Trinity Saint David rises to the sustainability challenge and INSPIREs

Peter Davies current Commissioner for Sustainable Futures in Wales, Professor Medwin Hughes, Vice Chancellor Jane Davidson, Director of INSPIRE Andy Middleton Managing Director of TYF

The University of Wales Trinity Saint David is rising to the sustainability challenge in a strategic and holistic way and embedding sustainable development into the overall student experience by launching INSPIRE - the new Institute for Sustainable Practice, Innovation and Resource Effectiveness.

Lampeter Students' Union by the river INSPIRE is part of the University’s ‘fit for future’ framework which embeds Sustainable Development through the learning, teaching, curricula, campus, community and culture of Trinity Saint David. The intention is ensuring future graduates are globally aware and responsible citizens in the 21st century.

As a result of this new initiative, future students from 2013 will have the benefit of a new Trinity Saint David 'One Planet Curriculum' embedded in their studies, new courses and modules will be developed in all faculties and students will be given the opportunity to participate in social enterprises - all designed to increase students' employability and understanding of the world.

Led by Jane Davidson (former Minister for Environment and Sustainability in the Welsh Government), INSPIRE will also engage with the widest number of organisations to develop sustainable practice across all sectors in Wales and further afield.

Professor Medwin Hughes, Vice Chancellor said, "The University of Wales Trinity Saint David is committed to promoting the sustainability agenda in higher education in Wales and to work with all sectors to actively support the sustainability agenda.Sustainability is at the heart of University of Wales Trinity Saint David, we cannot continue to use more resources than our one planet can support.

INSPIRE will become a focal point for practical innovation in the areas of sustainability that make real difference to the performance of government, community resilience and long term success of business. We are committed to deliver for a sustainable Wales, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.”

Cycling along the coast Jane Davidson added:  “I am privileged to lead this new phase of the work at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, particularly in light of its existing partnerships with the further education sector and schools as well as the future merger with the University of Wales and Swansea Metropolitan University.

Trinity Saint David has already secured its place as one of only two Welsh institutions on the Higher Education Academy’s Green Academy programme and as a result of taking our sustainable commitment forward across the whole University, we intend to lead the Welsh agenda on Sustainability.”
Professor Hughes concluded: “The University sees its role as a catalyst in bringing together agencies and individuals who can transform the lives of individuals and communities, particularly within the region of South West.”

The University of Wales Trinity Saint David is working with Swansea Metropolitan University and the University of Wales to create a transformed university under the oldest Royal Charter of any university in Wales and England outside the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The transformed University will serve the needs of Wales. It will be nationally rooted but will clearly have a strong international dimension.  The aim is to create a strong University that will play a full role in the higher education sector in Wales and will provide scholarship and education of the highest standard for students.

In February 2011, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David announced that the new university was ambitious to lead the Welsh agenda on sustainability and was seeking expressions of interest to develop a new Wales Institute for Sustainability focused on action and research to drive social, environmental and economic outcomes. The university called for proposals to:

Some 50 expressions of interest were received and the bid from Jane Davidson supported by Peter Davies and Andy Middleton to take this agenda forward was agreed.  (Jane Davidson was previously the Minister responsible for Environment and Sustainability in Wales, Peter Davies is the current Commissioner for Sustainable Futures in Wales, Andy Middleton is the Managing Director of TYF, a sustainability, education and adventure company based in St David’s).

Jane Davidson took up her new role in the University of Wales,Trinity Saint David on 1st September 2011