1. Sustainability in Action at the Glasgow School of Art
Credit: Michelle Karpman

2. GSA Sustainability makes environmental and social action relevant to students and staff at the Glasgow School of Art, taking experience and knowledge gained out into practices, future careers and out across Glasgow. It’s about raising awareness of the effects of our practice on the planet, reducing those effects, simultaneously enhancing the student experience and innovative practices across the curriculum. Since 2009, the Sustainability in Action Group has brought together staff and students to discuss their interests, plan our work and prioritise actions. We are led by the GSA community, and the GSA employs a sustainability coordinator to deliver those actions.

3. Some recent highlights
Our first externally funded project Artists using Resources in the Community
Subsequently we won £120k of funding from Zero Waste Scotland for the Radial project
Working with Bike Station’s Unicycle Project
Student-led: Throwawaygourmet & Bees
Engaging throughout the curriculum
Rummage
Wellbeing
ARCH stage 5, Masters of Research, PD year 4, ARCH stage 3 35 hour projects
Volunteering, recycling tool kits, GSA Knitting, Yoga, Mural, Craft club, walking group

7. Come here, there’s more
We are here to assist any staff or student initiative
We offer incentives such as an annual Degree Show prize and SiAG funding
We support student groups such as the Tontine Student Café, Fair Trade and eating better
An annual Go Green Week, brings students from across Glasgow together
We support students to put on films, talks and events relevant to their practice
We encourage re-use on campus and within practice with WARPit and Glasgow Scrap Store
Ethical investment
Greener travel, working with Glasgow Bike Station and cycle groups
Encourage a change to sustainable cleaning products
Help us organise Greener meetings
Advise on campus redevelopments
Assist with mandatory reporting to Scottish Government

8. Why do it?
The Living Planet is a system that is changing like never before

9. But you don’t have to be a die-hard environmentalist….
Just consider issues within your own practice or work
It’s up to us all to define sustainable practice.
Sustainability in the GSA context aims to foster your awareness and knowledge of wider environmental, social and ethical issues within practice.
If science has the answers, creatives have the power to communicate, explain, and foster understanding.
We can explain the World, our place in it, and provide emotional foundation through building, design and art.

10. GSA and Sustainability: Shared Values
Creativity
Difference
Sustainability
Responsibility
Internationalism
Pluralism

11. Art is Powerful
Creative practice connects us to issues, raises emotions, informs and questions issues in critical ways.
Art can make us aware and make us take personal and professional action to peacefully change how society thinks and acts.

12. The GSA’s Strategic Plan
If not for the planet, then why do it?
Key Business Benefits
Cost savings – help the GSA reach its target to create a 5% financial surplus
Make campus redevelopments more resilient to climate change and more efficient to run
Better quality research – and more funding
Inter-disciplinarity learning – more connections
Students with wider practice experience & skills
Build a positive reputation as a World Leader
This action is not a subject in itself
It speaks the language of practice
It extends thoughts and practice
Rethinks but does not constrain academic freedoms
GSA Values
Creativity
Difference
Sustainability
Responsibility
Internationalism
Pluralism

13. Independent and Critical Thinkers Resourceful and Responsible
Looking at environmental, social and ethical issues, whether on campus or within our practice means we schieve better Graduate Outcomes
Subject Specialists
Investigative
Independent and Critical Thinkers
Resourceful and Responsible
Effective Communicators
Confident
Adaptable
Experienced Collaborators
Ethically and Socially Aware
Reflective Learners
foresighted thinking;
interdisciplinary work;
cosmopolitan perception, transcultural understanding and cooperation;
participatory skills;
planning and implementation;
self-motivation and in motivating others;
distanced reflection on individual and cultural models;
…and building a capacity for empathy, compassion and solidarity.

14. How else can you help?
Switch off lights and heating – and report issues
Use unchlorinated, recycled paper
Cycle or walk to work
Eat better – and ask for more veg options
Look after your wellbeing to better connect to yourself, others and nature
Spread the word on other opportunities
….or start your own thing

15. Make sustainable values everyone’s role
Making it Happen
Sustainability is not one person’s role
It is not a separate academic subject
It is positive, linking to Government agendas
It attracts funding and good quality research
It raises academic & organisational profile
Benefits wellbeing and staff/student retention
Make sustainable values everyone’s role

16. GSA Sustainability Sustainability in Action Group John Thorne
Radial project coordinators
Jenny Fraser and Eilidh Sinclair: