2010 GREENING RSM ANNUAL REPORT

Transcription

1 GREENING RSM ANNUAL REPORT 2010 Contents 1. Introduction 2. Teaching 3. Research 4. Energy & Water 5. Transport 6. Waste 7. Communication 8. Organisation Structure 9. Partnerships Appendices A. Environmental Barometer B. Mobility Survey summary C. Business Travel summary D. Sustainability in Education E. Sustainability in Research 1

2 1. INTRODUCTION Greening RSM (GRSM) underwent a renaissancee in 2009, and was active throughout Theree had been other initiatives in previous years, but Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) had never systematically addressed environmental activities. GRSM was a logical initiative, seeking to live up to RSM s core value of sustainability. GRSM was launched to fulfil the following mission: Greening RSM aims at achieving the lasting commitment of the RSM Community consisting of academic, managerial and support staff, as well as present and former students, of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University to the performance of environmentally sustainable business operations. Greening RSM is determined to make RSM a global environmental leader among business schools by: infusing the possibilities of and constraints on the natural environment into the relevant disciplines of all RSM curricula, so as to raise awareness among students and inspire them through teaching to perform environmentally sustainable business operations throughout their careers; creating a hub to facilitate RSM researchers to perform interdisciplinary research in the field of environmental sustainability, so that it becomes a key area of RSM research; reducing the overall environmental footprint of business-relevant behaviour of the RSM Community to environmentally sustainable levels, in particular by minimising the consumption of natural resources and the production of waste streams, as well as by maximising the valorisation of waste produced; raising awareness, inspiring, and stimulating the RSM Community to behave in environmentally sustainable ways through the communication of environmentally benign actions and RSM s environmental performance to the RSM Community and external stakeholders Like any new venture, GRSM had to develop its teeth and seek the best possible way to meet its mission. This exploration processs involved implementing an organisational structure, setting up activities and fine- The mission on which we embarked is potentially impactful, since RSM is not only a medium-sized organisationn with a significant environmental footprint, but also an institution that educates future managers tuning their scope, looking for effective procedures, and reaching out to internal and external constituencies. who need the right knowledge and skills to make their businesses sustainable. We were thrilled to observe that so many people enthusiastically volunteered to contribute to greening up RSM. The growing commitmentt of the RSM community further motivated us and enabled the realisation of some noteworthy activities, which we present in this report. The Greening RSM Team 2

3 2. TEACHING The Teaching and Research Working Group is chaired by Frank Wijen and has representatives from different academic disciplines at RSM. At the time of GRSM s inception, RSM was lagging behind other topmainstream ten businesss schools in the number of courses where greening and sustainability are part of the curriculum. There has been much discussion on the best way to achieve closer involvement of department heads to firstly assess, and secondly implement, the teaching of sustainability principles into all relevant courses at RSM and to ensure every RSM student is exposed to environmental content. GRSM has been successful in preparing the greeningg up of six IBA and BA Bachelor courses and four MSc courses for the academic year 2010/2011, exposing over 1,500 undergraduate students to key elements of green management. Courses such as Strategic Business Plan, International Investment and Trade, Management Accounting, Operations Research & Modelling, Quantitative Decision Making, New Venture Creation, and Strategic Sourcing had lectures or modules on environmentally relevant topics and reduced the use of paper (manuals, assignments, etc.) and plastic covers. Skype (low- or no-cost voice and video communication using the internet) is starting to play a role in communication with students A pilot project for the e-reader was scheduled to start in December 2010 for education, and for research in January Postgraduate programmes handed out readers electronically and requested students to hand in assignments electronically An overview of Sustainability in Education was compiled by Milen Petkov, attached as Appendix A 3. RESEARCH Four Green Bag research seminars were held in 2010, where RSM researchers from different departments discuss their environmentally relevant working papers. A list of RSM faculty having research interests that include sustainability was drawn up by Milen Petkov and is attached as Appendix B 4. ENERGY AND WATER An Environmental Barometer was prepared, including measurements from 2009 and See Appendix C A key achievement during the year was the reinforcement of relations with the Erasmus Facilities Bureau (EFB), leading to the provision of environmentally relevant data and the principle agreement to reimburse RSM investments for the equivalent of the energy consumption n saved, starting with seed money of 2,500 for the collectivee computer switch-off project. An early successs for Greening RSM was to negotiatee the collective switching-off of all employee computers outside office hours, leading to an annual energy saving of some 6,500 KWattt (or 3,700 kg of carbon dioxide emissions prevented, equalling the amount absorbed by 185 trees during one year) Greening RSM issued timely reminders to staff and faculty to switch off computers, computer screens, printers and heating in offices before Christmas and New Year holidays, pointing out the energy and CO 2 savings, as well as cost savings for RSM. Switching off heating in offices when each evening was also encouraged. EFB assured GRSM that WCs in the T-Building are set to a consumption of 6 litres per flush, which is the lowest possible amount to avoid pipe jams. Water-saving buttons usually have a 6 litre option for low consumption, and a 9 litre option for high consumption, so installing reduced-water flush buttons would not help in saving water. 3

4 5. TRANSPORT A more accurate measurement of RSM s environmental footprint included a dedicated mobility survey among employees and students. In addition to showing commuting patterns of RSM students and employees, it also showed the number of business trips; conference trips, student s exchange studies and academic trips, which, when combined, represent 77% of RSM s environmental footprint. A summary of the Mobility Survey is attached as Appendix D, and a more detailed view is included in Appendix E. A collective carbon offset scheme for all business trips by RSM employees was approved by the Management Team (and came into force in early 2011). Compensating all RSM business trips by employees in 2011 will total 1,540 tons of CO 2 emissions, equalling that absorbed by 77,000 trees. 6. WASTE To address the huge amounts of waste paper produced at RSM, and to reduce the overall consumption of paper, GRSM issued several reminders of paper-saving techniques to staff and faculty, including using the Track changes tool in MS Word for editing and commenting on documents on-screen. GRSM was extremely pleased to have been partly responsible for a change of tack from the Nespresso company, which agreed to start organising proper recycling of RSM s 120,0000 disposed aluminium coffeee capsules and those from other users in the Netherlands, in response to GRSM s efforts. Awareness-raising among employees through regularr greening tips on the intranet 7. COMMUNICATION Website: With the help of volunteers, GRSM launched its own website ( to provide information on all GRSM activities, news of events, blog posts, discussion forums and tips on environmental matters. The website now has around 100 registered users Social Media: GRSM is active on Facebook and Twitter, which also create more traffic to the website Internal communications: GRSM makes regular posts to all staff via the intranet. A direct link to the Greening RSM channel is installed on the SIN Online main page A web-based facility, Basecamp, has been established to internally exchange ideas that are not ready for public exposure A GRSM logo was created for internal use (see cover page) A Living Artwork Event, in co-operation with GreenEUR, in early October contributed to attracting the support of more students On Sustainability Day, November 11, GRSM hosted stands in the T and J buildings, handing out locally-grown organic apples with a GRSM flag instead of a traditional promotional flyer. There was a lot of interest among students, who expressed willingness to join future events; many of them signed up to the GRSM website. Suggestions and feedback were gathered, and the event was judged a success. 4

5 8. Organisationn Structure Greening RSM became operational at the start of 2010 as a small, fundedd internal project with the equivalent of 0.6 full time employees. See Appendix F. From January to October 2010, GRSM team members were the chairman, assistant professor of Business Strategy Dr Frank Wijen, Greening RSM consultant Joy Kearney, and student assistant Milen Petkov. In November 2010, project manager Dr Gabi Helfert was appointed, and the staff of Greening RSM became the equivalent of one full-time employee. It is supported by around 40 volunteers from the student and employee populations, and has 93 members, of which around 40% are active as volunteers. The organisation established four working groups of volunteer members, faculty and staff members which address the provision of facilities teaching research communications Larger, budget-relevant decisions are decided by a Steering Group of the school s Management Team members. 9. PARTNERSHIPS Greening RSM has established successful partnerships with three studentt associations at EUR; GreenEUR, which aims to raise awareness of human impact on the environment, inspire students to adopt a more responsible lifestyle and develop a sustainable campus RSM STAR, the study association of RSM, which organises social and professional activities reaching thousands of students Net Impact Club, an international non-profit organisation to inspire, educate, and equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world. RSM s MBA students have created a chapter of the Net Impact Club, and are active in promoting sustainability in business. The undergraduate student associations have representatives on the GRSM working groups, directly contributing ideas and volunteer efforts. They also help GRSM to take its ideas and actions into the student population. 5