W EAK AND STRONG DRIVERS

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May 2007 with the summary report from the Swedish EPA for the year 2006 (Swedish EPA, 2007), will prove to motivate public agencies to improve their work. The feedback from the Ministry of Education has also been very limited. This means that the Directives, the output of the EMS intervention, have not been very effective. They have functioned as a driver only to a limited degree, and have caused only marginal changes in many universities.

Consequently, we can conclude that other drivers and the absence of barriers, on the flip side, have been more instrumental for the EMS process in most universities. Internal drivers in the form of committed management, faculty and staff, have proven to be especially important.

6.1.2 University management has a key role

There are countless studies of the role of management during a change process in an organisation. These studies have a direct relevance also for universities. The presidents and other top management have a key role in providing a vision for the need to change. They are fundamental in creating an institutional drive and culture of change, as pointed out by Mulder &

Jansen (2006). The support and resources need to be available over the long term to signify the importance of the activities. Examples of this are the universities that have voluntarily been working for certification (cf. Figure 5-4).

Clear decisions about responsibilities within EMS, connected to allocation of resources, constitute one of the advantages of EMS in a public organisation according to Emilsson & Hjelm (2004). This requires sensitivity since university organisations are typically built around different academic disciplines and the culture is marked by the particularities of the various disciplines. These are reinforced by the fact that any forces from outside are stamped as ‘meddling with the academic freedom.’ As a result, the EMS implementation needs to be adjusted to suit the academic preconditions.

Top management plays a key role in providing opportunities to see EMS and the necessary change for sustainability as an academic challenge, rather than a threat, as was stressed by Mulder & Jansen (2006), Martin et al. (2006) and Wals & Corcoran (2004).

the highest score (11 points), which is seen to reflect progress made in the environmental performance and acknowledges that an EMS is in place (Swedish EPA, 2007).

EMS – a Way towards SD in Universities

6.1.3 Importance of feedback and follow-up

The Directives, as well as the Higher Education Act, can be seen as the

‘spark’ to start an intervention and a change, in line with Price (2005).

Although the requirement for annual reporting was included in the appropriation directions for universities, the feedback and follow-up from the Ministry of Education is lacking and this has reduced the effectiveness of the Directives as an external driver, as reported in the appended papers.

This may also become the case with the amended Higher Education Act.

The nearly total lack of follow-up in universities may be an expression of a tradition of delegation. We can compare the situation to municipalities in Sweden that, according to Emilsson & Hjelm (2004), have little follow-up of earlier measures and, consequently, not much results to show change and limited incentives exist to achieve improvements.

There appears to be a problem in the fact that many academics view all follow-up activities as a form of negative control. This can result in ‘allergy’, as expressed by one of the interviewed lecturers, when asked about the course classification procedure. However the follow-up could also be a way to make improvement potentials visible, and so provide incentives for further activities.

We can conclude that without proper feedback and follow-up from the Ministry of Education, the process of implementation of sustainable development in all university activities must rely on other drivers, like engaged faculty, staff and an occasionally interested top manager or students. The process is not going to be institutionalised, and will therefore remain only as long as the voluntary engagement prevails, without a long term commitment.

The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education could have follow-up of the implementation of sustainable development in universities from its appropriation directions from the Ministry of Education. Such follow-up could be done through questions in the regular self-evaluations, which aim to secure quality and to provide incentives for improvement. The follow-up and feedback from the Ministry is important also in communicating to the university managements that the goals to achieve SD become a priority.

In 2006, eight Swedish universities received an assignment in an appropriation direction to develop a simplified reporting model of the EMS activities in universities (Ministry of Education, 2005). The work has been

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going on since then and is expected to result in simplified guidelines, making follow-up easier. It may still leave the question of effective feedback open.

Simple questions like: “How are you working for sustainable development at your university?” directed to university managements in the annual follow-up dialogues based on the appropriation directions could promote action. In addition to that, the Ministry may organise formal audits of the implementation of EMS at universities.

6.1.4 The role of environmental coordinators

Environmental coordinators plan and coordinate EMS activities and have, in universities, often a rather ‘lonely’ and difficult task in making the change happen. They are largely responsible for finding ways to adjust the EMS to the academic surroundings. In this work, the support from networks with colleagues, within their own university and from other universities, plays an important role. While some universities have for many years had a clear commitment towards sustainable development, with several staff members working full-time with the EMS and activities related to it; others are just starting with a single person working with such issues, as only a small percent of her/his duties.

The environmental coordinators and managers at the universities have, so far, focussed mainly on the environmental dimension of sustainable development, as their title suggests. The competence related to the systematic way to work, which they have acquired during the EMS implementation, and the broader interests they often show, could motivate to change their title to sustainability coordinators and managers. They have a key role in the overall communication in the organisation being the ‘spider’

in the university web, delivering information both to the representatives of the various departments in an environmental or sustainability council, or task force, and to the management of the university. According to Burström (2002), with the extension from EMS to sustainable development, the environmental coordinators could develop from ‘knowledge banks’ in environmental issues to ‘knowledge brokers’ in sustainability in their universities. The universities could, in a corresponding way, develop further to knowledge banks and brokers for sustainable development in their regions.

The interest and support from the management can be shown, for example, in the fact that the environmental coordinator or manager is located in the president’s office. This is especially important, if the work for ESD is to be

EMS – a Way towards SD in Universities

effective. When EMS is limited to work with the direct aspects, a placement in the service or building department becomes rather natural (Sammalisto &

Arvidsson, 2005). This may explain some of the differences in the progress in various universities.

Lecturers need, however, to take the ultimate responsibility for the relevant sustainability input in their subjects and courses. If education for sustainable development is separated from EMS, especially if EMS is considered as a non-academic activity, the environmental coordinators can still contribute with their competence. There is, however, a risk of them being left outside the work and the acquired competence can become unexploited or gradually obsolete.