Governance

All of the actions in our Sustainability Strategy will be implemented in partnership between our dedicated Sustainability Manager and a named Senior Leader within the University.

The action plan, which accompanies this document, summarises what we are going to do to realise our vision of strengthening our position as being one of the most sustainable universities in the world and by when.

All of the actions in the strategy will be implemented in partnership between our dedicated Sustainability Manager and a named Senior Leader within the University. These senior leaders vary by activity and have been named in the action plan as ‘co-owners’ within the relevant sections of the plan.

We will also work to recruit – from our new Sustainability Champions network – a named member of staff and a current student or Students’ Union representative to play a lead role in developing and delivering each of the actions within the plan on a voluntary basis.

In adopting this co-leadership model, we will also engage a much wider range of staff and students in developing and implementing the strategy, including input from the Student Sustainability Committee and the sustainability champion leads embedded within the staff teams of our Schools and professional service divisions. It is this form of inclusive co-creation that sets us apart as daring to be different at Sussex – involving students in all that we do.

It is also essential that we transparently hold ourselves to account on progress at implementing the strategy. That is why our Sustainability Committee, chaired by our Vice-Chancellor, will play a key role in monitoring our progress in delivering the action plan that accompanies this strategy when it meets once a term.

The Sustainability Committee will also be responsible for formally reviewing the action plan once a year in the spring term and suggesting any amendments to targets or sub-targets on an annual basis, which will be made public on our website.

These amendments may be necessary as technologies evolve and we become better at measuring our carbon footprint and broader social and environmental impact. In some instances, we may be able to set more ambitious targets and in other areas we may need to be more realistic. The key thing will be to regularly analyse data to ensure that we are optimally responding to changing events.

In addition, the Sustainability Committee will make recommendations to the Capital Infrastructure Programmes Board for new sustainability-related investments and infrastructure commitments based on robust business cases. This will provide additional scrutiny to ensure that we are getting value for money from all of our investments.

Finally, our Council (the highest-level decision-making body at the University) will receive a report on our key performance indicator target in relation to achieving net zero each year and will hold the University to account on making good progress against the action plan.

Our Governance arrangements are illustrated in the following diagrams.

Formal governance

Operational delivery / partnership model for deliviering each action in the strategy