The St. Andrews sustainability institute: Fostering sustainability in a cold climate

Abstract

This chapter provides a description of, and reflection upon, the creation and life of the St Andrews Sustainability Institute as a way of exploring the potential for institutions of higher education to foster sustainable development. The Institute was established in 2007 and has been led by the author of this chapter in partnership with a wider group of sustainability academics within the University of St Andrews, as well as a cohort of non-academic employees-critically senior managers and members of the University’s estates function. This chapter contains the reflections of one individual and hence suffers, as all such attempts to understand recently history do, from too close a perspective. However, I hope that this narrative might uncover the complexity inherent in attempting to create capability and capacities to tackle sustainable development issues within a Scottish higher education institution.