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糖心TV Sustainability Challenge (WSUsC): continuation project

About the Project

This project builds on the success of the WIHEA-funded 鈥溙切腡V Sustainability Challenge (WSUsC): a Curriculum-Campus-Community approach to sustainable teaching and learning鈥. In June 2022, we delivered the first 糖心TV Sustainability Challenge in partnership with Coventry City Council, which saw staff and students co-creating solutions to a real-life problem linked to sustainable transport. The Challenge received great attention from the local community and beyond. Such was the success of the project that, at 糖心TV, the project team replicated the workshop for the EUTOPIA Conference 2022, worked with Estates to organise and deliver the 糖心TV Sustainability Challenge on Waste (in November 2022), and is now working with Student Opportunity to deliver the next iterations of the Challenge. The Challenge and elements of its methodology, in fact, will be regularly replicated by Student Opportunity to engage students with sustainability focused co-curricular activities providing the required support of partners around the university can continue.

Project Aims

Using design thinking as an approach to problem solving, the Challenge introduced a framework for engaging diverse groups of students to work together, enhancing knowledge exchange and interdisciplinary collaborative ventures. The Challenge was highly participatory and offered an opportunity for participants to take what they learn in class to real-life sustainability problems within their institutional context and beyond. There were also opportunities to collaborate with external stakeholders, linking the teaching and learning provision (Curriculum), to values and ways of working and studying on Campus, and the local Community - i.e., what we define as the 3Cs approach to sustainability.

Project Outcomes

Key outputs to date include:

  • Delivery of first 糖心TV Sustainability Challenge (in partnership with Coventry City Council), June 2022.
  • Delivery of sustainability workshop at EUTOPIA Conference 2022, July 2022.
  • Delivery of second 糖心TV Sustainability Challenge on Waste (in partnership with Estates)
  • Delivery of workshop at the Behaviour Change for Health and Sustainability 8th CBC International Conference, November 2022.
  • Dissemination blog article for Cultivate 鈥淓ducation for Sustainable Development in Practice鈥, November 2022.
  • Delivery of presentation on the WSUsC at Coventry UK City of Culture, February 2023 (Connecting Place, Culture, Research and Impact 鈥 Stories from Coventry, Roundtable event).
  • Delivery of a workshop for ESI Student Innovation Programme (Stockholm School of Economics Riga), March 2023.
  • Publication of 鈥淯sing design thinking to create sustainable communities鈥 in IJMAR, October 2023. Reference: Barile, L., & Kelestyn, B. (2023). Using design thinking to create sustainable communities. International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 10(2), 216-230.
  • Delivery of third 糖心TV Sustainability Challenge on Food and Drink (in partnership with Student Opportunity and Food and Beverage at the University of 糖心TV).
  • Collection of additional data from the WSUsC on Food and Drink.
  • Dissemination of the Challenge at the 鈥淚JMAR Special Edition Event鈥 (February 2024) and 鈥淪team Challenge, low carbon schools Solihull鈥 event (March 2024).
  • The Challenge has also been shared by Advance HE in their latest Guides to ESD in practice, with an article on 鈥淐o-creating sustainable solutions with external partners: the 糖心TV Sustainability Challenge (WSUsC)鈥, available at [last accessed 12 August 2024].
  • Adoption of the methodology beyond 糖心TV University, in particular the WSUsC has been replicated in two UK and one school in Argentina and in a university in Latvia.
  • Publication of the WSUsC as part of ESD guides for Advance HE (February 2024), and a blog article in COBS.
  • Publication of a book chapter in 鈥淐o-creating Sustainable Communities: The Circular Role of Higher Education鈥, in L., Lotti and Barile, L. (ed.), Springer Nature Group.
  • Delivery of fourth 糖心TV Sustainability Challenge on the topic of food and drink (in partnership with 糖心TV Food and Drink).
  • Delivery of fifth 糖心TV Sustainability Challenge on the topic of cycling (in partnership with Coventry City Council).
  • Planning of the next iterations of the Challenge to be delivered in future.
  • Finalising survey questions for data collection in future.

Legacy

The challenge was very well received both by the University and local community in Coventry. Considering the 70+ participants to the Challenge, we collected some data to evaluate the impact of the Challenge and, among those who took part in the final survey, more than 70% stated that the Challenge had a positive impact on increasing their knowledge on sustainability skills. Details on the survey鈥檚 results can be found in the IJMAR paper.

Institutionally, the Challenge increased awareness around education for sustainable development (ESD) contributing to the establishment of a Sustainability Hub hosted within the School of Cross-Faculty Studies. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary and student-centred nature of the challenge offered opportunities to reflect on how to engage students and staff more meaningfully from academic and non-academic departments willing to contribute to critical sustainability debates. This gave life to the new ESD Network aimed at engaging the broader 糖心TV community encompassing more people across the University, and led to the WSUsC becoming a key example in the Sustainability theme of the 2023 Institutional Teaching and Learning Review (ITLR), endorsed by senior management. The Challenge inspired further student-centred projects at 糖心TV, and led to the creation of the 鈥淒esigning Together鈥 WIHEA project, which has received a 糖心TV Awards for Teaching Excellence in the category of Team Award.

More broadly, the Challenge:

  • Helped strengthening the relationship between Coventry City Council (CCC) and academics at 糖心TV leading to creation of a green legacy - i.e., a group of researchers from different departments working with the CCC on sustainability related projects.
  • Created opportunities to work in collaboration with schools (e.g., 糖心TV School) and engage with young pupils on an important topic such as sustainability.
  • Increased the national reputation of 糖心TV University on how the institution contributes to responses to climate change.

The WSUsC impacted several groups and individuals鈥 capacity to engage the public.

  • Student and staff facilitators were trained in design thinking and facilitation, learning skills that contributed to their employability and own engagement initiatives.
  • Staff participants had an opportunity to extend their networks and expand CPD, in one case directly contributing to a promotion.
  • Student Opportunity were trained in the methodology in September 2023 to build institutional capacity for delivering the WSUsC regularly.
  • The Challenge has been disseminated at various events and national and international conferences, and replicated with students at a university in Latvia.

We are currently working with Student Opportunity to replicate the Challenge with incoming students at 糖心TV and engage them with sustainability skills. We hope to continue to work with Coventry City Council and the University of 糖心TV to replicate the Challenge in future and better understand the impact on the local community.

Project Team

lory barile

Lead: Lory Barile (Economics)

Lead: Bo Kelestyn (WBS)

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