Anglia Ruskin University

Anglia Ruskin University has set out its objectives to truly integrate sustainability into the University within its 2012-2014 Corporate Plan 'informing everything we do'. This includes:

• A commitment to internationally recognised research in sustainability
• A commitment to making sustainability a part of the student experience
• Striving to exceed national and sector benchmarks for the sustainability of our buildings and processes

To underpin these commitments Anglia Ruskin University was the first UK university to sign The Rio+20 Declaration of Higher Education Institutions (HEI). The Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) was established by Anglia Ruskin University in 2011 as part of our commitment to sustainability in research and teaching. The GSI works closely with our estates team to ensure our approach to sustainability delivers world leading knowledge, future leaders in sustainability and practical action on the ground.

Delivering sustainability requires an integrated view of the world. The GSI is committed to playing a key role in the development of practical solutions to the challenges facing humanity. Key to this is the bringing together of information needed to make decisions with the people capable of implementing action.

The GSI's research focuses on personal motivations and systems change set against the challenges of sustainability. Our core research question is how does the system influence the individual, and how does the individual influence the system? The 'system' is the political, financial, industrial and social frameworks that contribute to challenges we face and lock us into future pathways. These may be environmental challenges such as climate change, natural capital challenges such as resource limits or social challenges such as local and global inequity.

We have four key areas of research which focus on (i) personal motivations and (ii) systems change, set against the challenges of sustainability:

Behaviour change & decision making
Climate action & cultural systems
Resource management & ecosystems services
Education for sustainability

The GSI has already built a global reputation for its research with major publications in communication of climate science, policy and climate finance during its first year. We have partnerships with business, not-for-profit organisations, UK Government, EU Commission and the United Nations as well as UK research council funded projects. We now have a core staff of researchers, visiting and honorary fellows, project management and knowledge transfer partners. We are in the process of expanding our research student intake with new PhD and Professional Doctorates. We also run a Professional Doctorate programme allowing professionals to continue to work full-time whilst tackling sustainability challenges, and we are involved in a number of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs).

This is a glimpse of our capability; our overarching aim is to support you to deliver sustainability solutions to some of today's global challenges.