our cost centre. This can not be done by a student, so it is vital to us to have academic staff members to help us out. Currently, two postdoc members and friends around the university have been helping us depending on availability and we really would like to have a dedicated person that is able to help us do this for the next 6 month or so. Please let me know if you would be up for that - The essentials are room bookings raising PO numbers (we have our own cost centre).

4. Organising a community film screening of 'Demain - Tomorrow' at the university directly following the Freshers fair in September.
Several people indicated that they would be interested in watching 'Tomorrow', a positive documentary on local climate change solutions.

• trailer: https://youtu.be/NUN0QxRB7e0
• https://transitionnetwork.org/news-and-blog/tomorrow-demain-available-last-uk/

The Freshers fair will be taking place on 27 September, and we thought it would be great to have a social event where new and old members come together in a positive way.

We basically, just need to decide a date and book a room...

5. Updates from our systems change guide working group (Adam)
The systems change guide work is relevant for the university and our network strategy, so we need to push this forward and always want people to get involved.

6. Upcoming events - Freshers Fair (lead: student society), Sustainability forum (lead: Nick), Communications evening with George Marshall in November (lead: Kathryn)

****Project summary end

We hope this sounds a bit interesting and will motivate you to join us on Thursday. Please tell friends and colleagues you think might be interested to come and say hello.

Before I leave you alone, here are just a few things that you can do with us;
>>Opportunities for you to get involved as CNU coordinator, project lead or a project team member - it makes a difference to the planet!

• New exciting possibility for collaborative projects - green houses (I say no more ;),
• video editing training (coming up to support our video student team),
• designing event flyers
• project coordination and management
• network communication
• writing blog posts (as communications coordinator)
• updating our Facebook page (as communications coordinator)
• Freshers Fair stall engagement team (students - be ready for 27 September)
• project researcher
• event communication
• get things done in a team
• project and network administration (to add to your CV)
• organise socials, such as pub and movie evenings (really essential)
• more

We are looking forward to see you.

Green greetings
Christian

Co-Chair
Carbon Neutral University Network


Website: http://www.carbonneutraluniversity.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carbonneutralunishef
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNUniShef
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgwZ6u9z4Fnf_2N82_X-Dxw

Currently, important changes are happening at university governance level and that includes a specific effort on the governance of sustainability around campus.

A new Task and Finish group has been established to review how environmental sustainability is managed and taken forward. This is what I would like to tell you about today, to provide much needed transparency and allow for people to interact and become change makers for our common good.

Previously, two committees, the Carbon Management Group and the Public Value Subgroup (PVSG), largely oversaw university sustainability. However, this is now changing, as it was recognised that the current structures are not able to achieve the key performance indicators outlined, with one of them being campus carbon emissions. Another (more official) reason given is a restructuring and the establishment of a new ‘Director for City and Regional Engagement’ role, which will possibly oversee sustainability. 


You may have heard many rumours, but I was thinking to inform you about the process that is taking place and provide some references that back it up.

Track record of relevant meetings - minutes from UEB

1. 10 January 2017: The UEB agreed to recommend the establishment of a Task and Finish group to review how environmental sustainability was managed and taken forward, including the development of an environmental sustainability strategy for the university. It was also stated that the Public Value Sub-Group (PVSG) would be dissolved and while not mentioned in the minutes, this includes dissolving the Carbon Management Group as a subgroup to the PVSG. (Source: Link to UEB meeting minutes)
   
2. 28 March 2017: The last Public Value Sub-Group report was received and approved by the UEB. To our information, it was a report that reviewed some of the sustainability actions around the university and offered some restructuring advice. (Source: Link to UEB meeting minutes)
3. 20 June 2017: It was noted that the first meeting of the newly established Task and Finish group will be held shortly and is chaired by Prof Nigel Clarke. It was noted that future activity on sustainability would be managed through the City and Regional Engagement team upon recommendation of the new Task and Finish Group. (Source: Link to UEB meeting minutes)
   
4. 22 June 2017: The first meeting of the Task and Finish group took place, chaired by Prof Nigel Clarke and recommended that two subgroups will be set up. The first, chaired by Steph Holmes will map the current sustainability activity across the University; the other will clearly define the objectives of the group and will be chaired by Professor Duncan Cameron. 
It was also noted that a new sustainability fund will be established to complement the current Salix funding available and this proposed fund will be further developed by the Task and Finish group. The next meeting of the Task and Finish group will take place in early September. (Source: meeting minutes of last Carbon Management Group meeting from 6 July)
   
5. 6 July 2017: Last meeting of the Carbon Management Group, of which our network was an official group member and where we were briefed on the developments of the Task and Finish group
   

Take away information  

The Task and Finish group is an essential stepping-stone to develop a new and improved environmental governance structure.

• Steph Holmes (Head of Procurement) and her team will head the effort to map sustainability activity across the university and Prof Duncan Cameron (Prof of Plant and Soil Biology, APS) and his team will define the objectives of the Task and Finish Group.
  
• The next meeting of the Task and Finish group will take place in early September, and it is vital to reach out to the chair Prof Nigel Clarke (Vice President and Head of Faculty of Science) and the above project leads to support them in their tasks and ensure a sustainability governance structure evolves that takes earlier learning into account.
  

The work of the university sustainability community, including our network, the Students’ Union and Estates based sustainability staff, have all been suggesting a need for more support and leadership from top management.  

We think this support and leadership can be provided by a sustainability governance structure and strategy, and provide a multitude of benefits for all university stakeholders if done well.

To do

• Let’s work together to enable this change and help the Task and Finish Group to deliver a truly transformative sustainability governance structure and strategy.
• Support Nigel Clarke, Steph Holmes and Duncan Cameron in their role
• Link up to the new Students' Union long-term vision (which includes carbon neutrality)
  

Below is a short outline of a few governance resources we found relevant to the work of the Task and Finish group and on which we can advice on. We also have an overview of governance structures from specific universities in the UK. Get in touch if required.

University of Sheffield

Together with support from the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, we wrote a Carbon and Sustainability Strategy (CASS) proposal for the University, laying out the reasons for why we need to go carbon neutral, along with benefits and the steps that could be taken initially. With the help of resources from universities on a carbon neutral journey, we concluded that along with a vision we will initially need a team and develop a strategy to get there. In February 2016, this was presented to the two relevant sustainability committees at the time, the Public Value Subgroup and the Carbon Management Group.

• The full CASS proposal for the University of Sheffield is available to download (link).
• It specifically suggests the option of a more centralised sustainability support structure that helps to connect the available sustainability competence and visionaries already existing in house (see figure). The sustainability office would provide support staff to enable the already existing university sustainability players to work together towards a common sustainability goal.

US based resources – ‘Second Nature’ leadership network on climate change

The CASS proposal above includes an analysis of universities aiming to decarbonise and their delivery structures, including references that describe how this can be done.
 
Most relevant were the resources of the ‘Second Nature’ Higher Education climate change leadership network, which includes more that 600 American universities and colleges. The network and participating universities have put together a number of freely available guide materials to help universities to become sustainability leaders. This includes a step-by-step guide as outlined in the figure below.

• The steps are based on the 2009 Cool Campus! Guide, a 118-page guide on ‘How-to guide for college and university climate action planning’ and the full report can be downloaded (below).
• Again it points to a need for the good governance structure based on a vision of climate leadership

UK resources and examples for governance

More recently (May 2017), the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC), has published their  ‘Next Generation Sustainability Strategy and Structure’ report reviewing how a variety of mostly British higher education institutes arranges their sustainability governance.

• Governance matters: The highest level at which authority of sustainability lies has a significant effect of the impact of the sustainability team. The lower of authority, the lower is the perceived priority of sustainability at an organisation.
  
• Download report here

If you have any comments or questions, please get in touch (Email: carbonneutraluniversity@gmail.com )
 
Christian
Co-chair,
 
The Carbon Neutral University (CNU) Network
www.carbonneutraluniversity.org
 
Our network has been working to introduce an ambitious carbon neutral vision to drive sustainability efforts at the University of Sheffield. Specifically, we would like to see our campus to become carbon neutral by around 2030.

Dear CNU friends, members and supporters,

the original release of 'Al Gore's climate change documentary 'An Inconvenient truth' was a really important climate milestone in 2006. 11 years later finally the sequel is here. An up to date story coming to Sheffield for a one-day-only early-showing at the 'Light' cinema this Friday. 

Day: Friday, 11 August
Time: 19.00
Place: Light cinema 

Book your ticket here:
https://sheffield.lightcinemas.co.uk/an-inconvenient-sequel

Me and a few more CNU members will go and we hope some more will join for a nice evening out. 

We don't know if it will be as good as the original, but hope it will be a good enough update, to engage and communicate the need for quick and decisive action on climate change.

We hope to see you on Friday and please come along for a drink after the showing. The 'Light' is on the Moor market and really central.

Cheers,
Christian

Co-Chair
Carbon Neutral University Network 
www.carbonneutraluniversity.org