- Climate Change
One of the greatest challenges of our time, climate change impacts all nations and is already causing devastating consequences to people’s homes, livelihoods, food and water availability, health, poverty, and global economies.
All of the hottest years on record have been since 2014 and temperatures continue to rise. Unless we act now to keep temperature increases below 1.5oC the significance of the impacts will catastrophic.
IPCC — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Climate change is a result of the release of Greenhouse Gases. Within the university sources, Greenhouse Gases include the fuel and energy we use, vehicles and transport, the manufacture of the goods we buy, the waste we produce, and the water we consume.
Measuring and accounting for all our emissions is essential to be able to target reductions as early as possible and to meet our corporate target to achieve:
Net Zero Carbon by 2020 for scope 1&2 emissions.
- Skills and knowledge to meet the needs of a changing world
Preparing graduates for current and future jobs that support sustainable development is a critical area the University can impact upon. Green skills are critical to achieving a shift to a green economy however the availability and growth of these skills are not matching what is needed to make transformative change.
‘Green Workers’ are being hired at a faster rate than ‘non-green’ workers and roles including sustainability skills are now extending into non-traditional ‘green’ jobs i.e traditional roles now include elements of sustainability.
li-green-economy-report-2022.pdf (linkedin.com)
We can play an essential part in inspiring and educating students in sustainable development and how this aligns within their chosen career pathways to keep pace with new job markets or, create new enterprises to benefit society. Our graduate attributes reflect our commitment to this, with teaching supporting students to be:
Socially Responsible/Mindful/Sensitive: Ethically and environmentally conscious with a sustainable outlook; Acts professionally and with integrity; Champions own and others’ well-being and development
CU Academic Development – Graduate Attributes (coventry.domains)