Revisiting the Role of Staff Environment Champions: Durham University (UK)

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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS

COPY RIGHT © 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 12

OCTOBER 2013

VOL 5, NO 6

REVISITING THE ROLE OF STAFF ENVIRONMENT CHAMPIONS: DURHAM UNIVERSITY (UK)

Tashfeen Ahmad

Researcher at Universi ty o f the West Ind ies

(DipComp, BA, BSc, DipBus, MA, MBA)

Dean‘s Office, Facul ty of Socia l Sc iences,

The Universi ty o f the West Indies ,

6 Ring Road, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica.

Abstract

This paper i s for the benefi t o f the leadership o f Durham Universi ty (UK) to make

improvements in the role of Staff Environment Champions and achieve better sustai nabi l i ty;

other Educational I ns t i tut ions wi l l benefi t too. The research conducted through interviews

confirmed tha t Staff Environment Champions p lay a s igni f icant role o f br idge be tween the

Environment Office o f a Universi ty and o ther depar tments orco llege s . Inthe l ight o f the

l i tera ture on Environmenta l S ustainabi l i ty and thir teen interviews conducted wi th

Environment Champions and members o f Greenspace (Environment Office o f Durham

Univers i ty) , var ious recommendat ions are made in this paper . The recommenda tions made

wi l l improve sus tainab il i ty in higher educat ion; one of the conclusions suggested that

Univers i t ies ser ious about ga ining s igni f icant contr ibut ion fro m these Championsshould

invest more on Staff Environment Champions .

Keywords: Staff Environment Cha mpion; Sustainabil ity; Higher Education; Durha m

University; Green Ca mpus

Acknowledgements

After thanking God, the most beneficent and the most merci ful , I thank my fami ly, fr iends,

Greenspace Sustainabi l i ty Coord in ator and a l l of the anonymous intervi ewees, for the i r

hear t fel t assistance .

1. Introduction

‗Greenspace‘ i s the Environment Office o f Durham Univers i ty (UK), which coord ina tes al l

of the ir environmenta l act ivi t ies. The environment s tra tegy of Greenspace inc ludes act ivi t ie s

around biod ivers i t y, energy, fa ir t rade, procurement, renewables, t rave l , waste, and water .

All o f the sixteen co l leges and var ious departments a t Durham Universi ty have their

ind ividuals ta ff representat ives, who advocate bes t pract ices in thei rrespect ive col lege or

department. They work as a br idge between the Greenspace and other members of the

Univers i ty, and are known as Staff Environment Champions.

After careful explora t ion of the current ro le of Staff Environment Championsat Durham

Univers i ty, through interviews, this s tudy seeks to make some he lpful suggest ions for

possib le improvements to increase the e ffect iveness o f Staff Environment Champions in the

future. This objec tive makes this paper an interest ingstudy, to benefi t from, for the

management o f the Greenspace , Du rham Univers i ty and other inst i tut ions interested in

susta inab il i ty.

1.1. Research Gap

The importance of this paper i s fur ther increased as no such study has been conducted

previouslyto exp lore this area for Greenspace at Durham Universi ty, and also a gap exis ts i n

the research to f ind the process of implement ing environmental sus ta inabil i ty ini t ia t ives in

the ins t i tutes o f higher education (Wright , 2010) , even when the researchers agree tha t

ins t i tut ions o f higher educat ion can be a change agent for environmen t sus tainabi l i ty

(Corcoran & Wals, 2004 ; Stephens et a l . , 2008 ) .

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The good sign i s tha t S taff Environment Champions made var ious suggestions, dur ing the

interviews conducted to col lec t data for this paper , which would possib ly improve the

effec tiveness o f the ir ro le . I t i s interest ing to note that many t imes whenStaff Environment

Championswere asked i f they have shared the ir given suggest ion wi th Greenspace, thei r

response was in negative. They added that th is suggest ion just occurred to them now as they

are interviewed; this fur ther val ida tes the importance of this paper . Therefore, the insights

in this paper should help Greenspace in modifying the role o f thei r S taff Environment

Champions in the future .

1.2. Focus

This paper wi l l address the a fore -mentioned gap and the focus o f this study i s on the Staff

Environment Champions . The target aud ience of this s tudy i s the Greenspace management

along wi ththe management o f Durham Univers i tywho would be aware o f the var ious pol icies

which work in conjunct ion wi th t he role o f Staff Environment Champions. Therefore , the

deta i l sof those polic ies and var ious papers a lready ava ilab le onGreenspace‘s

websi te , ( www.dur .ac.uk/greenspace/ ) , are not elaborated in this paper .

1.3. Struc ture

Firs t , in the introduction, i t has beenbrie f ly observed what i s Greenspace, the purpose of this

paper along wi th the research gap, the focus and the target aud ience has a lready been

clar i fied. In the next par t , the l i te rature review wi ll he lp info rming some understanding of

what is happening regarding sustainabi l i ty in the inst i tut ions o f higher education. I t wi l l

he lp in understanding the di ff icul t ies faced, what are the good pract ices l i tera ture suggests,

what works and what does not? The underst anding gathered from this l i te rature review wi l l

he lp in creat ing the open ended questions which are later asked from the Staff Environment

Champions and Greenspace management during interviews.

The l i terature review will mainly revolve around Universi ty Sustainab il i ty and the role o f

Staff Environment C hampions . Thi rd, I wi l l present the approach and method used for this

research. Choice o f a par t icular method to col lec t data wi l l be exp la ined in this sec tion.

Fourth, I wi l l share the f indings and resul ts from the data gathered, through the inte rviews,

and discuss them as recommendat ions are made . In this sec tion, I wi l l look at the flaws and

tensions in the role o f Environment Champion and how they can be improved? I wi l l a l so

cover the d i fficul t ies faced by Staff Environment Champions and give recommendat ions to

overcome these di fficul t ies and to improve the role o f StaffEnvironment Champion. Quotes

from the interviews wi l l be used to suppor t the a rguments.

2 . Literature Review

Accord ing to Wright (2002) , Fi lho (2000a) and Deason (1996) , being sustainab le i s

important for Universi t ies and Colleges . Therefore i t makes sense to star t this l i tera ture

review by br ie fly exp la ining the concepts o f sustainab il i ty and sus tainable development but

before that , a l i t t le introduction of Durham Univers i ty.

2.1. Durham Universi ty

Durham Univers i ty i sproducing leaders in var ious fields, since long, as i t is the third o ldest

Univers i ty in United Kingdom. I t i s arguably one of the wor ld‘s lead ing higher educat ion

ins t i tut ions which provideopportunit ies for research and learning to over 15 ,000 s tudents

each year . This Univers i ty has sixteen co lleges as i t i s based on co llegiate sys tem and has

two campuses. One campus is in Durham ci ty wi th fourteen col leges and the o ther i s in

Stockton a lso kno wn as Queen‘s Campus wi th two co lleges. The number of Staff based o n

two campuses is around 3,800. These at tr ibutes make Durham Univers i ty a la rge universi ty.

2.2. Role of Universi t ies in Susta inabi l i ty

Knuth e t al . (2007) suggest tha t large Universi ty campuses emi t as much carbon dioxide as a

small c i ty. Therefore, they should s tr ive more to reduce environmental impact o f their

susta inab il i ty prac tices instead of jus t educat ing the next generat ion of leaders

(Alshuwaikhat & Abubakar , 2008) .

I t i s agreed in the l i terature tha t Univers i ty campuses are the hub of interac tions among

thousands of individuals, and these interact ions can pro mote environmenta lly sus ta inable

http://www.dur.ac.uk/greenspace/

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l i fe s tyle (Stephens e t a l . , 2008) . Though i t is establ ished tha t the Univers i t ies face var ious

chal lenges in do ing so (Barnes & Jerman, 2002 ; Lozano, 2006; Sammalis to & Arvidsson,

2005) , the Univers i t ies a round the world a re showing high levels o f ded icat ion and are taking

appropria te ac t ions to improve campus susta inabil i ty (Bekessy e t al . , 2002, p13) . One way to

promote these sus ta inab il i ty pract ices on Universi ty campus is through Staff Environment

Champions.

The Government o f Uni ted Kingdom (UK) has a lready dec ided to reduce the carbon

emissions of the country by 60 perce nt from the 1990 levels by the year 2050 (DTI, 2006) .I t

is important to no te that out o f 126 universi t ies in UK, 84 have a t a minimum one ful l -t ime

and one par t -t ime member o f sta ff employed to ful fi l l the environmental funct ion on the

campus (People & plane t , 2009) , in order to reach this target . In the l ight o f a fore -

mentioned l i tera ture, Durham Universi ty i s a lso playing i t s important ro leto reach this targe t

along wi th o ther Universi ty campuses who have star ted to take environmenta lly sustainab le

steps as Universi ty campuses emi t t ing carbon d ioxide deter iora tes not only the nat ional , but

global cl imate (Button, 2009, p279) .

Understanding this ro le , Durham Universi ty has set a targe t of a 30% carbon reduct ion from

the 2008/9 base line , by August 2014. In past Durham Univers i ty has been successful in

reducing i t s carbon emiss ions by 5.5% in 2008/9 compared wi th 2007/8. Carbon Trust

standard was awarded to Durham Universi ty in ear ly 2011. This toge ther wi th the remarks o f

the respected Vice -Chancel lor o f Dur ham Univers i ty , "Every pound we spend on energy or

lose in f ines is a pound we do no t spend on s ta ff salar ies, research or our students '

educat ion"suggests the commitment o f the top management o f Durham Univers i ty to reduce

carbon emission in the las t coup le o f years. This i s a good s ign as the support from the top

leadership o f the Universi ty i s mandatory to achieve successful outcome from susta inabi l i ty

pract ices (Bekessy e t al . ,2002 ; Carpenter & Meehan, 2002; Sharp, 2002); s t i l l a lo t i s to be

des ired in terms of Durham Universi ty‘s sustainab il i ty achievements, as d iscovered dur ing

the da ta col lec t ion for this s tudy.

2.3. Role of Management in Sustainabil i ty

I t must be noted that no t j ust the top leadership, but the long -term success o f a

susta inab il i ty program, at a higher education ins t i tut ion, i s increased , i f a l l o f the

stakeholders ( the faculty, ad minis tra t ion, s tudents, and fac il i t ies management s ta ff) , bel ieve

in the e ffect iveness o f the program and are also involved in the dec is ion -making

process(Filho,2005;But ton,2009,p279) . Also , as Nico la ides (2006) and Clougston & Calder

(1999) suggest , the sus tainabi l i ty pract ices o f a higher educat ional inst i tut ion should be

economical ly and eco logica lly viable and sound. This makes coordinat ion yet ano ther

important fac tor because l i terature suggests that environmenta lly sus tainab le prac tices are

most successful when the ini t ia t ives are coord ina ted from wi thin the Univers i ty ( Carpenter

and Meehan, 2002 ; Sharp, 2002; Shriberg, 2003) .

This scenario makes the r ole o f management important as i t i s establ ished that c lear

environmenta l policies designed by management along wi th s trong leadership wi th

coopera tion from al l s takeholders are essentia l for successful environmental projec ts ( Allen,

1999; Richardson, 2007 ; Velazquez et al . , 2005) .Fur thermore, the l i te rature suggests tha t

campus dec is ions made by environmental ly aware managers tend to have be tter

environmenta l sus tainab il i ty result s than the managers who are not envi ronmental ly savvy

(Goncalves -Dias et a l . , 2009) .

But managers responsib le for sus tainabi l i ty cannot do everything on their o wn and i t makes

sense to take support from Staff Environment Champions who can spread the sus ta inab il i ty

message across Univers i ty.

2.4. Role of S taf f Environment Champion i n Sustainabil i ty

After es tab li shed the ro le o f top leadership and management to a t tain sustainab le pract ices

on a Univers i ty campus, i t i s sui tab le to look a t the ro le o f Staff Environment Champion as

they p lay the role o f a br idge be tween the Environment Off ice o f Durham Univers i ty kno wn

as Greenspace and var ious Col leges and D epar tments.

Staff Environment Champions he lp in integra t ing envi ronmental ly sustainab le pract ice s

which may help the Univers i ty co lleges and departments see a reduction in their ecol ogica l

foo tpr int and energy consumpt ion and provide a model green campus for other ins t i tut ions

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and also result in savings (Eagan & Keniry, 1998; Filho , 2000 b; Strauss, 1996) . Gr i ffi th

suggests that the process to achieve susta inable campuses i s dynamic an d i t requires

collabora tion between var ious Univers i ty departments and col leges (Davis & Wolski , 2007)

which can be achieved through Staff Environment Champions .

Role o f Staff Environment Champions is very important as having a smal l group of people in

each department who are commit ted and cooperat ive (Holt & Anthony, 2000) , to the

Univers i ty‘s environment ini t ia t ives can help in successful and effective communicat ion

(Thompson and Green, 2005) .This i s important as Univers i t ies are implementing

susta inab il i ty ini t ia t ives to minimize ut i l i ty cos ts (Higni te , 2008) , and energy consumpt ion

is hard to reduce, for example, i f res idents o f a build ing are no t cooperat ive (Siero et a l . ,

1996) , they wi l l hopeful ly be more coopera tive i f Environment Champion re la ted t o tha t

bui lding i s e ffec t ive . This i s jus t one of the many examples where Staff Environm ent

Champions can help because C hampions who are dedica ted to change can spark the change

ini t ia t ion (Meima, 1997) and this makes faculty or s ta ff members suitab le to t ake the ro le o f

environment ―Champions‖ at universi ty campuses (Clugston & Calder , 1999) .

The role o f Staff Environment Champions cannot be over emphasized as increasing

awareness i s the f ir st step at a Univers i ty campus for which seminars, lec tures, news le t ters

and pr int mater ial can be some of the e ffec tive tools(Dahle & Neumayer , 2001) . But

changing behavior requi res more than jus t increasing people‘s information about

environment (Hwang et al . , 2000; McKenzie -Mohr, 2000)and this i swhere Staff Environme nt

Champions can play a c r i t ica l role .

I t should be no ted that the role o f Staff Environment Champions a t Durham Univers i ty is a

voluntary role and i t i s understandable that the so lici tat ion of an effec tive and sus tainable

volunteer e ffor t on a college ca mpus can be cha llenging (Manthrope, 2001) . Whatsoever ,

th is author wi l l t ry to suggest ways to overcome these cha llenges in l ight o f the l i terature

and the interviews wi th the Staff Environment Champions in the f indings sec tion, and be ing

voluntary in such role is no t a new concept . This can be said wi th confidence as the

l i tera ture suggests tha t the role o f the volunteer i s vi ta l to the co mplet ion of important

projects in var ious small communi t ies and on col lege campuses (Putnam, 2000) and

numerous col lege s have at tempted to ini t iate envi ronmental projects on thei r campuses tha t

have required volunteers to make these projects successful ( Bar le t t &Chase, 2004 ; see

excel lent guidance and examples in Keniny, 1995) .

2.5. Staf f Environment Champions promoting Be st pract ices

One of the bes t prac tices o f greening univers i ty campus is raising envi ronment awareness

(Cre ighton, 1999) which can be e ffect ive ly achieved through Staff Environment Champions .

But i f the change achieved through awareness is not long term, su stainab il i ty ini t ia t ive

might no t be as successful as des ired and may only resul t in i so lated victor ies rather than

mainstreaming campus sustainabi l i ty (Sharp, 2002) . Therefore l i te rature suggests that

successful Staff Environment Champions try to sustain the desi red leve l o f awareness

through promot ing best pract ices. But beware as Lo w et al . (2005) suggest tha t only one

sys tem might no t be able to produce soc ia l ly just and ecologica lly sus tainab le result s , whi le

being economica lly successful ,as Universi t i es and Col leges try to f ind bes t poss ible

pract ices through Staff Environment Champions .

Just l ike var ious organiza tions and corporat ions must meet environmenta l responsib il i t ies

wi thout compromising economic per for mance (Car roll , 1999 ; Palazz i & Starcher , 2006) ,

higher educat ion ins t i tu t ions must do so too (Baldwin & Chung, 2007 ; McKinne & Halfacre,

2008; Rauch & Newman, 2009) . For this, S taff Environment Champions are encouraged to

f ind pract ices which are best in the c ircumstances they opera te . When Sta ff Environment

Champions are successful in reducing waste, being energy eff ic ient andimplement ing water

conservat ion prac tices , they he lp the Universi t ies by reducing thei r financial expense

(Eagan& Keniry, 1998) . This contr ibut ion may make some of the adm inistrat ion and s ta ff

motiva ted in adopting envi ronmental ly responsible behavior (Ear l e t a l . , 2003) .

2.6. Challenges and Barriers

As inst i tut ions o f higher educat ion introduce ini t iat ives which conserve energy (Creighton &

Rappaport , 2007) , one of the ch a llenges i s that they f ind a gap be tween envi ronmenta l

va lues and the ac t ionstaken to make environment sustainable (Blake, 1999; Fishbein &

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Azjen, 1975; Kempton e t al . , 1995 ) . After var ious interactions wi th the concerned people a t

Durham Univers i ty, i t i s suggested tha t th is gap is becauseof the chal lenges in creat ing an

environmenta lly sus tainable campus as these challenges are soc ial and cultural in nature and

require a change in human behavior and pract ices (Har tmann, 2004) .I t i s the unsusta inable

human behavior tha t generates this gap and create barr ier s that prevent the campus to become

greener (Dahle & Neumayer , 2001)and I wi l l exp lore this fur ther in the find ings sect ion.

This scenar io reminds me what Orr (1994) suggested around two decades ago . Orr sa id , ―The

cr isi s we face i s f ir st and foremost one of the mind, percept ion and va lues; hence, i t is a

chal lenge to those inst i tut ions presuming to shape minds , perceptions and va lues.‖

Accord ing to Thomas & Olsson (1998) , one way to change the percept ion of sta ff towards

environmenta l sus tainab il i ty i s through tra ining.Training i s vi ta l for the Staff Environment

Champions and may promote susta inab le behavior .

I t was no ted that the barr ier s to achieve environment sus ta inab il i ty in Univers i t ies are very

simi lar to those in any other organiza tion or corporation, few of them being lack of funding

and insuff ic ient t ime and commitment on the hands of sta ff involved (Evangelinos et a l . ,

2009; Pi t tman, 2004 ; Velazquez et a l . , 2005) . Therefore the Univers i t ies can ta ke s imi lar

approach to dea l wi th these cha llenges l ike a corporat ion and may benefi t f rom their bes t

pract ices as many organiza tions are expected to show a minimum leve l o f ded ica tion to wards

environmenta l sus ta inab il i ty in contemporary t imes. Sustainabi l i ty i s a ―cr i t ical par t o f most

major corpora tions‖ (Epstein & Buhovac, 2010, p306) . Jus t l ike a corporat ion, f irs t

Univers i ty should audi t as Eagan and Orr (1992) suggest tha t through envi ronmental audi ts ,

Univers i ty may understand the consumption leve l o f na tural resources on their campus and

maybe, reduce consumption, where poss ible (Cahil l e t a l . , 1996) through Staff Environment

Champions as they spread awareness o f the importance of the i ssue. Currently Greenspace is

doing this in co llabora t ion wi th Bui ld ings and Estates department and he lp o f Environment

Champions is taken too. This audi t wi l l he lp in assessing the cur rent si tua tion as, Hammond

et al . (1995) suggested ; using appropria te assessment tools and then formatt ing speci f ic

act ions can help in f ocusing effor ts a nd communica ting ideas through Environment

Champions.McIntosh e t al . (2008) indicate tha t both profi t and non -profi t sources have come

up wi th var ious independent assessments using var ied evalua tion techniques to solve this

issue but major i ty o f them rel ies on se l f -report ing. Jus t l ike corporations, Universi ty

Campuses require assessment too ls to compare themselves wi th other s imi lar ins t i tut ions, as

Shriberg (2004) suggests, to gauge the ir sustainabil i ty per formance.

Furthermore, T imlett & Wil l iams (2009) and Zhang e t a l . (2008) suggest that recycl ing

becomes d i fficul t in high density environments such as populous Universi t ies but i t should

also be noted tha t var ious s tudies focus on the benefi t s from favorab le behavior to wards

recycling (Amutenya et al . , 2009; Gunton & Wil l iams, 2007) . St i l l the result s in major i ty o f

the campuses are not as good as des ired. One reason for this non favorable behavior towards

recycling can be ineffect ive communica tion. This argument i s va lida ted as e ffect iv e

communicat ion is cr i t ical for successful envi ronmenta lly sus ta inable prac tices a t h igher

Educat ion Inst i tut ions and Corporat ions as research indicates a knowledge gap among

var ious members o f Univers i ty communi ty on what to recycle and ho w to recycle (Ka plowi tz

et a l . , 2009; Kel ly e t a l . , 2006; McDonald & Oates, 2003) .

One of the reasons of these i ssues can be tha t be ing environmenta lly savvy is not a top

agenda for students when they co me to Univers i ty. To dea l wi th this cha llenge, Staf f

Environment Cha mpions repea t the message of being environment fr iendly frequent ly so

students may learn to behave as des ired. But major i ty o f the t imes , this learning does no t

t ransla te into des ired behavior and resul ts in a fa i lure (Jucker , 2002) . This i s where be tter

t raining of Staff Environment Champions to p romote susta inab il i ty i ssues through effec tive

communicat ion might he lp the process as po inted out ear l ier .

Another chal lenge is funding as i t i s an i ssue for members of the Universi ty communi ty

involved in environmental ly sustainab le ini t iat ives (Dahle & Neumayer , 2001; Levy &

Dilwali , 2000) . Velazquez e t a l . (2005) suggest that a lack of invo lvement and par t ic ipat ion

among members o f the sta ff involved in the environment sus ta inabi l i ty ini t ia t ives can be

ano ther chal lenge. Even when Universi t ies do have some regular meetings to engage the

Univers i ty in environment sus ta inabi l i ty projects, according to Herremans & Allwright

(2000) , communica tion out o f these meet ing among s ta ff is not common. This result s in

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decreased team work be tween Staff Environment Champions. To deal with these cha llenges

and barr iers successful ly, continuous par t icipat ion of Universi ty communi ty i s cr i t ical for

any successful campus wide environment susta inab il i ty ini t ia t ive (Kaplowi tz et a l , 2009) for

which a suitable infrast ruc ture i s always helpful (Kel ly et a l . , 2006; Lud wig e t a l . , 1998;

McCar ty & Shrum, 1994) . This i s where aga in Staff Environment Champions can be helpful

as they kno w their depar tments or col leges well .

I t i s important to unders tand the negat ive impact o f not implement ing environmenta lly

susta inab le ini t iat ives (Carpenter & Meehan, 2002) . Therefore , a l l s takeholders should be on

board and see environmenta l susta inab il i ty prac tices as ini t ia t ives tha t can make a di fference

(Davio , 2001) and develop behavior with the he lp o f Staff Environment Champions to

mi t igate any negative impact (Rappapor t & Cre ighton, 2007) .

Greenspace faces simi lar problems as suggested in the l i terature but i t i s hoped that these

problems can be sol ved as Morton (2010) s tated, ―Higher education i s one of the b iggest

breeding grounds for green prac tices […]not only because of i ts wi l l ingness to sa i l into

uncharted—or at least untested —waters, but because of the a t t i tudes i t can inst i l l […]‖

(p .64) .

3. Research Approach and Methodology

The research was conducted in August 2012. Data was co llected through semi -s truc tured, in -

person interviews. Interview schedules contained open ended questions as these types o f

interviews do no t restr ict the interviewe e‘s viewpoint (Kohl i , 1978) . But some questions

which were asked during the inte rview, to c lar i fy the d iscuss ion , were not planned ear l ier .

3.1.Strategy and Design

Qual i tat ive research methods are ut i l ized us ing semi s truc tured interviews as this is more

sui tab le to understand the subjec tive opinion of interviewees and wi l l eventual ly help in

making suggest ions which can make improvements in the ro le o f Staff Environment

Champion. As the research is on Greenspace which i s Durham Univers i ty Environment

off ice, a case study approach was used (Yin, 2003) . According to Yin (2003, p .13) ― a case

study is an empir ical enquiry tha t (1) invest igates a contemporary phenomenon wi thin i ts

real l i fe context , espec ial ly when (2) the boundaries be tween pheno menon and c ontext are

not clear ly evident .‖

3.2. Interview Sample

The sample select ion vas t ly depended on accessib il i ty o f the inte rviewees (Bryman, 2001,

p .97) .The interv iew sample consis ted of e leven Environment C hampions and two members o f

the Greenspace management includ ing Greenspace Manager . Inte rviews lasted between 40 to

70 minutes each and they were recorded digita l ly. Interviewees did not want their names

mentioned in this study, therefore names are not l i sted and as a resul t , a l l segments o f the

interviews inc luded in this paper are anonymous.

I t i s hoped tha t the da ta ref lect the true p icture o f the cha llenges faced by Staff Environment

Champions so appropria te reco mmendations can be made to increase this role‘s e ffec t iveness

in the future . The sample size i s relat ively decent as there were occasions when the

comments by one interviewee were confirmed by others and no new re levant themes emerged

in the las t few interviews (Corb in & Strauss, 2008, p . 148) .

3.3.Data Collec t ion Design

All o f the interviews were conducted in person and the interviews were al lowed to be

f lexib le when needed to explore any new idea mentioned by the interviewees. On the same

note, i t was made sure tha t carefully worded questions a re asked to have in depth views of

the interviewees . The process o f interviews was f luid and evolving (Corbin & Strauss,2008)

but because of the nature of this research, some interviewees were re luc tant to express their

view point openly. They were assured that the ir names wi l l not be published in the paper .

3.4. Interview Questions Schedule

Two separate interview schedules were prepared. One schedule was fo r the interviews wi th

Greenspace Management and the o ther schedule was for the interviews wi th Staff

Environment Champions .

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3.4.1 . Questions Schedule 1 - For the Greenspace Management:

What is your job role? What does i t involve? How long have you worked in your

cur rent role?

Can you te l l me a l i t t le about Greenspace? – The cha llenges i t faces?

o How are susta inab le practices organized at Durham Universi ty?

How many ful l t ime sta ff members do you have?

What i s the most cr i t ica l sustainab il i ty i ssue faced by Durham Univers i ty?

– Campaigns fo r Staff Environment Champions

What are the va r ious Greenspace campaigns for Staff Environment C hampions? Why

were these campaigns introduced?

What i s the object ive o f these campaigns for Staff Environment C hampions?

Which ones o f the campaigns are more successful? Which ones a re leas t successful –

why is this?

– Sta ff Involvement & Motivat ion

What i s the response of sta ff to these campaigns?

o Do they encourage the des ired behavior e .g. increased awareness to var ious

susta inab le development issues e .g. waste reduct ion?

How do you motiva te sta ff to engage wi th Greenspace campaigns of Staff

Environment Champions?

o By br ie f ing on the importance of their work/ impact they made?

o Any incent ives provided to the sta ff?

– Barr ier s to achieve campaign targe ts

What are your targets? What are the main di ff icult ies or barr iers which prevent you fro m

achieving your sustainabil i ty targe ts?

How can you overcome these barr ier s?

How do you audit var ious campaigns for Staff Environment C hampions , i f you do? -

Have you done any audi t?

– Management

How do you provide leadership as manager in direc t ing environmen ta lly sus ta inable

pract ices to Champions?

Do you mentor S taff to run environmenta l susta inabi l i ty projects e ffect ively? I f yes ,

ho w? –Any training provided? Onl ine etc .

-Finance

How do Greenspace finance campaigns fo r S taff?

Do you save money from S taff led sus ta inabi l i ty ini t ia t ives? I f ye s, where i s thi s

money spent?

o Is i t invested on S taff e .g. spec ia l environme nt sustainabi l i ty lec tures for

Staff , updating S ta ff‘s ski l l s , kno wledge, expert i se , sending them to events

hosted by o ther sus ta inab le universi t ies to increase their awareness an d

exposure.

Concluding remarks:

How do you imagine the Greenspace to be l ike in f ive years? Any o ther i ssues which you

think are importan t or re levant to Campaigns for S taff which we did no t discuss?

3 .4 .2 . Questions Schedule 2 - For the Staff Environment Champions:

What i s the role o f you r job as Champions? What does i t involve? How long have you

worked in your cur rent role o f Environment C hampion?

Why d id you vo lunteer? What was the mot iva tion behind?

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Do you enjoy your ro le as Environment C hampion? If yes , what i s i t speci f ica l ly that

you enjoy?

What do you fee l you have achieved in this ro le? Give examples.

What has worked well – What has no t worked well? Any examples?

Does your department suppor t your ro le? I f yes, ho w?

Does your depar tment feel that yo ur ro le as Environment C hampion i s o f value? If

yes, ho w?

– Sta ff Involvement

How are you involved in your D epartment as Environment Champion? How do you

involve o thers in your college/department?

How many o ther S taff members a re involved in the campaign for Staff Environment

Champions?

How are you involved in improving the campaigns for Staff Environment C hampions?

What incent ives or other dr ivers, you suggest , w ould improve the campaigns for S taff

Environment Champions?

o E.g. be tter s ta ff t ra ining, adequa te learning opportuni t ies?

– Barr ier s to achieve campaign targe ts

Is your per formance evalua ted? I f yes, ho w are you eva lua ted on the campaigns for

Staff Environment C hampion?

What are the charac ter is t ics o f vo lunteer pro jects that can ac t as cha llenges, to

coordina ting sus ta ined environmenta l vo lunteer ism, on the col lege campus? Your

experience?

What are the best s tra tegies for successfully addressing these cha llenges?

What barr iers prevent you from engaging in campaign for Staff Environment

Champion?

Concluding s tatements:

Any suggestio ns for new campaigns for Staff Environment C hampions tha t would

improve Greenspace environment sus ta inabi l i ty pract ices?

o What should Greenspace do immedia te ly or in short run?

How do you imagine the job of Staff Environment Champion to be in f ive years‘

t ime?

Any o ther i ssue which you think i s impor tan t or relevant to campaigns for S taff which we

did not d iscuss?

3.5.Limita tions of method

The f indings o f this paper are subject ive because of the nature o f this research and t he

method uti l ized. As the sample was selected on the bas is of their ava ilabil i ty, because of the

t ime l imi t to comple te this study, there i s a possib il i ty that they share spec i fic opinions. In

this scenar io , i t might not to appropr ia te to general ize these f indings (Yin, 2009) . A careful

approach was taken in asking interview questions but there i s a chance to subconsc iously

bias the inte rviewee‘sresponse to the interview questions because of the interviewer‘s vo ice

tone or body language.

4. Findings and Discussion with Reco mmendations

Staff Environment Champions face two major cha llenges . One i s finding the t ime to be

thinking about what to do next and l iaison wi th Greenspace and thinking of new objec tives

and ways of achieving targe ts . And the o ther is g et t ing the message across, ge t t ing i t to

other people to take them on board.

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Some themes are ident i fied to deal wi th these chal lenges and i t i s a t tempted to give a

solution where poss ible.

4.1. Changing o thers Behavior

The l i terature and the management o f Greenspace toge ther with the Staff Environment

Champions agree that favorable changes in behavior can lead to dramatic reduction in the

Univers i ty‘s carbon foo tpr int . There are two ways to approach change in behavior . You can

either change the behavior to wards sustainab il i ty by making others unders tand the i ssues or

you can enforce the po licy. Enforc ing the pol icy i s not the bes t opt ion; you would want

people to change their behavior wi l l ingly. For tha t to happen, al l o f the stakeholders need to

be on board as we es tabl i shed in the l i tera ture review. Theoretica l ly changing

people‘sbehavior to help Staff Environment Champions spread susta inabil i ty prac tices , e .g.

saving energy, should not be very hard as people do i t a t home a l l the t ime. I t should not be

di fferent on Campus. But rea l i ty is d i ffe rent .

Whi le trying to unders tand the under lying cause of why Greenspace have not been as

successful as they would have wanted to , one of the Staff Environment Champions who a lso

si t s on the Greenspace Advisory Grou psuggested, ―I don‘t think sta ff and s tudent s real ly

apprec iate that they are responsible for saving energy. […] I t is so mebody else‘s prob lem.

[…] Not their o wn prob lem.‖ The reason comes out to be that they do not o wn the i ssue of

being sus tainable . One of the issues here can be ineffect ive communication.At this point , i t

makes sense to unders tand how Staff Environment Champions can change the behavior o f

others? On changing behavior , one of the Environment Champion commented, ―Reali s t ical ly,

we can‘t ! We give them all the opt ions. We advice them of what happens and we make every

opportuni ty to make envi ronmental sus tainabi l i ty open to them. […] but i f they do not take

us up on i t , we can‘t force them. ‖

This i s t rue par t ia l ly and the reason can be a c lash of interes t between Campus populat ion

and the Staff Environment Champions e .g . students l iving on Campus have a lready pa id for

the energy they would be us ing, so why to make a cut? Dur ing the interview wi th one of the

Staff Environment Champions , i t was evident that , ―The Univers i ty is lega lly bound to

reduce i ts carbon emission, i t s carbon footpr int , so i t has to achieve tha t in some way. And

i f the sta ff and student s are no t on board, then i t i s never going to happen. ‖I t can be

deduced from this tha t i f the Univers i ty i s penalized financial ly, then tha t burden might be

handed on to students in terms of increased fees . Theore tical ly this should increase the

motiva tion of Universi ty students to help the Univers i ty reduce i t s carbon footpr int by

showing a change in behavior but , on the wider scale , i t does no t .

Two of the Environment C hampionssuggested that the change in behavior o f others to

comply fully wi ththe ir suggest ions has been s low so far . I t i s agreed that , over the years,

Greenspace i s sho wing improvement in the per formance of Staff Environment Champions but

there are i ssues to be reso lved. One of the Environment Champions suggested tha t , ―The

behavior catch up i s slow and that catch up i s s low for obvious reasons […]. […] I t takes a

bit longer t ime for people to catch up in behavior .‖ This Environment C hampion was of the

view that i f he had more t ime on hand , there were poss ibi l i t ies tha t he could change the

behavior o f the Universi ty communi ty towards sustainab il i ty and saving energy. Another

Env i ronment Champion agreed to the previous comments and added, ―What has not worked

wel l , p robably, i s encouraging people to save energy. I th ink energy is probably the highest

of the Univers i ty‘s prior i t ies, saving energy,buti t is di ff icult to motivate peop le to swi tch

th ings o ff when they are no t around.‖

As I t r ied to e xplore this issue wi th another Environment C hampion, he suggested a so lut ion.

―There has to be so me personal ga in e .g. through compet i t ions . My department saves more

energy than your depar tment so we get go ld, bronze or a si lver medal . […] There needs to be

a personal incentive for people to implement some of these changes because tha t i s the way

human beings are. They have to see a resul t for themselves‖ . And I would add here tha t the

campus popula t ion which he lps in reaching these targe ts should be ackno wledged too. This

might make the job of Staff Environment Champions easier .

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4.2. Lack o f T ime on the hands o f Champions

Trying to make favorab le changes in people‘s behavior i s a big par t o f the role o f Staff

Environment Champion. While d iscuss ing this wi th a Staff Environment Champion in order

to come up wi th some solutions, she commented,―[…] you can only make that shi ft i f you

have t ime. […] i f you are no t constant ly under stress and pres sure.‖ The l i tera ture ver i f ies

that t ime i s required to make changes in peoples‘ behavior (Ackerman, 1997) . Another Staff

Environment Champion suggested that ―[…] to do the job r ight […] takes near ly hal f a day.

Some weeks you cannot devote tha t much t ime. ‖ The ro le o f Staff Environment Champion is

an important one to ra ise awareness and change behavior in the ir departments or col leges .

―Where do you find the t ime to give so much when you are caught up in the midst o f heavy

academic ac tivi t ies?‖ another Sta f f Environment Champion ver i f iedprevious comments.

As I d iscussed this i ssue wi th ano ther Staff Environment Champion, he suggested that

―These roles are a b i t outs ide o f the job role and because they are outs ide of job roles, they

can be real ly cha llengin g in terms of f inding t ime to a t tend to them suff icient ly as to s tay

cur rent in terms of knowledge and par t ic ipat ion.‖ Another Environment C hampion agreed

with the above ment ioned thought in his own way by adding that―[…]i t takes a bi t o f t ime to

go through data, and then read through, synthes ize and then co mmunicate to other people. So

in doing tha t , t ime and energy are some of the challenges.‖

I t was emphasized by var ious other interviewees as they suggested the need for more t ime on

hands to exp la in othe rs about the i ssues and why we are doing what we are. This needs to be

done on department management level too which would take considerable amount o f t ime.I t

is worth ment ioning tha t seven of the Staff Environment Champions suggested that t ime i s

their b iggest bar r ier to promote sus ta inab le practices in their co lleges or departments as one

of the act ive Staff Environment Champion suggested, ―[…] i t ‘s always the t ime thing. […] i t

is a lways about find ing the t ime to ensure that every b it o f ini t ia t ives tha t you think of or

you come across tha t Greenspace promotes tha t you p ick and try to move to the next step.‖

Suggest ing solution to this p ress ing prob lem:

4 .2 .1 . Employing Ful l t ime Staff Environment Champion

One of the Staff Environment Champion suggested t hat ―I am very much aware tha t I

struggle to donate as much t ime as the job needs. And we have loads of ideas and things we

would l ike to do‖and juggling var ious act ivi t ies makes i t hard. This Champion suggested

that one way to dea l wi th this prob lem can b e tha t Greenspace employees one full t ime

Environment Champion who looks a t six or seven colleges simul taneously.

There i s a possib il i ty that employing a ful l t ime dedica ted sta ff member from outs ide might

not have the same kind of re la t ionsh ip wi th fe l lo w academics as an Environment C hampion

who isan ―insider‖ would have; but the idea of having a ful l t ime Staff Environment

Champion kept on coming repeated ly in the interviews. This prompted me to ask one of the

Staff Environment Champion i f there should b e ded ica ted s ta ff to assume the ro le o f

Environment Champion. ―I n an idea l world, yes, because Environment C hampion i s an

addit ion to an exis t ing job role in each department. And we are al l busy people. So

sometimes the Environment C hampion role goes do wn my own personal agenda because i t

has to‖ ; the Environment Champion suggested .

I decided to explore this fur ther wi th him as the l i tera ture and the interviews were

suggest ing tha t S taff Environment Champions have been struggling to ful f i l l their dut ies to

the bes t o f their e ff ic ienc ies, not because they do not want to or they lack motivat ion but

because they do no t have enough t ime to devote . This made me ask fur ther quest ions to this

Staff Environment Champion.

I :Would the investment be worth i t i f Greens pace hasdedicated sta ff to take on the ro le o f

Environment Champion?

Environment Champion: ―In my mind, yes!‖

I : So investment should not be an i ssue because in the long run they would be saving costs?

Environment Champion: ―Defini tely! […] I think Environment Champions need to be

permanent sta ff .‖

I : You rea lly suggest that?

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Environment Champion:―Ido , yah. …B ecause Environment C hampions are res tr ic ted by t ime

and the ir o wn job role. This i s a secondary job, i f you l ike. ‖

P lease no te tha t above menti oned co mments are from an Environment Champion who has

been in this ro le since the s tar t o f Greenspace which is more than four years .Dur ing my

interac tion wi th the Greenspace Manager , I asked her i f Greenspace have any plans in the

future to employee dedic ated people as Environment Champions. Her answer was in negat ive

and she maintained tha t she does not see anypossib il i ty in the future to do so.

This research suggests tha t in future , the role of Environment Champion should be more

formal ized. I t would be wonder ful i f each department had i t s o wn employee whose job role

is d isseminat ion of informat ion in the ir department or col lege . In the future, each

department should have a person whose full t ime job is to ensure greenness, energy savings

and promotion of a l l green ini t ia t ives . I t would no t only be a posi t ive step but i t wi l l a l so

give out a fantas t ic message across the Universi ty and across the higher education sec tor

that Universi t ies are taking i t so ser iously that they ac tual ly pa id people to do i t , ful l t ime,

properly.Maybe not a l l departments need ful l t ime C hampions but some big departments do,

along wi th al l co lleges.Based on the l i te rature review and the interviews, there i s a clear

need of a ful l t ime Environment Champion as many Environment Champi ons get ideas but

cannot always act ion them, sole ly,because of the t ime constra int . There i s a need of more

focused approach where there i s an individual or a group of individuals who are do ing this

in departments o f high activi ty. Current ly, Greenspace i s a very smal l department ; the o ffice

needs to expand.

4 .2 .2 . Work load model for Environment Champions

If i t i s not poss ible at the mo ment to employ full t ime Environment C hampions, here is

ano ther suggestion.

One of the Environment Champions suggested t ha t i f the Universi ty i s ser ious about making

Environment Champions more devoted to the ir work and find t ime, the Univers i ty should

introducework load model in every col lege and department, a t leas t in a l l those departments

which are big in size.And a lso t ry to lobby and increase the credit s given to Staf f

Environment Champions in the departments which a lready have this model in place.

The work load model i s present in some of the departments where Environment Champions

are al lot ted cred it s fo r the work the y do as Champions and the performance of these

Environment Champions seem to be bet ter than other departments which have no t a l located

credi ts for this vo luntary ro le . Here, depar tment management wi l l have to p lay thei r role as

Greenspace management convin ces them to al loca te credi t uni t s to the person in thei r

department who is playing the role o f Environment Champion. Greenspace office needs to

ge t department heads on board for this.

Some of the departments provide good suppor t in terms of al lowing the ir sta ff Environment

Champions to go to tra ining days and by backin g ini t iat ives tha t come out o f G reenspace but

more needs to be done i f the Universi ty wants to reach the sus ta inabi l i ty targe t i t has set fo r

August , 2014. One of the Environment Champion com mented. ―[…] I th ink Greenspace i s

very successful wi th the policies and proc edures tha t they encourage the U niversi ty to

fo l lo w. Where i t i s not successful is wi th help ing depar tments in understanding the reasons

why these pol ic ies need to be in place.‖

Another Environment Champion l iked the suggest ion of introducing credit s or increas ing the

credi ts in the departments for the ro le o f Environment Champion and added tha t no

improvement can be seen from Environment Champions in their work i f they are no t

rewarded e.g. in te rms of credi t uni ts in their department and this a lso ver i fied what Smith

(2000,p84) noted, tha t reward st ructure res t rains change in the sustainab il i ty o f the

ins t i tut ions o f higher educat ion.

4.3. Rais ing Awareness

On rais ing awareness o f sus ta inab il i ty i ssues, an Environment Champion agreed to what i s

es tabl i shed in the l i terature review by suggesting that ―[…] i t i s up to every single individual

member o f s ta ff and s tudent tohave a great awareness o f these issues. And we cannot br ing

ene rgy consumption down unless everyone i s aware o f the impor tance of do ing so.‖

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The var ious campaigns Greenspace i s running for sta ff Environment Champions a re

commendable. Here i s a recommendat ion which i s inspired from the var ious interac tions

wi th Staff Environment Champions and l i terature.

4 .3 .1 . Environment Awareness Day

Greenspace should have an environment awareness day for Environment Champions. Staff

Environment Champions have their t raining days but maybe opportuni t ies to visi t o ther

educat ion estab li shments where a lot o f savings have been achieved would be benefic ial .

Sometimes when you go and see what o thers are doing, you co me back wi th a wealth o f

ideas that you can implement.

The expense for Greenspace would jus t be o f travel ing as overnight s t ay i s no t suggested. I t

would be an ini t ia l expenseandbased on the interviews , the savings can far outweigh

anything that Univers i ty would pay under those c ircumstances. Poss ible reason i s , when

Staff Environment Champions are jus t looking around the ir own ins t i tut ion, they would

jus tsee ideas going round and round. But once they s tar t looking at other Universi t ies , there

is a chance tha t they see things happening which they have never thought about. S taff

Environment Champions wi th less t ime on the ir hands need those fresh ideas to get the

message across, and ge t others buy i t more quickly. I t can just be couple o f Greenspace

people and few of the Champions jus t to go to somewhere that i s doing real ly wel l .

As discussed ear l ier , communica tion i s a prob lem so Staff Environment Champions need to

f ind fresh ideas to get the message across and going to other successful Green Universi t ies

and learning from them can be helpful . Th e ideas should be communica ted effect ive ly as one

of the Environment Champion commente d, ―Streamlining the amount o f act ivi ty i s necessary

[…].[…]everything should come in one go, i t s in one email and you know exactly where to

go for i t and you can refer back i f you need to .‖Research found that the problem is

sometimes peopleget overwhelmed by the amount o f informat ion they get regarding

environmenta l sus tainab il i ty. So when you bombard them wi th a lot o f information they get

uninteres ted.

Raising awareness i s impor tant and to ge t sta ff more interes ted, i t i s t ime to think of new

ideas where learning from o ther Green Campuses may be a good star t . And i t i s a l so the need

of the hour as one Environment Champion commented , ―[…] the s ta ff get s ick of hear ing

from Environment Champions. I f we are ab le to s treamline the informat ion, I th ink some of

the s ta ff wi l l s i t up and take more no tice o f i t . Because at some po int I do think that they

jus t read what i t i s about and de le te i t s tra ight away. ‖

4 .3 .2 . Curr iculum and Staff Environment Champions

Only two out o f e leven Staff Environment Champions sug gested that they look a t

improvingcurr iculum too,st i l l i t should be mentioned as i t can he lp the way Staff

Environment Champions try to raise awareness.

Environment Champion s should get in touch wi th the lecturers in the ir depar tment and

convince them to ta i lor their formative assignment, maybe, as a case study which dea ls wi th

susta inab il i ty issues e .g. changing behavior regarding energy consumpt ion.From my

experience, I can say with confidence that Staff Environment Champions can get a lot fro m

it in terms of cooperat ion fro m students towards sustainab il i ty and i t would be grea t as they

are the bulk of the populat ion on a Universi ty Campus.

4.4.SharingBest Pract ices

To embed sus ta inab il i ty ful ly wi thin organizat ions , champion pro jects , benchmarking

against organizat ions wi th superior sustainab il i ty pract ices and shar ing susta inab il i ty stor ies

are he lpful accord ing to a recent review of academic and pract i t ioner sources by Bertels ,

Papania and Papanina (2011) .

I t made sense when one of the Staff Environme nt Champions commented tha t ―[…] fol low

best prac tices. So i f something works in my department, perhaps i t wi l l work in your

department and I think Univers i ty should have f inancia l rewards fo r the departments who do

wel l .‖ But i t was no ted that the departm ents and colleges are not in the hab it o f shar ing bes t

pract ices as one of the Staff Environment Champion suggested, ―[…] par t o f the problem is

that depar tments inherent ly do no t speak to each o ther because they see the ir department as

their o wn l i t t le empire[…].‖ Another Staff Environment Champion commented , ―…there i s

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very l i t t le shar ing of good practice. And there is no incent ive for department that does

th ings very well to tel l o ther departments. ‖

The suggest ion i s tha t Greenspace management needs to take the var ious department heads

on board for this along wi th their Environment Champions and coordina te between

departments to share bes t prac tices ut i l ized by Staff Environment Champions. The

Greenspace Off ice confi rmed tha t best pract ices must be share d and they have tr ied but they

agreed to some extent that bes t prac tices are not rel igiously shared.

5 .Conclusion

Greenspace off ice i s t rying to ge t e ffec t ive communica tion out to engage as many s tudents

and sta ff members as possib le, i f not al l of them, and Staff Environment Champions play an

important ro le for the o ff ice o f Greenspace.

The carbon management plan require 30 % reduction in carbon emiss ions by August , 2014

based on an 2008 -09 base line but as one of the interviewees suggested, ―…in terms of

carbon management p lan, we are no t achieving the cuts as a Univers i ty tha t we need to , a t

the moment…‖ to achieve the required targe t .

The work Greenspace i s doing wi th the resources they have i s aga in commendable and

Greenspace management thinks that a g reater pr ior i ty should be given to the role o f Staff

Environment Champion within depar tmenta l board meetings. Ho wever , i t i sdebatab lehow

ser ious i s the Universi ty? The concern s tems from the fo l lo wing comments o f an

interviewee . I f we look at the Greenspace Office, an environment champion suggests, ―we

have the sus tainabi l i ty manager but that i s three days a week. We have G reenspace student

environment coordina tor which i s four days a week. We have an ad minis t rat ive assis tant and

she does four days a week and then we have green t rave l manager and a green trave l

assis tant and they bo th work ful l t ime. So there are 5 members o f s ta ff.‖

Now, the concern is that why the size is so small for a Univers i ty as big as Durham and

par t icular ly i f the Univers i ty i s ser i ous about the Green i ssues. I f the Univers i ty i s ser ious

about the Staff Environment Champions , why there i s no member in the off ice dedicated to

communicate wi th around 100 Environment Champions in var ious departments and

colleges?There i s a clear scope t o make the off ice bigger and have more people at

Greenspace off ice. I f having a ful l t ime Environment Championsin every col lege as

suggested ear l ier i s not poss ible, a t th is po int in t ime, why no t have an individual in the

Greenspace off ice expl ici t ly to e ngage wi th Environment Champions?

If the task required by a Staff Environment Champion needs to be done properly and the

Univers i ty management is ser ious about achieving thei r sustainab il i ty targe t in less than a

year from no w, they should consider these r ecommendat ions.

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re s ea rch er a t Th e Un iv e rs i t y of t h e Wes t In d i es .

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