Planting a Tī Kōuka (cabbage tree) opposite the Richardson Building are (from left) Dr Karen Greig, Professor Janine Hayward (HOD) and Dr Christine Winter, all of the Department of Social Sciences.
The Division of Humanities - Te Kete Aronui has formally committed to embedding sustainability in its courses, research, actions, advocacy, public events and workshops through the University’s first academic division-wide sustainability plan, which was launched today.
Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson says sustainability must infiltrate everything we do as a University.
“There’s courage in leading out and that has to be matched by action. It’s important for us as a University, a priority.”
All University divisions need to create sustainability action plans under the University’s overarching Tī Kōuka: The Sustainability Strategic Framework.
Grant says the Humanities plan “is a manifestation, to me, of exactly when a good framework gets agreed and good people want to be a part of implementing it”.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Interim) Professor Hugh Campbell says the University has been on a long journey of sustainability.
“Two decades ago, it was a small, minority interest of a couple of academic programmes. Now, it is a central strategy in our revisioning of the University.
“I’m proud of the way the Humanities has played a significant role in moving sustainability from the margins of discussion to the centre of our vision of what a 21st century university should be,” he says.
Pledges in the Division of Humanities Sustainability Implementation Plan – Te Uru Tī Kōuka o Te Kete Aronui include:
- Creating many sustainability papers and assessments across many disciplines
- Embedding sustainability in existing offerings
- Identifying sustainability aspects in existing courses
- Highlighting sustainability and Te Tiriti-led research nationally and internationally
- Introducing sustainability internships and scholarships
- Becoming more sustainable e.g. reducing energy use, being less paper-based, increasing recycling, repairing instead of buying, donating for reuse, eliminating single-use items, travelling sustainably, attending meetings virtually, and expanding composting.
Guests at the launch of the plan yesterday.
Helping people make a difference by making meaningful submissions on proposed laws that involve sustainability is a Faculty of Law initiative in the plan. A goal of the School of Performing Arts is to create a call to action through a public show of sustainability-themed dance, music, singing and other talents.
Te Tumu has embedded sustainability in its own strategic framework, while the School of Arts is starting papers on social inequity, cultural sustainability through connections to past cultures, and cultural and spiritual sustainability.
Living labs at the School of Geography aim to give students first-hand sustainability experience during labs, tutorials, and field schools.
Regular meetings for sustainability researchers to share research, prepare for grant applications, promote research, and conduct research for the wider community is a goal for the School of Social Sciences.
The College of Education wants to foreground education’s intergenerational importance and identify opportunities to highlight Te Tiriti and responsibilities as kaitiaki (custodians).
Humanities has pledged to evaluate the plan annually at Matariki.
Te Kete Aronui Tī Kōuka Implementation Committee co-chair Roma Donaldson-Gush, of Te Tumu – School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, says 131 staff contributed 336 ideas to the plan.
A series of workshops across the division informed the plan, which contains more than 37 actions and commitments.
Roma says because the University’s sustainability framework was developed with mana whenua and had mātauranga Māori at its centre, the framework made sense to her as a young Māori academic and she wanted to be involved in the Humanities implementation plan.
The creation process showed how being a Te Tiriti-led University could work, she says.
The division’s Te Kete Aronui Tī Kōuka Implementation Committee had members from every College, Faculty and School, and was also co-chaired by School of Social Sciences’ Dr Christine Winter.
Sustainability Office Head Dr Ray O’Brien says “Te Tumu played a large part in ensuring the mātauranga Māori within Tī Kōuka 2030 was carried through into workshops and planning with the respect it deserves” and he hopes the development of all divisional plans will be led with Māori co-chairs.
A strength of the University’s sustainability framework is it gives direction for divisions to plan actions meaningful to them, he says.
Tī Kōuka (cabbage tree) were planted during the launch. The Tī Kōuka is the central metaphor of the University’s sustainability strategic framework because it helped significantly to sustain generations of Kāi Tahu by providing food, fishing lines, footwear and many other innovations. The metaphor in the Division of Humanities Sustainability Implementation Plan – Te Uru Tī Kōuka o Te Kete Aronui is a Tī Kōuka grove, with the plan’s actions and commitments reflecting the ground that sustains each tree and the tree’s crowning leaves representing each college, faculty and schools’ interconnected sustainability efforts.