Interview: hopes for closer collaboration between staff and students for LSE’s next sustainability agenda

Amongst the uncertainty and havoc of the current coronavirus pandemic, sustainability and climate justice seem to matter even more  Whilst we are all still trying to figure out how the pandemic translates into our day-to-day lives and near future it has also cruelly highlighted the importance of addressing global health crises. The timeframe for climate justice is drastically different and yet, the issue is similarly urgent. With this mindset, The Beaver interviewed the LSE Head of Environmental Sustainability Charles Joly, and Sustainability Engagement Officer Scarlet Prentice, discussing student involvement within the school’s sustainability agenda. 

Charles and Scarlet explained how LSE is building a new set of sustainability policies within the framework of LSE’s 2030 Strategy. However, they say that this time students’ voices are being taken into account, and a real dialogue is being set up between staff and students on this urgent topic. 

I realized that behind seemingly closed doors, an extremely dedicated Sustainability Team of  five people, as well as and a Sustainability Advisory group exist. Meet Charles, Scarlet, Elena, Dan, and Martina, whose work over the last few months has been focused on integrating students’ opinions and thoughts into LSE’s new sustainability agenda.  Only a handful of students at LSE are familiar with the Sustainability Team’s set of actions, and this should change. Not all heroes wear capes, however Charles’ and Scarlet’s attempts to open up the new #SustainableLSE strategic plan to students certainly deserves a superhero status.. Circulating information across such a diverse and large student body is not an easy task, exchanging ideas and opening debates on sustainability represents altogether a whole new challenge in itself. 

“LSE has been working on sustainability proficiency for a long time but decided that it needed a new strategy,” explained Charles. “We needed to develop a new plan quite fast, but much broader than previous ones, thinking in terms of everything that the school does; what it meant for the education effort and research.” Currently working on establishing and later implementing this new strategy, the Sustainability Advisory group is chaired by Nicholas Stern, the director of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, and composed of two student representatives, the President of Sustainable Finance and this year’s SU Environmental Ethics Officer. This isn’t a “group behind closed doors, we really wanted the whole LSE community to participate,” stated Charles.

During the interview, Charles clearly laid out the plan’s initial core objectives, identified in February at the start of the consultation. The first consists of raising engagement and awareness in the sustainability agenda. A second target is set on understanding what the community’s aspirations on the topic are. Such goals appear to align with the CEC’s wish for the Sustainability Team to take into account everyone’s voice, democratizing climate decision making at LSE. 

Several initiatives were put in place. To reach out to students, a series of detailed, interactive, and informative events were organized, explained Scarlet. An initial launch event, the “#SustainableLSE Consultation”, gathered 320 guests. A series of six workshops then followed throughout March, each of which were tailored to specific subjects. 

A workshop was dedicated to LSE’s investment choices, a popular and controversial matter at LSE, which has been richly debated among students. The event finally allowed to open up a well-needed dialogue between student societies and LSE staff. It united the LSESU Green Finance Society, LSESU’s Environment and Ethics Officer, Climate Emergency Collective’s representatives, investment advisor to LSE Caroline Butler, the Chair of the Investment Sub Committee Neil Gaskell, Grantham Research Institute Climate change director Nick Stern, and Michal Nachmany, policy fellow at the Grantham Institute and. The event’s slides can be found publicly online,  and hold key information regarding  LSE’ approach to green investments. A survey was also later posted online, collecting staff and students’ opinions regarding LSE’s sustainability policies. The survey’s results will be closely analyzed by the team, and used as a foundation basis to build an inclusive 2030 strategic plan.  This will then be presented to the school’s committee and is aimed to be publicly published this summer. All of these steps represent a tremendous change in sustainable policy making at LSE and pave the way to a closer collaboration between staff and students, a whole positive way of change. 

In particular, Scarlet has been working on sharing information and keeping the student body updated about the Sustainability Team’s progress. LSE’s website remains an important platform, where annual reports and policies are published each year. Creating lasting links with student societies engaged in fighting against climate change, designing a newsletter, and sharing events on the Facebook page were all key in establishing larger means of communication. 

Communication, however can sometimes come with its own set of challenges in a community as wide as LSE’s. It’s crucial to keep in mind that students are scattered across a large variety of programs and departments, ultimately making it incredibly hard to reach out to every student simultaneously. Additionally, LSE’s campus is rich in events, debates and research. Some campaigns or messages, even ones as important as sustainability or climate justice, can easily get drowned out by the multiplicity of information and activities. 

Overall, these series of workshops and the survey’s publication can be perceived by students as an important cornerstone in LSE’s sustainability policy-making. They set the tone for the incoming years and pave the way to increased communication between staff and students. Charles wishes to organize an annual consultation and make workshops open and regular events on campus, to make sure that “the dialogue carries on!” . The team will continue to signpost possible sustainability pathways for students, helping them find information and create opportunities to learn and hear from LSE’s research.

When asked how his previous job as the Bank of England’s Head of Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility, differs from his current position at LSE, Charles highlighted a few aspects that his work entails. “When I develop a strategy or advise, it’s never the same thing from one organization to another. My role is to translate what sustainability means for one particular company, so that it can be as impactful as possible in its efforts. How a bank can be impactful is very different from how LSE can be impactful, and we have to take into account the learning and teaching experience. Students have sustainability skills, and LSE has key influence in leading research which could inform sustainability policies at a global level. The university has already been working on this for a very long time, and I’m not starting from scratch; LSE was very mature in that sense. My job here is to take it to the next stage, one step higher on the ladder. There’s so much knowledge here, from students to professors; a lot of people are very passionate about the subject. Personally, this is what makes this job so exciting.” 

And indeed, many students are getting actively involved in fighting climate change. The possibility to do so with LSE’s staff is an incredible opportunity to make this a joint effort, uniting researchers and students. The future looks bright, and I’m looking forward to participating in more of the Sustainability Team’s events, in the coronavirus-free year that awaits us. 

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