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NUS HEFCE Students’ Green Fund
Business Plan
Our proposal is that NUS runs a £5m first phase of a Students’ Green Fund, comprising a competitive bidding process for student-led environmental sustainability projects to be run through students’ unions in partnership with their parent institutions. The four key themes of the Students’ Green Fund will be student participation, partnership, impact and legacy. We plan to fund between 20-25 two-year sustainability projects at c£50k-£150k per year. We would run a single round bidding competition in summer 2013, allocating all the funding, which could then be drawn down by the funded projects over two full academic years (2013/14 and 2014/15). A midpoint evaluation with clear success criteria will enable us to determine the effectiveness of the Fund to make the case for further phases of funding to extend the scheme and take it to scale. As well as managing the Fund, NUS will add value by supporting students’ unions throughout the process, from application to delivery and evaluation, as well as leading on linking projects, sharing learning and high-profile communications celebrating successes.
Figure 1 Students’ Green Fund – a word cloud of frequently used words in this business plan
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1. Lead institution
The National Union of Students (NUS) is the lead institution for this application. NUS is a confederation of 600 students’ unions representing c7m students across the UK, 2.35m of whom are in higher education. Our work today can best be summed up as making students’
lives better, students’ voices louder and students’ futures brighter. Our central stated objectives are to promote, defend and extend the rights of students and develop and champion strong students’ unions. Operationally the NUS Group comprises NUS, NUS Services and NUS Charitable Services, collectively employing 220 FTE staff with a turnover of £17m, plus an additional £65m per year through our national purchasing consortium. NUS has considerable experience of successfully managing major grant-funded projects for external funders, recently including HEFCE (The Good Governance Project, via LGM Fund), BIS, the Scottish Government, Scottish Funding Council, LSIS, DEFRA (£750k environmental project, as outlined below), Big Lottery and the Carbon Trust.
2. NUS’s sustainability work
Over the last five years NUS has become well known within the sector for its sustainability work. We are currently delivering one or more of our three main engagement approaches into 77 higher education institutions across the UK, with each institution paying us for delivery (Green Impact and Student Switch Off), demonstrating the value perceived by institutions for our work in this area.
Green Impact – Our departmental environmental accreditation scheme with an awards element. Initially starting in students’ unions, Green Impact now reaches into over 1,000 institutional administrative and academic departments, collectively comprising over 50,000 staff across 54 institutions. Green Impact in 2011/12 enabled participating teams and departments to complete 51,234 pro-environmental actions, 25,185 as a result of our scheme. We also trained up over 800 student auditors, helping them become more employable, and increasing their understanding of sustainability. Our DEFRA-funded work has shown that Green Impact can deliver measurable behaviour change on pro- environmental behaviours with swings of up to 15%. www.nus.org.uk/greenimpact
Student Switch Off – Our inter-dormitory energy-saving competition that is run through Facebook. Now seven years old, the scheme has reached over half a million freshers and saved over £1m in energy for participating institutions, equal to 7,127 tonnes of carbon. In 2012 Student Switch Off won the prestigious Ashden Award for best behaviour change campaign in the UK. This year Student Switch Off is being delivered into 130,000 student bedrooms and has already directly engaged 19,000 students as energy-saving advocates in their halls of residence. www.nus.org.uk/studentswitchoff
Student Eats (Edible and Tasty Spaces) – Our Lottery-funded food growing scheme that is establishing on-campus edible gardens and allotments for students and community groups at eighteen institutions. www.nus.org.uk/studenteats
In addition to the above, we also run:
Snap it Off – BIS-funded engagement campaign aimed at getting unnecessary lights switched off. www.nus.org.uk/snapitoff
Sustainable Behaviours Assistants – Recent graduates that we place into institutions to provide extra resource around sustainability engagement and communications, supporting the delivery of Green Impact and Student Switch Off.
www.changeagents.org.uk/SBAs
Environmental Research Programme – Alongside providing monitoring and evaluation support to our three main engagement approaches, our Environmental Research
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“We thank the Council for its activity which has contributed to the HE sector’s good progress on sustainable development. In particular, by developing strategies and using the Revolving Green Fund to provide recoverable grants to help HEIs in England reduce emissions the Council has supported the sector to reduce carbon emissions. We look forward to the development of a new sustainable development framework that should seek to build on the achievements of universities and colleges and the enthusiasm of students and continue to support institutions in their efforts to improve their sustainability”.
4. Vision for our sustainability work
We have been aware of increasing student interest in sustainability over a number of years, and are now able to demonstrate this through the three HEA-funded NUS surveys. This demand, coupled with the success of our three main engagement approaches, and the changing landscape of the sector, led us to develop the following bold vision for our sustainability work.
Attitudes, behaviours and habits: The majority of students entering higher education are going through a major moment of change in their lives as they make the transition to independent living, and there is therefore a significant opportunity for us to collectively help them maintain or adopt pro-environmental attitudes, behaviours and habits. To do this we need to create a social norm of sustainably in institutions – in dormitories (Student Switch Off), across campus (Green Impact and Student Eats) and through learning (our fledgling work on greening the curriculum, www.nus.org.uk/esd) – encouraging students to pick up green behaviours and habits that will persist beyond their time in higher education. If we get it right, the legacy will be cohort after cohort of students leaving higher education able to be part of the solution to environmental challenges, rather than part of the problem.
Students’ unions as green hubs: As well as our focus on pro-environmental behaviours, we are working to form our 150 main affiliate students’ unions into a network of green hubs in society, enabling them to take our sustainability work out into their local communities, potentially reaching out into most major towns and cities across the country. We plan to do this through Green Impact, first helping students to green their students’ union through the model, then their institutions, and finally taking it off-campus into public and private sector organisations, and student homes, through voluntary and learning activities. We also plan to pilot Student Switch Off in schools and prisons, building on established links through the outreach work of students’ unions.
5. Progress towards vision
A total of 84 English students’ unions have achieved accreditation in Green Impact Students’
Unions, with a further 20 working towards accreditation, meaning they have taken action to get their own house in order in terms of sustainability. Of these, 68 are working with us to green their institutions through one or more of our sustainability engagement projects (more than half of the 130 English HEIs). Additionally we are now delivering our projects into two hospitals and four local authorities in England, plus a selection of pilot organisations in a total of 15 towns and cities across the UK. www.green-impact.org.uk/green-impact-in-the- community
Through our sustainability engagement projects, six students’ unions now retain their own full time sustainability staff (there were none three years ago), with some of these roles being split with estates, affording a new and exciting route for cross-organisational engagement work. Additionally we have placed 44 recent graduates as Sustainable Behaviours Assistants in institutions, about half of which have been made permanent by the institution at the end of their fixed-term contracts.
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NUS has grown its internal sustainability team significantly too, from a single role five years ago to nineteen full-time staff in dedicated sustainability roles1, making NUS a new but influential player in the wider not-for-profit sustainability field.
6. Rationale for this proposal
Whilst our sustainability work continues to grow, it is on a self-funded basis, predominantly on reputation and word of mouth, which takes time. In 2009/10 NUS received £530k catalyst funding from DEFRA’s Greener Living Fund which allowed us to scale up Green Impact and Student Switch Off from a handful of institutions to twenty over two years. The HEFCE Catalyst Fund offers a further opportunity to do the same for us now - by funding local collaborative sustainability initiatives through students’ unions, putting students in the driving seat for sustainability engagement initiatives, as well as supporting them in their role as agents for change. The students’ union movement is ready to do this - over 100 students’
unions have demonstrated their commitment to the sustainability agenda through Green Impact Students’ Unions, which has developed good levels of knowledge and commitment within student officers and staff, as well as a collective movement-wide enthusiasm to further embrace the sustainability agenda. Institutionally it is a good time too - with the student voice being increasingly influential post-fee changes, many institutions have developed new, more collaborative relationships with their students’ unions, something we can harness through this Fund.
7. Students’ Green Fund
Our proposal is that NUS runs a £5m first phase of a Students’ Green Fund comprising a competitive bidding process for student-led environmental sustainability projects to be run through students’ unions in partnership with their parent institutions. The four key themes of the Fund will be student participation, partnership, impact and legacy. The Fund would be similar in concept to the Innovation and Transformation Fund, which is funded jointly by HEFCE and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, but managed by the Leadership Foundation. We plan to fund between 20-25 two-year projects at c£50k-£150k per year2. We would run a single round bidding competition in summer 2013, allocating all the funding, which could then be drawn down by the funded projects over two full academic years (2013/14 and 2014/15). A midpoint evaluation with clear success criteria will enable us to determine the effectiveness of the Fund in April 2014 and to make the case for further phases of funding to extend the scheme and take it to scale. As well as managing the Fund, NUS will add value by supporting students’ unions throughout the process, from application to delivery to evaluation, as well as leading on linking projects, sharing learning, and high- profile communications celebrating successes within and beyond the sector.
7.1 Invitation, application and assessment
Following two high-profile launch events, we will encourage and support individual students’
unions to develop and submit high quality project proposals. Students’ unions will be encouraged to approach various stakeholders in their institutions (academic and administrative) to develop partnership applications to the Fund, although all projects should
1 For biogs, see www.nus.org.uk/en/campaigns/greener-projects/greener-nus/e--e-team/
2 For reference, over the last three years the Climate Challenge Fund in Scotland has funded six students’ association / university partnerships with a total of £1.7m, averaging £283k each for typically two-year funded projects, so c£141k per year. Additionally the University of Maastricht’s student-led Green Office scheme is run with c150k Euro (c£125k) per year. To take account of the differing size and capacity of English students’ unions, we anticipate making awards on a range from £50k to £150k per year. For example, we might fund 24 applications with 6 at c£50k per year, 10 at c£100k per year and 8 at c£150k per year which, across two years, would total the £5m.
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be led by students’ organisations in partnership with their institutions, rather than vice-versa.
The Fund will be open to all 130 higher education students’ unions, guilds and associations in England, including the three non-NUS affiliates.
In terms of encouragement, we are well connected with the key stakeholders relevant to the Fund; through Green Impact Students’ Unions we have Green Impact teams in nearly all English higher education students’ unions; we know the students that run many of the main environmental initiatives through student societies; through delivery of Green Impact Universities and Student Switch Off, we have excellent relationships with many of the sustainability professionals in English higher education institutions; our internal NUS-wide First Point of Contacts system means we have personal relationships with the key people at every higher education students’ union in England.
We will work hard to ensure that we meet the target of at least 50 good quality applications submitted by the close the application deadline in July, using formative feedback to ensure we receive fundable applications from a diverse range of students’ unions, representing institutions of different type, location and size. We will encourage HEFCE to send out a circular letter to all vice chancellors alerting them to the invitation, which would hopefully secure some welcome senior leadership interest in, and endorsement of, prospective applications.
There will be a single stage application process, with formative feedback being available over a 12 week period before submission from key members of the NUS sustainability team (see section 7.6). The invitation will make clear that proposed projects must have a clear sustainability focus and impact that can be quantified through the project, together with strong legacy potential post-funding. All successful projects should deliver their sustainability benefits predominantly through student and staff engagement, rather than predominantly capital investment or infrastructural changes, the likes of which are covered by the Revolving Green Fund.
To encourage student-led innovation, the invitation and fund documentation will not be prescriptive about the sustainability issues, institutional issues or engagement themes we will fund.
However, through our individual engagements with students’ unions, and on a case by case basis, we will suggest they might consider projects that address some of the following issues and themes, all of which are especially relevant to action by students, complement our work to date, and support the headline behaviour goals in DEFRA’s pro-environmental behaviours framework3 (the list also serves to illustrate the type of projects the Fund might support):
Sustainability issues: Using less energy; recycling more; using cars and planes less;
more sustainable local food; less food waste; more sustainable and ethical procurement;
more cradle to cradle products in the student supply chain.
Institutional issues: Engaging student governors and course reps in sustainability;
engaging institutional leaders in sustainability; engaging academics in sustainability;
engaging slow-to-respond institutions in sustainability; bring different departments and/or stakeholders together through sustainability.
Engagement themes: Change personal behaviours; engage those not yet engaged in sustainability; green the curriculum and learning; green student homes / home energy conservation in the private rented sector; community learning and development on sustainability.
3 www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb13574-behaviours-report-080110.pdf
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Through the invitation we will make clear that projects that support the following will be deemed to demonstrate added value: Enhancing academic achievement; enhancing student employability; supporting social enterprise and student entrepreneurship; building community bridges and strategic community partnerships; engaging hard-to-reach students (such as student parents, mature students, BME groups, etc.); helping to widen participation. We will also encourage collaborative projects that span more than one institution, have a regional focus, potential for national reach, or an international dimension. We will discourage proposals that set out to reinvent or duplicate established successful projects, although we will encourage applicants to scale-up and roll-out existing projects, including delivery into new types of organisation.
To ensure the application process is not a barrier, we will keep it as straightforward and applicant-friendly as possible, whilst ensuring we obtain everything we need to adequately assess applications. In addition to the project objectives, reach, outcomes and impacts, and the delivery plan, we will ask about project management, key milestones, monitoring and evaluation, communications plans, legacy, accountability, governance, and budget, including value for money. We will ask for evidence of institutional support, including the involvement and/or endorsement of academics and/or higher management. We will ask how equality is relevant to the project, thereby ensuring that consideration of equality is built into the development phase. We will also ask about the union’s previous activity on sustainability agenda as evidence of their pre-existing commitment.
A student-led funding panel will review the applications. It will be chaired by the NUS Vice President Society and Citizenship, and will include the NUS Vice President Higher Education, two volunteer students from our Society and Citizenship Zone Committee, a volunteer student from our Ethical and Environmental Advisory Group, and a volunteer student from the People & Planet Management Committee. The students will be joined by three HEFCE assessors, plus the Programme Manager. The funding panel will work to an assessment framework decided by the steering group (see section 7.7), and present their recommendations to the steering group for validation, along with a sample of unsuccessful proposals. Successful projects will be notified in the last week of July or first week of August 2013 so that projects could start in September in time for welcome weeks.
7.2 Delivery of funded projects
Once the steering group has approved the chosen projects, and subject to any project- specific conditions, or changes to the various plans submitted, we will issue delivery contracts to students’ unions. The contracts will comprise a range of operational obligations4 and project management assurances, including clear payment milestones, such as the timely delivery of monthly update reports and quarterly full reports, which students’ unions must meet to receive their funding. We will also issue a series of guidance notes and procedures relating to financial approvals, reporting, monitoring and evaluation and communications.
In addition to these formal assurance processes, the Programme Manager will maintain regular personal contact with all funded projects, including two visits to each project per academic year, instigating a central mentoring role for lead staff and student officers involved in delivery. Ensuring the Fund is successful will be an institutional priority for NUS, and as such, NUS has made the skills and experience of 15 existing specialist staff available to the project (see section 7.6).
4 To include VAT liabilities, public liability and volunteer insurance, collation of evidence for our independent evaluators, financial audit procedures, etc.
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Where appropriate, and in keeping with our own commitments to the sustainability agenda, NUS will also play a role in adding value to projects through central initiatives. For example, if several funded projects plan to run student governor training, NUS may be able to facilitate aspects of it through our existing student officer training programme, or encouraging other unions to follow-suit through Green Impact Students’ Unions. In this way we will be able to ensure that many more students’ unions are involved in the outcomes of the Fund.
7.3 Monitoring and evaluation
Demonstrating impact is one of the key themes of the Fund, as it is imperative that we can show the first phase has been a success. To reflect this, we have dedicated 0.5 FTE of our Environmental Researcher’s time (Rachel Drayson) to the Fund. Rachel currently leads on our Environmental Research Programme, as well as reporting our impact from our latest DEFRA funding through their Reward and Recognition Fund, so is well versed in impact evaluation for sustainability projects. Additionally, Rachel is managed by Elizabeth Bone, our Head of Group Research, who initially joined NUS as the lead on our DEFRA-funded action based research project, so is very familiar with monitoring and evaluation requirements for sustainability engagement projects.
Rachel will lead on ensuring that all funded projects develop, submit and deliver thorough monitoring and evaluation plans that collectively allow us to demonstrate the impact of the Fund. As we are likely to fund a diverse range of projects, with varying objectives and stakeholders, and different types of quantitative and qualitative data, the framework for local monitoring and evaluation plans will comprise two strands:
A national set of key performance indicators to allow for national comparison of every funded project. This will include standardised evaluation processes and metrics for objectives, reach, outcomes and impacts relating to energy savings (tCO2/year), individual levels of awareness, participation and pro-environmental behaviours (sample pre- and post-intervention surveys of target audiences) and engagement (total participation, attendance at events, social media likes, pledges, etc.), and will form our success criteria.
A local dataset, populated by a cache of questions designed by NUS, where only a proportion of these are applicable to a specific scheme or combination of schemes.
This dual approach will allow for a national data set reporting the impact of the Fund. It will additionally provide information on impact at a local level, or grouped according to type of scheme. It will allow NUS to provide tailored feedback to funded students’ unions throughout their projects where appropriate. For example, it can provide early warning of unions who need more support through delivery, or where unions are performing particularly well and can perhaps increase their expectations to demonstrate added value to HEFCE, or be used as a good practice case study for others.
As part of the application process, students’ unions will be provided with:
A monitoring and evaluation briefing document;
Core monitoring and evaluation key performance indicators / success criteria;
A cache of questions for variable elements (by activity and project type);
A reporting template;
Worked examples / case studies.
As part of the application process, students’ unions will provide us with:
A monitoring and evaluation resourcing plan;
A monitoring and evaluation delivery plan;
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A list of monitoring and evaluation deliverables, including equality and diversity data for HEFCE’s impact assessment (see section 15.1).
From project initiation, funded students’ unions will:
Design and deliver baseline surveys as applicable, alongside other techniques where appropriate;
Provide regular updates through the monthly and quarterly scheduled reports;
React to monitoring and evaluation information based on advice and guidance from NUS.
In keeping with standard practice for externally-funded projects, we will advise students’
unions to allocate c10% of their project budgets to monitoring and evaluation. This will ensure that we get quality, robust and standardised data back from each project. Rachel will provide a day to day point of contact for monitoring and evaluation, on-going support and mentoring to monitoring and evaluation staff in students’ unions, and monitoring and evaluation expertise to the steering group.
We will appoint independent evaluators for the Fund through a public procurement process.
The evaluators will provide external input and scrutiny to our plans prior to launch of the application process, as well as on-going advice and support to Rachel and Elizabeth. Their main role will be to produce two impact reports for the Fund, one due in April 2014 and the second in July 2015, both independently quantifying and qualifying the outputs and impacts of the funded projects overall.
7.4 Communications and dissemination
Through the Fund, we plan to ensure that there is regular positive publicity locally, regionally and nationally on the funded projects, celebrating individual and collective achievements and putting English higher education on the map for its sustainability efforts. Simon Rayner, our Director of Marketing and Communications, will ensure that key staff in his team use their communication contacts and channels to support this work as an on-going priority.
We have dedicated 0.5 FTE our Sustainability Communications Officer’s time (Russell Warfield) to the Fund. Russell currently manages communications for our Ethical and Environmental Department from within our Marketing and Communications team, and is well connected within the students’ union movement and the sector. Russell will oversee creation of the Fund website, which will become a high-profile hub for sharing and learning about the funded activities, with blogs from the projects, videos and social media feeds. The site will have a name gatherer, which will generate us a contacts list, and we will develop a monthly e-newsletter celebrating successes and linking people to the projects. Russell will also manage central social media on the Fund, using NUS’s popular Facebook and Twitter accounts to raise the profile of both the Fund and funded projects.
We plan to launch the Fund through a high-profile fringe event at NUS Annual Conference (8-10 April 2013), led by a personal endorsement by Liam Burns, National President, and Dannie Grufferty, Vice President Society and Citizenship. This will be followed by a targeted series of communications about the Fund to students’ unions:
Twitter storm about the launch;
A series of emails on the Ethical and Environmental mailbase, which has Green Impact leads from over 120 students’ unions;
Homepage article on www.nusconnect.org.uk for two weeks after the launch, with refresher headlines three times before the application deadline;
Double-page article in May Spotlight magazine (out 15 April 2013), including forward from Liam Burns on the Fund, personally encouraging participation;
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Personal communication with key contacts via our First Point of Contact system, where individual staff at NUS are responsible for managing contact with member students’
unions.
We will run a second launch at EAUC Annual Conference (17-19 April 2013), led by Jamie Agombar, Ethical and Environmental Manager at NUS, Andrew Smith, Head of Sustainable Development at HEFCE, and Iain Patton, Chief Executive of the EAUC. This launch will be aimed at environmental staff from institutions, and the message will be tweaked for the audience, encouraging them to support their students’ unions in the development of winning partnership applications. Following this second launch we will work with EAUC to ensure the Fund is publicised though the EAUC jiscmail, www.eauc.org.uk, www.sustainabilityexchange.co.uk, the Sustainability in Higher Education Developers (SHED) Group jiscmail, Earth magazine and EAUC’s social media accounts.
Prior to the launches, our Press Officer will work with our contacts at key publications (e.g.
Times Higher; University Business; Guardian Online; 3rd Sector, etc.) to develop embargoed news stories on the launch of the Fund. We would hope to work with these and other publishers to run follow-up news stories on the progress and impact of the Fund throughout the two project years. To do this we will work closely with the funded projects to create monthly media themes, where possible linking them into national events such as student volunteering week, Go Green week, Fairtrade Fortnight, etc., and creating news stories and media releases for each. We will ensure that key people at NUS, including our National President and Chief Executive, visit some of the projects throughout the year, so they see the projects first-hand and become ambassadors for the Fund. Jamie Agombar, who is well known in sustainability circles within the sector, will also assume this role, representing the Fund at key sector events, including the NUS, EAUC and HEA annual conferences.
As well as our central communications efforts, we will ensure that all applicants submit a detailed marketing, communications and media plan, with associated key performance indicators, to ensure that their project successes reach a wide audience and get local and regional recognition. We will ensure each project produces at least one short video that can be shared through our central Fund website, and we plan to run a competition based on the numbers of likes each video receives, which will encourage the projects to promote their efforts far and wide. Towards the end of each project year, we will produce a short film documenting the impact that the Fund has delivered, using snippets of some of the project films to give a flavour of the breadth of work and scale of achievement.
We will ensure we engage all 130 higher education students’ unions, guilds and associations in England in the work of the Fund, profiling the work of funded projects through our communications and national events, and ensuring that they are eager and ready with ideas for any second phase of the Fund.
7.5 Legacy
Legacy is one of the four key themes for the Fund. We will strive to ensure that all funded projects have legacy after funding ceases. We were successful in doing this with our DEFRA funding. By encouraging institutions to put in an element of match funding they became used to paying for Green Impact and Student Switch Off. When the funding came to an end, we increased the institutional fees and all 20 universities continued to pay us to deliver the approaches. We want all the projects we fund to come up with similar credible legacy plans as part of their applications. The legacy plans will vary depending on the projects – a local food project like Student Eats may sell produce to generate the revenue it needs to continue;
a sustainability engagement post in a students’ union may need to ultimately be funded by the students’ union and the institution in partnership, as happens at Liverpool Guild of
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Students and the University of Sheffield Students’ Union. We will support students’ unions in developing credible legacy plans based on our experience.
In terms of the future of the Students’ Green Fund beyond the first phase, assuming the first phase is demonstrably successful on the stated objectives, reach, outcomes and impacts (see section 8.0 and 9.0), and that further funding can be found, the Fund could ultimately sit alongside the Revolving Green Fund as an annual bidding competition, complementing infrastructural greening by engaging new students in sustainability at institutions across the country.
7.6 Project team
Jamie Agombar, our Ethical and Environmental Manager, who led our successful work with DEFRA, will be accountable for the successful delivery of the project, as well as being the lead contact with HEFCE officers. We will appoint two new FTE dedicated posts to manage the Fund:
Programme Manager, who will be responsible for managing all day-to-day aspects of delivery of the Fund. This post will be managed by Jamie Agombar;
Programme Administrator, who will provide administrative and financial support for the Fund, from within NUS’s finance team.
Additionally, fourteen existing members of staff at NUS will be significantly involved in ensuring the Fund is delivered successfully:
National President – Personal endorsement of fund at launch event, and visits to funded projects as part of media strategy.
Vice President Society and Citizenship – Chairing the steering group and funding panel, and ambassador for the Fund at key students’ unions events.
Sustainability Communications Officer - 0.5 FTE dedicated to the Fund - Lead on day to day communications for the Fund, including managing digital and social media. Deliver the marketing, communications and media plan for the Fund.
Environmental Researcher - 0.5 FTE dedicated to the Fund – Lead on monitoring and evaluation for the Fund. Deliver the monitoring and evaluation plan for the Fund, including managing independent evaluators.
Programme Manager, Student Switch Off - Support unions in developing applications;
support for funded Student Switch Off projects.
Programme Manager, Green Impact - Support unions in developing applications; support funded Green Impact projects.
Programme Officer, Student Eats - Support unions in developing applications; support funded projects on local food.
Ethical Supply Chain Coordinator - Support unions in developing applications; support funded projects on sustainable procurement.
Group Finance Director - Oversee fund finances and independent financial audit.
Director of Marketing and Communications - Oversee the development and delivery of the marketing, communications and media plan for the Fund.
Head of People - Support with recruitment and HR requirements for two new posts.
Head of Group Research - Oversee the development and delivery of the monitoring and evaluation plan.
Communications Engagement Manager – Raising profile of the Fund through existing communications channels.
Press Officer – Lead on external media activity.
IT Support Analyst - Provide IT support for the two new posts, including support with development of the microsite for the Fund.
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External accountability will come through a steering group, the funding panel, the independent evaluator and an independent financial auditor.
The steering group will comprise a representative from AHUA, AUDE, CUC, EAUC, GuildHE, HEA, HEFCE and UUK and will again be chaired by the NUS Vice President Society and Citizenship. All of these organisations have confirmed that they willing to undertake this role.
The NUS Chief Executive will act as the accounting officer for public investment, and NUS will receive funding on a payment profile to be agreed with HEFCE as the need arises.
8. Objectives of the Fund
Initiate a step change in student engagement in sustainability issues;
Enable students to become meaningful agents for change on sustainability issues in higher education;
Ensure sustainability remains an institutional priority within the sector;
Put English higher education on the map for its sustainability efforts.
9. Reach, outcomes and impacts
9.1 Reach statements
1. 125,000 unique page views across the funded projects over the two years;
2. 50,000 students engaged across the funded projects over the two years;
3. 20,000 social media followers of funded projects over the two years;
4. 5,000 staff engaged across the funded projects over the two years;
5. 100% of English higher education students’ unions engage with the Fund.
9.2 Outcome statements
1. An institutional increase in student participation in pro-environmental actions;
2. An institutional increase in student awareness of sustainability initiatives;
3. An increase of between 10-15% adoption of pro-environmental behaviours;
4. Students leave higher education feeling they have the understanding and skills to take positive actions on sustainability;
5. Students are more employable.
9.3 Impact statements
1. 4,000 tCO2/year saved across the funded projects;
2. An increase in the LiFE5 and Green League6 scores at institutions with funded projects;
3. Students adopt green attitudes, behaviours and habits that persist beyond their time in higher education;
4. Institutional leaders become more engaged in sustainability, resulting in a more holistic and mainstream approach to sustainability across the institution;
5. Student governors, course reps, and academics become more engaged in sustainability, resulting in more courses with embedded sustainability content;
6. Institutions become more receptive and collaborative to student opinion and demand on sustainability issues, and act accordingly;
7. Institutions integrate sustainability into their graduate attributes and core purpose.
5 www.thelifeindex.org.uk
6 http://peopleandplanet.org/greenleague
13
10. Key milestones
Target Key
milestone Key risks Actions to mitigate the key risks
Anticipated completion
date
Anticipated outcomes Capable, experienced and dedicated
Programme Manager appointed
Acceptance of contract of employment
Programme Manager does not deliver / leaves
Rigorous seven-step selection process;
competitive salary; close involvement by Jamie Agombar, who would act as an interim Programme Manager if required
30-Apr-13 Fund meets stated objectives, reach, outcomes and impacts Fund is successfully launched on
time
Two public launches
Launches are delayed due to Catalyst Fund approval process
Submit proposal on time; prioritise any amendments wanted by HEFCE; facilitate quick turn-around of contract
10-Apr-13 and 18-Apr-13
Good quality applications and positive media coverage 50 good quality applications
submitted by students' unions
Application deadline
Students' unions do not see potential of the Fund; are not organised enough to submit quality applications
Considerable proactive marketing efforts, including via sustainability managers;
formative feedback, support and mentoring for unions developing ideas and completing application over a 12 week period
10-Jul-13 Applications target is met
90% of funded projects successfully meet or exceed their project-specific targets on reach, outcomes and impacts
Two external evaluations
Some students' unions fail to deliver on their applications
Pro-actively support and mentor staff working on projects; regular contact and contracted monthly reports to spot issues early; payments will be linked to delivery of key milestones
Apr-14 and Jul-15
Project-specific targets on reach, outcomes and impacts met or exceeded Our targets on reach, outcomes and
impacts are met
End of fund report
Applications do not focus or deliver on our targets
Ensure application process requires unions to focus on our targets on reach, outcomes and impacts; support and mentor unions in developing ideas, completing applications and delivery; on- going monitoring of project data
01-Aug-15 Fund-wide targets on reach, outcomes and impacts are met or exceeded Students' unions deliver quarterly
reports, monitoring and evaluation data and end of fund reports as required
Quarterly reports and data set submissions
Unions fail to submit reports or data on time, delaying fund- wide reporting
Payments will be linked to delivery of reports and monitoring and evaluation data
Monthly and annually and
Jul-15
Reports to HEFCE are delivered complete and without delay The funded projects continue to
deliver impact after funding ceases
Evidence provided in end of fund reports from unions
Unions do not prioritise project legacy and successful projects close post- funding
Legacy plans are a key part of the application process. Only projects that can convincingly demonstrate legacy will be funded
01-Jul-15 Projects continue to deliver impact post-funding
14
11. Fund Gantt chart
Numbers refer to date of the month. Red indicates the application deadline.
Mar-12 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13 Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14 Jun-14 Jul-14 Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15
Appoint independent evaluator through public tender 3 Fund launched through two launch events (NUS and EAUC) 10&18
Fund microsite launched 18
HEFCE letter to vice chancellors 19
Communications activity to promote fund
Monitoring and evaluation plan finalised 22
Full application pack launched 24
Programme Manager and Administrator appointed
Support for unions developing applications, formulate feedback
Steering group meets 22 29
Applications deadline 10
Funding panel meets 22
Contract negotiations / issued, guidance and procedures released Successful projects initiate delivery
Project delivery
Monthly media themes and publicity Monthly reports from funded projects Quarterly reports from funded projects Quarterly reports for HEFCE
Short film on Fund achievements launched Independent evaluation delivered to HEFCE
Proposal for further rounds of funding submitted to HEFCE Independent financial audit delivered to HEFCE
End of Fund report for HEFCE
15
12. Finances
The total amount of funding available through the Students’ Green Fund will be £5m. The costs of managing the Fund will be £364,726, of which NUS will fund £39,693 and HEFCE £325,033. The total cost of this proposal is £5,364,726. The budget is show below, with values in £’s.
Working days on SGF 2013/14 (plus backdate 3 months 2012/13) Day rate 2013/14 - based on 217 working days - inc. NI and 6% pension Cost to project 2013/14 Working days on SGF 2014/15 Day rate 2014/15 - based on 217 working days - inc. NI and 6% pension, and 2.5% inflationary increase Cost to project 2014/15 Total cost to project (over 2 years of project) NUS funds HEFCE funds
Notes
Salaries:
National President 3 384 1 131 515 515 0 Launch event and project visits
Vice President Society and
Citizenship 7 896 3 394 1,290 1,290 0 Launch event, project visits, steering
group and funding panel Ethical and Environmental
Manager 40 9,800 20 5,023 14,823 14,823 0
Manage relationship with the funder, project visits, promotion of SGF at external events, line manage Programme Manager Programme Manager -
Students' Green Fund 271 60,433 217 49,601 110,034 0 110,034
NEW POST 1 of 2: Lead on all aspects of SGF delivery (1.0 FTE). £37.5k +
£3k NUS London weighting. 27 months
Administrator - Students' Green
Fund 271 26,829 217 22,020 48,849 0 48,849
NEW POST 2 of 2: Provides
administrative and financial support to the Programme Manager (1.0 FTE).
£18k, based at NUS Services in Macclesfield. 27 months Sustainability Communications
Officer 135.5 17,886 108.5 14,680 32,566 0 32,566
Lead on day to day communications for SGF, including managing digital and social media (0.5 FTE). 27 months
Environmental Researcher 135.5 19,919 108.5 16,348 36,267 0 36,267
Deliver monitoring and evaluation plan, including managing independent evaluators (0.5 FTE). 27 months Programme Manager - Student
Switch Off 14 2,884 10 2,112 4,996 4,996 0 Support funded students' unions on
Student Switch Off projects Programme Manager - Green
Impact 14 2,534 10 1,855 4,389 4,389 0 Support funded students' unions on
Green Impact projects
16
Programme Officer - Student
Eats 7 1,050 5 769 1,819 1,819 0 Support funded students' unions on
Student Eats projects Ethical Supply Chain
Coordinator 7 1,008 5 738 1,746 1,746 0 Support funded students' unions on
sustainable procurement projects
Group Finance Director 3 1,233 3 1,264 2,497 2,497 0 Oversee SGF finances and financial
audits for the funder Director of Marketing and
Communications 3 978 3 1,002 1,980 1,980 0 Oversee SGF marketing,
communications and media plan
Head of People 1.5 387 0.5 132 519 519 0 Support with recruitment and HR
requirements for two new posts
Head of Group Research 3 654 3 670 1,324 1,324 0 Line manage Environmental
Researcher Communications Engagement
Manager 3 606 3 621 1,227 1,227 0 Line manage Sustainability
Communications Officer
Press Officer 7 1,134 5 830 1,964 1,964 0 Lead on external media activity
IT Support Analyst 2 298 2 305 603 603 0 Provide IT support for two new posts
Other revenue costs:
Recruitment costs - Programme Manager and Administrator
- - 2,000 - - 0 2,000 0 2,000
£1k per post, or back-filling if internal appointments made
Training - Programme Manager
and Administrator - - 1,000 - - 1,000 2,000 0 2,000 Assumes £500 per post per year, in keeping with staff development policy External evaluator
- - 15,000 - - 10,000 25,000 0 25,000
For c30 days, includes support, and writing final evaluation report (x2, one per year)
External financial audit at end
of project - - 0 - - 5,000 5,000 0 5,000 For 3 days, plus writing final evaluation
report (x1, end of project) Infrastructure and
accommodation (Programme Manager and Administrator)
- - 10,644 - - 10,644 21,288 0 21,288
15% of salary costs for Programme Manager and Administrator - includes building costs, utilities, insurance, office consumables, etc.
Blackberry contract / calls for
Programme Manager - - 450 - - 450 900 0 900 In lieu of landline
Mobile phone contract / calls
for Administrator - - 200 - - 200 400 0 400 In lieu of landline
3G dongle for Programme
Manager - - 215 - - 215 430 0 430 To enable remote working
Travel and subsistence for
Programme Manager - - 3,700 - - 2,300 6,000 0 6,000
Assumes two visits to each project per year, plus 10 additional journeys each year - all at £100 per visit, including occasional accommodation and all out
17
of office allowances
Travel and subsistence for
other NUS roles - - 5,600 - - 3,200 8,800 0 8,800
Project visits and external meetings over two years - all at £100 per visit, including occasional accommodation and all out of office allowances:
National President (x3), Vice President - Society and Citizenship (x6), Ethical and Environmental Manager (x30), Administrator - Students' Green Fund (x3), Sustainability Communications Officer (x20), Environmental Researcher (x20), Press Officer (x6) Travel and subsistence for
steering group and funding panel
- - 3,200 - - 2,400 5,600 0 5,600
Assumes six meetings in London with eight external representatives, plus one project visit towards end of year two for steering group - at £100 each, including any subsistence
Events - - 1,500 - - 3,000 4,500 4,500 Venue and catering for launch (x1)
and celebration events (x2) Externally-designed microsite
for SGF - - 3,500 - - 0 3,500 0 3,500 Design only, including purchase of
domain Video production for end of
year achievements (x2) - - 4,500 - - 4,500 9,000 0 9,000 Based on three minute video shot at five locations (x2)
Capital costs:
Laptops for Programme
Manager and Administrator (x2) - - 2,500 - - 0 2,500 0 2,500
£1.5k each, inclusive of docking station, rucksack, software (including Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Pro) and service packages
Blackberry handset for
Programme Manager - - 200 - - 0 200 0 200 One off payment
Digital camera for Programme
Manager - - 200 - - 0 200 0 200 One off payment, includes case, 4GB
SD card and spare battery Students’ Green Fund grants
to students' unions:
Grants awarded to English
students' unions, guilds and associations through competitive awards process
- - 2,300,000 - - 2,700,000 5,000,000 0 5,000,000
Based on c20-25 two-year projects at c£50k-£150k per year. Some funding kept back to ensure final reports are delivered.
2,503,321 2,861,404 5,364,726 39,693 5,325,033
18
13. Value for money
We think this proposal offers good value for money, with the overall costs equalling 7.3% of the money we will distribute (or 6.5% when taking into account NUS’s financial contribution), for what is an original and progressive fund with good levels of support and communications activity.
We will provide assurance that students’ unions spend their funding responsibly through the assessment process, contracts and financial approvals procedures. This will including using the application processes to make clear to applicant students’ unions that they must be able to demonstrate value for money in their funded projects, especially for procurement spend.
We will also instigate safeguards such as obtaining multiple quotes for our authorisation on items over £2,000, and a procedure for varying from the budgets submitted with applications.
Likewise, NUS will ensure that it obtains the best value for money when we tender for the external evaluator and external auditor, as well as the services and capital items in the budget.
14. Risk assessment
The following risks have been identified in addition to the seven key risks outlined in the key milestones table (see section 10).
Risk: Funded projects are not meeting evaluation targets for engagement or monitoring response rates, reducing the ability to categorically demonstrate impact.
Mitigation: Students’ unions will be encouraged to plan to spend c10% of their project budgets on monitoring and evaluation, which will ensure it gets prioritised through dedicated staff time. Being able to demonstrate impact as one of the four key themes of the Fund, and all applicant projects will be rigorously assessed on the achievability of their plans by the funding panel and steering group. As part of our management of the Fund, we will develop draft contingency plans for project recovery including monitoring and evaluation considerations.
Risk: Funded students’ unions mismanage projects or project finances.
Mitigation: All funded projects will have to demonstrate proper management and sound financial processes as part of the application process, and report on these through the monthly and quarterly reporting, and this will be linked into the payment schedule. This will include a detailed financial approvals procedure, managed by our dedicated Programme Administrator. Our Student Eats project is a £350k Lottery-funded project that is distributing
£240k to eighteen students’ unions for local food projects, so we have recent experience of working with students’ unions on effective project management of funded projects.
Risk: A funded students’ union enters a period of poor relations with their partner institution, jeopardising their partnership Students’ Green Fund project.
Mitigation: This would be dealt with on a case by case basis. We would seek to work with the students’ union and the institution to ensure that the project continued on an operational level, below any other conflicts.
Risk: Staff or volunteers act inappropriately whilst working on funded projects.
Mitigation: In our contracts with funded students’ unions, we will ensure they are responsible for protecting the reputation of their project, the Fund and the funders. Students’ unions are typically very good at processes and procedures relating to their staff and volunteers, often led by their volunteering units. We would expect that aspects of this, such as safeguarding, would be covered in the risk assessments produced locally in advance of activities.
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15. Impact assessment
15.1 Equality groups
In accordance with the Equality Act 2010, we will ensure that all funded projects show due regard to the effect of their policies and practices on all aspects of equality and diversity.
This will be made clear as part of the applications process, and also written into contracts. In terms of NUS showing due regard, equality is one of our three core values7 and we have rigorous equality policies and procedures that will be upheld through delivery of the Fund.
15.2 Sustainable development
All parts of the NUS Group take part in our own version of Green Impact8, ensuring that staff in our six buildings work together to green their workplaces bottom-up, incentivised by some friendly inter-site rivalry. Additionally we have overarching ethical and environmental statements that guide the day to day decisions of our staff9, and have embedded sustainability in to many of our Group policies – for example, within our travel policy there are commitments not to use domestic air travel and to use train travel in preference to motor vehicles. We have also invested in greening our buildings - we have 20kW of solar installations in Macclesfield, and our new HQ will have 30m2 of green walls, 8kW Solar PV, solar hot water, will only be lit by LED lights on a cradle-to-cradle contract, air source heat pumps and rainwater harvesting. As the Students’ Green Fund is an environmental sustainability project, and given our existing commitments to this agenda, we will ensure that we minimise our negative impacts in every way through management of the Fund.
7 www.nus.org.uk/en/about-nus/mission-vision-values
8 www.green-impact.org.uk/2012/01/24/green-impact-nus-group-launches
9 www.nus.org.uk/Global/NUS%20Services/Greener/Ethical_Statement.pdf and www.nus.org.uk/Global/NUS%20Services/Greener/Environmental_Statement.pdf
