Central & South Scotland College Partnership

Enhancing sustainability impacts by sharing resources between FE Colleges

In February 2021, despite the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Scotland’s colleges declared a climate emergency and committed to achieving net zero by 2040.

In response to this challenge Borders College, Forth Valley College and West Lothian College formed the Central & South Scotland College Partnership, supported by EAUC Scotland. Being among the smallest FE institutions in Scotland and without any staff dedicated exclusively to sustainability, the colleges recognised that they required additional support. By combining their limited budgets, the partnership secured a dedicated sustainability resource - hiring a Sustainability Project Manager whose time and costs are shared equally between the colleges.

Since starting in January 2022, the Sustainability Project Manager has become integrated into the college teams and has enabled them to develop strategies such as new net zero plans, to secure funding for and deliver campus decarbonisation projects and to introduce new initiatives such as climate change risk assessments.

Annual carbon savings achieved with the initiative:

• CO2t savings 2022/2023: 1.74 - 3.47 (Estimated)
• CO2t savings 2023/2024: 100.1 (Estimated).   
• CO2t savings over the life cycle of the project: 285.1 (Estimated until 2024/25).
   

Top 3 Learnings

1. Institutions often face similar challenges and sharing experience is an efficient way to overcome these.
2. Having an additional role dedicated to sustainability has allowed us to explore new topics proactively.
3. Allowing flexibility in new roles can help respond to emerging opportunities.