Guidance April 2007 - Glasgow Caledonian University

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AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH An Inconvenient Truth Scotland’s sustainable development strategy Sustainability is an ever increasing buzz word in national and international news coverage, with specific topics ranging from global warming, energy efficiency and carbon footprinting to transport, environmental quality, health and state of our built and natural environment. In this article we look at what these crucial issues are and how school leavers can build a very rewarding career in this crucial area of work. Scotland has taken to heart the powerful messages that alert us to the need to protect our environment and become more sustainable. Indeed, the Scottish Executive, set out its strategy for working towards sustainable development and identified four key areas for action: • Sustainable consumption and production Looking at how goods and services are produced, the impact of products and materials across their whole lifecycle and building on people’s awareness of social and environmental impacts. • Climate change and energy Highlighting the need to secure profound changes in the way the country generates and uses energy and other activities that release greenhouse gases. • Natural resource protection and environmental enhancement Building a better understanding of environmental limits, environmental enhancement and recovery where the environment is most degraded to ensure a decent environment for everyone. • Sustainable communities Creating communities that embody the principles of sustainable development locally. These strategic action areas lead to a requirement, for public and private organisations alike, to assess their day to day operations for sustainability and to make changes where necessary. The operations that are currently receiving attention in Scotland include: • Energy efficiency • Transport • Urban regeneration and development • Waste management and recycling However, there is also a great deal of interest in the way in which communities can become more sustainable and a whole raft of other topics are being added to the sustainability debate on an almost monthly basis. In order to address these strategic and operational requirements, Scotland requires professionals in local authorities, community organisations and private companies who understand that sustainability means thinking in terms of whole systems, with all their interconnections, consequences and feedback loops. This knowledge helps decision makers to capture the complexity of the problems and ensure that scarce, irreplaceable resources are not frittered away, either deliberately or through ignorance. The professionals must, for example: • Encourage more sustainable construction • Compare alternative strategies and predict outcomes • Aid decision-making and justify decisions made • Engage with Government and communities and inform policy makers • Set targets for the future and measure the effects of interventions and progress towards targets 04 GUIDANCE www.caledonian.ac.uk
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH RELEVANT WEB INFORMATION Scottish Executive: www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/SustainableDevelopment RICS: www.rics.org/Environmentalandlandconsultancy CIWEM: www.ciwem.org Caledonian Environment Centre: www.caledonian.ac.uk/environment The Sustainability Centre in Glasgow: www.sustainabilitycentre.org The problems are multi-dimensional and at their heart lie the difficulty of assessing costs and value when comparing ‘apples and pears’. How do we compare the aesthetic damage caused by poor architecture or insensitive transport routes with the lower costs that are often associated with them? How do we compare the social benefits of a more expensive housing scheme that provides an environment which leads to increased employment opportunities with a cheaper one that does not? It becomes clear, going through these requirements that professionals require a wide ranging understanding of technical, social and economic topics. They require to be trained in the use of a multitude of tools in order to develop and assess holistically sustainable development issues, environmental management systems or urban and regional plans. The increasing demand for sustainable planning professionals opens up career prospects for those who wish to combine a vocation with a career. So, young adults who care for the environment now have the opportunity to turn this passion into a satisfying profession. Our BSc(Hons) Environmental Management & Planning programme provides the type of training and education that is required for school leavers to enter such a career path. The programme covers a wide range of topics from environmental impact assessment to urban regeneration and natural resource management. It is delivered by a team of experts that have extensive operational, research and consultancy experience in their field, both in the UK and abroad. The team is supported by full time researchers from the university’s Caledonian Environment Centre and its Sustainability Centre in Glasgow. The programme team recognise the importance that employers place on practical experience and offer their students the opportunity to gain up to nine months of such experience during a work placement in their third year at university. Recently, our students have gained work experience in large construction companies and consultancies, local authorities, community recycling initiatives and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Others have taken the opportunity to broaden their horizon by going on work placements in Norway and Japan. We encourage our students to join the professional organisations that accredit our course, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), and following graduation they can gain chartered membership of both organisations. BSC(HONS) ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & PLANNING PROGRAMME INFORMATION: OLE PAHL T: 0141 331 3572 E: o.pahl@gcal.ac.uk www.caledonian.ac.uk/bne ENTRY REQUIREMENTS: HIGHER: BBBB ESSENTIAL SUBJECTS: ENGLISH AND MATHS (S) GRADE www.caledonian.ac.uk GUIDANCE 05
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Guidance April 2007 - Glasgow Caledonian University

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