Sustainability Policy Statement

View this document in Welsh

Document Code: SPS 01
Department: Sustainability
Document Author: Chris Long
Job Title: Head of Sustainability
Date of Approval:
Review Date: 5th September 2027
Version: 17

Bridgend College Group has over 7,500 learners and employs around 730 members of staff. We offer an extensive range of courses from Entry through to Degree level in over 20 vocational areas. We work closely with employers and businesses offering specialist support, apprenticeships and higher apprenticeships to support development of a professional, skilled workforce. In addition, Bevan College provides high quality day and residential placements to young people with additional learning needs and disabilities, as an independent specialist post-16 institution.

With an ambition to be an extraordinary organisation, Bridgend College Group recognises and accepts that concern for the natural world, education for sustainability, health, wellbeing and safety of all members of its staff, students, contractors, visitors and members of the local and global community is an integral and fundamental part of the Colleges’ strategy for success. We will inspire people, celebrate and share success and advance the critical role that education has in delivering the Wellbeing Goals under the Wellbeing of Futures Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the value it brings to our learners, staff, businesses and wider society. As a major employer and educational provider, we recognise that we are an enabler of positive change and that our decisions have impacts far beyond the College boundary, in the present and into the future.

Bridgend College is wholly committed to education for sustainability, the protection of people’s health and wellbeing, its estate, the natural world and the prevention of pollution in all its forms and we will continually improve the sustainability management system to support this commitment. This has the full support of the Governing Body, the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and the Principal who is ultimately responsible for its execution and ensuring that it is a prime concern of all members of staff and students.

Bridgend College is committed to making sustainable development one of the core organising principles against which decisions and policies are made. In 2018 we were the first Welsh College to become a signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) Accord, committing to mandatory reporting at an international level. Further, in 2019, we were the first college in the UK to declare a climate emergency. Our significant impacts include curriculum delivery, consumption of electricity and gas, use of transport, waste to landfill, water use, goods and services procured, infrastructure, land use and biodiversity. We will identify threats from our activities and either eliminate or effectively control them and, as a minimum, we will comply with all relevant legislation and other requirements and fully cooperate with all relevant authorities. Going forward we will:

Demonstrate extraordinary leadership and develop extraordinary leaders throughout the organisation to help us achieve our educational, health, wellbeing, safety, sustainability and natural world goals
Ensure that decision-making takes account of social, economic and environmental costs as part of a growth mindset
Work tirelessly to cut carbon emissions through our Zero by 2030 Strategy (scopes 1 and 2) and 2035 (scope 3)
Report our carbon emissions annually, including as part of the Welsh Government carbon reporting scheme
Report the impacts of our ambitions to be an extraordinary organisation to the UN as part of the SDG Accord
Ensure that responsibilities for ensuring world-class safety, wellbeing, health and sustainability at the college are effectively assigned, accepted and fulfilled at all levels
Set specific targets and monitor progress within our Sustainable Development Strategy and net zero by 2030 tracker
Continue to embed and develop education for sustainability across the organisation and ensure that every member of staff and learner, at every level, is supported to help us all achieve our collective goals and ambitions, including through Skills for Success, Learner Voice and Sustainable Futures Curriculum Strategy.
Ensure that we demonstrate openness and clarity in public-facing reports
Continually assess the impacts of AI and sustainability

This policy statement will be brought to the attention of all members of staff and students via the college intranet and website and copies will be freely available to the general public, suppliers, contractors and regulatory authorities. This document will be reviewed, at least, on an annual basis

Viv Buckley