CLIMATE ACTION PROGRAMME CASE STUDY: CITY OF BRISTOL COLLEGE

In this case study Lara Davies-Jones, Sustainability Lead at City of Bristol College, talks about the college’s climate action priorities and its role in enabling and training students to access and shape a future green economy.

City of Bristol College is committed to being carbon neutral by 2040 and have already reduced their scope 1 emissions by 60% and scope 2 by 25% since 2021. Due to their ongoing climate commitment, we are thrilled to welcome them as a member of our Climate Leaders Group.

Building a green economy

As one of the biggest educational organisations in the area, the college plays a pivotal role in raising the profile of climate action in Bristol. This is not only through reducing our carbon footprint, but also through the college’s role as a skills provider. We have a responsibility to prepare young people with the skills, training and confidence to access and shape a green economy.

This is why we are expanding our green skills offer. Last year we launched a dedicated green skills suite, with green skills awareness and insight modules embedded into main programmes and apprenticeships across the construction sector. The next step is to explore standalone green skills courses that give students clear pathways into the green economy alongside securing business support to showcase present and future demand.

A road map to change

National legislation states that from 2025, all education settings should have a nominated sustainability lead and an established climate action plan. To fully realise the college’s ambitions, I was hired as a dedicated sustainability lead.

The main emission reduction measures that City of Bristol College has already taken across scope 1 and 2 include:

• Upgrading all building lights to LED lamps
• Installing PV panels at our Advanced Engineering Centre
• Reducing energy use – secondary glazing window refurbishment across Ashley Down campus and South Bristol Skills Academy
• New energy efficient boiler at Ashley Down campus
• Reduction in baseline temperature for college-wide heating system
• Implementing power management at workstations and computers to support positive energy behaviours.

We are also encouraging sustainable travel by installing EV charging points and are promoting nature through installing living roofs at the Ashley Down and College Green campuses.

Building on these strong foundations, my goal is to champion integrated sustainability initiatives across campus, curriculum and culture. There is much to do, and it can be overwhelming identifying where to start, but this is where our recently launched sustainability strategy helps provide guidance.

Our strategy is a roadmap to change and provides justification for all the new measures we are implementing. The strategy has been approved by our Senior Leadership team and Board of Governors, which is key to its effective rollout.

We are committed to ensuring that sustainability remains a top priority, especially amongst those who have authority to enact organisational change. To this end, we are making sustainability a standing agenda item at every Board of Governors meeting.

Alongside a dedicated strategy, sustainability is also integrated into the college’s overall Strategic Plan, the Estates and Digital Infrastructure Strategy and the Procurement Strategy.

Priorities

The sustainability strategy outlines the college’s starting priorities. These include the below (in no particular order):

1. Reviewing our decarbonisation infrastructure as an organisation who owns their buildings and has the capability to enact change. Currently we are looking to put solar panels on our College Green Campus and the South Bristol Skills Academy alongside exploring the feasibility of College Green and Ashley Down joining the expanding heat network.
2. Streamlining energy carbon reporting. Currently we report as a college, our aim is to be able to breakdown this data per campus to be able to better tailor actions to each campus’s individual needs.
3. Increasing and improving engagement. For long-term success, sustainability needs to be championed by staff and students. From my initial outreach work I have identified that many sustainability initiatives are already underway they just aren’t branded as such. I am: working closely with the student engagement team to co-create initiatives that are accessible, meaningful and beneficial to our students; establishing a sustainability steering group, including senior leaders and heads of departments; and recognising that learning is a two-way street – while I am raising awareness of sustainability, I also can learn a lot from staff and students.

Tips for others starting their climate action journey

• Don’t just bulldoze ahead with what you think sustainability should be, take a moment to pause and understand the environment you are in. Build up relationships first and work with people to understand what they already know about sustainability and work with them on what they can build on.
• Reach out to people in other networks. When I first started in this role, I had multiple conversations with sustainability leads across other colleges to discover what worked and to build myself a support network.
• Sustainability leads – make yourself visible and known within an organisation. Personalising sustainability helps people engage more fully and know who they can approach with sustainability questions and ideas.
• Go where the energy is – many of our staff and students are already passionate and/or interested in sustainability. Make the most of working with the willing and identify green light areas to start implementing change where there are fewer barriers.

Through our Climate Action Programme collaboration with the Bristol Business Improvement District, we’re keen to showcase climate progress and create more opportunities for businesses to learn from one another.

If you have an initiative or project we can shout about, please do get in touch with jasmine@bristolclimatenature.org

Find out more about the Climate Action Programme