How to embed the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in college life

Shipley College is one of, if not the smallest, general further education (FE) colleges in the UK.

We’ve been going green since the 90s but this academic year we wanted to specifically focus on achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Working collaboratively with the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges and with funding from the Department for Education’s strategic development fund, we led on an SDG training project.

The initiative has allowed us to support the growth of sustainable knowledge within colleges and embed green and sustainable topics within the curriculum across the region.

Eight colleges in West Yorkshire took part in the project, which started with a small group of SDG champions from each college had an initial face to face training session, facilitated by Shipley College.

The SDG champions then had the knowledge and understanding to cascade the training to other staff and students in their colleges. Each college took a different approach, but all have made strides in achieving SDGs.

With the combined effort of the West Yorkshire colleges, around 2000 teachers have engaged in the training sessions to date.

After the first eight weeks, 91% of teachers detailed the positive impact their lessons had on changing behaviours, with more than 60% stating that their students had engaged in an active learning project that delivered sustainability outcomes.

Even with very conservative estimates of one class per teacher, with an average class size of 16, this would have delivered and promoted the SDGs to a vast number of young people in the West Yorkshire region by late 2023.

These young people have the potential to become the next generation of “SDG difference makers”, in their personal life and future careers.

So, what have the eight colleges done to make a difference so far? There are hundreds of actions across all the institutions, so here are a few to show the breadth of activity taking place:

Bradford College: raising awareness among staff and students with visual screens and marketing material across campuses. Trainee teachers have also been trained to ensure the impact is felt in the primary schools they work in.

Calderdale College: staff have been trained in SDGs, a free ‘shop’ for clothes and toiletries has opened, and carbon literacy training is taking place across the college.

Kirklees College: a new sustainability group with staff and students has been established within the college, and solar panels have been installed which is already saving costs.

Leeds College of Building: all students and staff have had SDG tutorials, and the curriculum is being mapped to SDGs using the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) toolkit.

Leeds City and Keighley Colleges, part of Luminate Education Group: University Centre Leeds has joined a growing Place of Sanctuary network, whilst Leeds City College has become the only fourth college in the region to be named as a College of Sanctuary. A sustainability manager has also been appointed and SDGs are included in business planning process.

Notre Dame Sixth Form: the college is now measuring and monitoring the carbon footprint of the sixth form, and teaching staff and tutor representatives have been trained in SDGs.

Shipley College: the college has been leading and supporting others in the implementation of the SDGs. All internal staff have been trained on the importance of the SDGs, and Vegware has been introduced. The college is also working towards the Bronze Award for the Hedgehog Friendly Campus Scheme.

Wakefield College: SDGs have been included in the all-staff training days, all students have sustainability included into their induction programmes and there is curriculum mapping ongoing to make sure SDGs play a part.

SDGs are not just words on a wall; they are our daily actions that support the development of those in our care to become future SDG leaders within their community.

From the outset, all partners within the project agreed that the SDGs would be our project values, unifying the colleges to work together for the greater good.

Our collective experience of helping young people develop a more inclusive and balanced perspective of the world taught us that you must base their learning in practical activities. That is why the SDG project ignited such ambition, because our participants got their fingers green and could physically become the difference.

The initial project brought together 48% of participants of a South Asian Heritage, 54% of people that identified as female and 22% that held an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) for a profound or complex difficulty or disability.

Recognising our differences and treating people appropriately to their needs ensured we left nobody behind and that everyone had a voice and did something tangible to make West Yorkshire that bit more beautiful. We are incredibly proud to be shortlisted for the Inenco Award for Education for Sustainable Development at the AoC Beacon Awards.

The funding ended in March 2023, but the project lives on.

We’re helping SDG champions to continue to meet and share best practice and share their ideas.

There is an incredible amount of good, sustainable work that each college will continue to generate by creating the next generation of “SDG difference makers” in their staff and students.

Natasha Wilkinson, Sustainability and Facilities Coordinator, Shipley College