Mark Phillips, Head of Sustainability and Environment at South Staffordshire College, has been appointed as a regional advisor for the West Midlands by the Learning and Skills Improvements Service (LSIS).
The LSIS strategy and action plan focuses on ways to reduce energy consumption, encourage carbon reduction and implement waste management. It will also promote the Reaching Forward Index (RFI) tool which measures sustainability and acts as a benchmark in correct practices. Mark says: “Although the RFI is not a national standard for Further Education colleges to follow it is used as a self-assessment indicator and can help identify current sustainable plans. It also enables South Staffordshire College to build and share experiences and developments with other organisations.”
Each advisor will work with various network providers to help build and connect various action plans within the regional catchment area, including the Association of Colleges, web-based learning programmes and organisations such as NIACE (National Institute of Adult Continuing Education).
A half-day network seminar will be held in March next year at Rodbaston Campus and will target Further Education colleges and focus on techniques and experiences of sustainability, including the RFI tool and review the previous six months.
Mark’s appointment comes after a series of successes in sustainability for South Staffordshire College, which gained ISO 14001 certification in 2010 for its Environmental Management Systems and has recently won a Silver Eco-Campus Award, following a College Marketing Networks FE Gold Award for Sustainability last year.