Driving sustainable change through student-led environmental consultancy

Purpose
Traditionally, work experience placements for students in Higher Education were ‘a year in industry’. Benefits for placement students are well established; higher final-year grades, increased graduate job prospects, higher starting salaries. However, few benefits for the employing organisation including opportunities to enhance environmental practices to address growing demands for environmental stewardship have been established. This study seeks to close this gap.

Approach
To help local businesses benefit from opportunities offered by placements to drive sustainable change, the Business School has established a short-term placement proposition, the Student Led Environmental Consultancy Programme. This places students within local organisations to undertake bespoke projects that identify and act on the organisation’s environmental impacts. This study presents three projects from the Student Led Environmental Consultancy Programme and uses reflections from organisational Project Leads to explore the sustainable change created.

Findings
Findings suggest a Student Led Environmental Consultancy Project can provide affordable innovative resource with a creative and evidence-based perspective to organisations’ environmental aspirations to drive sustainable change.

Originality
This paper builds on previous research into Higher Education-business partnerships, placements and methods of enhancing environmental stewardship; it recommends combining these three strands into a programme that can drive sustainable change.

Practical implications
This research adds to debates on green skills gaps and support needed to develop organisational environmental stewardship. It also offers a novel opportunity for educators and business personnel to promote students’ employability skills and develop partnership projects to drive sustainable change