For twenty years, Schumacher College in Devon has been pioneering approaches to sustainable living. We are now working with like-minded people and organisations to develop a new practically based strand to our curriculum. This will include new short courses, and an undergraduate and postgraduate programme on ecological design, build and refurbishment for the HOME, and human-scale sustainable LAND use. We are currently seeking input from you to help us design this new area of work.

Courses will explore enterprising approaches to supporting ourselves, our community and the living planet. With the focus on practical skills, particular attention will be paid to the importance of craft and quality within truly sustainable practice. We aim to test conventional boundaries, employing cutting edge research alongside evidence based practice, and balancing accredited training with the development of broad critical skills.

We propose that this is an urgent and essential area of work. We are keen to ensure that the courses we develop are highly effective in mobilising people, reskilling them for the future. Therefore we have developed two short questionnaires to find out what particular interests and needs there are for education and training in these two areas.

Go to  http://surveys.verticalresponse.com/a/show/167103/3981f77a6c/0

  if you would like to complete the questionnaire addressing the HOME area (ecological design, build and refurbishment).

Go to  http://surveys.verticalresponse.com/a/show/167103/dee6757385/0

  if you would like to complete the LAND questionnaire (human-scale sustainable LAND use).

Each questionnaire will probably take you around 15 minutes to complete.

Thank you for any help you can give in ensuring we design the right practical courses for you.

Schumacher College, Dartington is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

A recent survey revealed some interesting facts about the life of a modern student. Around 37 per cent work part time during term time, of which 62 per cent of them have three part time jobs. However this industrious acumen has an adverse factor. To maintain their work commitments a quarter of all working students are guilty of missing an average seven hours per week of lectures and some as high as 10 hours per week are lost. This amounts to a concerning total of 252 course hours lost per year and an untold effect on the final class of degree.

The favourite enterprises are working as mystery shoppers or selling goods on eBay and a courageous 6 per cent of students learn what its like to be a guinea pig in medical tests.

Central funding from parents amounts to £3,617 per annum, totalling around £10,851 over the full degree course. Six per cent of parents provide up to £9,000 per year ( £ 27,000 over the whole degree course) to support their offspring. To pay for all this 20 per cent of parents take out a loan, 10 per cent take a second job and 24 per cent work overtime to raise the funds.

Although we learn of the sizable student loan debt students amass by the end of the degree a surprising 45 per cent do not apply for the loan. Those who do 37 per cent say it is immediately consumed by debt, nine per cent say they have blown it within three days and 49 per cent have exhausted the funds within one month. Honesty does not necessarily score highly with over half of all students claiming to have lied to parents as to what they have used the grants and loans for. Eighteen per cent have used to buy a car, 25 per cent have enjoyed a holiday and 10 per cent have blown some on eating in Michelin starred restaurants.

Inevitably the rites of passage involve alcohol and unfortunately drugs. Fifty three per cent spend the majority of funds on alcohol and regrettably 10 per cent claim to have used it mostly to buy drugs.

Boys can at last outperform girls at university. Thirteen per cent of boys have part time jobs compared to seven per cent of girls. And 32 per cent of boys bought designer clothes compared to a surprising 18 per cent of girls! Yes- you would have bet the other way round!

Life at university does have additional elements to the academic content. It does teach students the reality of financial management and that money, despite years of ardent research, unfortunately does not grow on trees. Irrespective of the degree grade or subject speciality the experience does seem to generate some savvy individuals, and those whose learnt the hard way that if you borrow money it has to be paid back. Perhaps we should offer a new degree option, how to generate income and control expenditure. A reality check to the real world.

Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk

The survey was commissioned in August 2010 by shopping website Voucher Codes.

Keen 2 Learn is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

But charity financial advisers could do more to help ensure charities invest in line with their mission, survey finds.  
 
Latest research from the EIRIS Foundation Charity Project and the Charity Finance Directors Group (CFDG) finds that 87% of UK charities with an ethical investment policy said that their financial adviser has asked them about incorporating ethical issues within their investments. However, for those charities without an ethical investment policy, only 43% of charities said their adviser has asked about ethical investment.
 
Socially responsible investment (SRI) enables charities to invest in line with their mission, avoiding conflicts with their work and risks to their reputation. Over 90% of the general public believe that charities should invest ethically, but practice still falls a long way short of this.

Investment advisers and consultants can play a crucial role in the
decisions that charities make about their investments and whether to
consider social, environmental, ethical or governance factors. However,
some advisers have been criticised for discouraging charities from
considering ethical or socially responsible investment (SRI) and
linking their investments with mission.

Are Charity Consultants
Helping or Hindering the Development of SRI probes charity advisers’
current thinking on SRI, how they see their role in the evolving SRI
market and what would increase the take up of SRI by charity investors.
It compares the views of charities and evidence from the wider SRI
sector to explore the real and perceived barriers to change.

Key findings

§        
15% of charities without an ethical policy said that advisers were
discouraging or very discouraging. This compares to 4% of charities
with an ethical policy.
§         Some advisers do not see it as
their role to ask charity investors about SRI particularly if it is a
charity with broad aims and objectives.
§         Advisers are less
likely to ask charities about SRI if they don’t already have an ethical
investment policy – and may be more likely to be discouraging where no
such policy is in place.
§         Advisers agree that the
consideration of social and environmental risks should not harm returns
in the long-term, and could improve them. But many focus charity
clients’ attention more on short-term potential risks of
under-performance and volatility, even though studies repeatedly show
that investing ethically does not mean that financial performance has
to be sacrificed.  
§         Advisers identified a lack of
appropriate products as a key limiting factor to the promotion and
take-up of SRI.       

Advisers also feel that some trustees
are uncertain about their role in ‘imposing ethical considerations’.
But as one adviser commented, ‘Trustees need to change their view of
their obligations – they are not in a moral vacuum and they can go
beyond their governing documents.’

Report author Sam Collin
said ‘Many of the challenges raised by advisers could be easily
overcome. The intermediary role of advisers means that they could be
doing more to breakdown the perceived barriers, provide clear and up to
date information to trustees and communicate gaps in unmet demand to
service providers.’

‘Issues such as corporate governance and
climate change are more high profile than ever before in the investment
community. As the significance of ESG issues is increasingly recognised
by mainstream investors the market for advice on responsible investment
is also set to grow. Being at the forefront of new developments could
help advisers take advantage of this growth’ she concluded. 

The report recommends that advisers could do more to:

§         Raise SRI issues with all charities
§         Provide information and training to trustees
§         Include environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in standard reviews of investment managers
§         Keep informed of the latest developments
§         Communicate market gaps to fund managers

Click here (http://www.charitysri.org/homearea/documents/charityadviserdiscussionpaper.pdf) to download a copy of the research.

Article 13, the consultancy and think
tank focused on achieving real behaviour change in the CSR and
sustainability agendas, has released a new batch of case studies
profiling three organisations’ efforts to embed and integrate
responsible organisational practices in their mainstream
organisational strategies. The organisations showcased in this
edition are very diverse: 3M, The Medical Fair & Ethical Trade
Group and Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS
Foundation Trust.

3M, previously profiled for its
approach to product lifecycle assessments
http://www.article13.com/A13_ContentList.asp?strAction=GetPublication&PNID=1312,
also takes a leadership stance on education. The company will
shortly launch its second web-based learning tool, FutureWise,
designed to engage children in sustainability and environment issues.
As well as highlighting the complexity of sustainability issues, 3M
hopes to encourage the uptake of science, technology, engineering and
maths, thus securing its own business sustainability. (Read more
http://www.article13.comhttp://www.article13.com/CBI/CSR_Case_Study_3M_Aug%2009.pdf/CBI/CSR_Case_Study_3M_Aug%2009.pdf)

The second case study focuses on the
work of the Medical Fair & Ethical Trade Group (MFETG). The
MFETG was established by a single individual, bringing along other
like-minded individuals within the Department of Health and NHS to
promote and facilitate fair and ethical trade in the production and
supply of commodities to the healthcare industry. This group
provides a forum for consideration and building evidence bases for
action on complex issues including child labour, health & safety
and workers rights. (Read more
http://www.article13.com/CBI/CSR_Case_Study_MFETG_Aug%2009.pdf)

The third case study in this set
focuses on an innovative communications and social marketing campaign
called ‘Stamping Out Mental Health Stigma’. The Oxfordshire &
Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust’s communications
team produced this award-winning campaign to target the elimination
of discriminating behaviours towards mental health patients, their
treatment in the workforce and their access to opportunities. (Read
more http://www.article13.com/CBI/CSR_Case_Study_OBMH_Aug%2009.pdf)

The latest Article 13 CSR case studies
can be accessed from the Article 13 home page
(http://www.article13.com).
The CSR and sustainability case study archive is also a useful tool
for sustainability and CSR practitioners, containing a large range of
case studies within the categories of community, education,
environment, governance, new product development, strategy, supply
chain and workplace.