私房俱乐部

Dr Andrew Reeves

Job: Associate Professor

Faculty: Computing, Engineering and Media

School/department: School of Engineering and Sustainable Development

Research group(s): Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD)

Address: IESD, Queens Building,私房俱乐部,Leicester,LE1 9BH, UK

T: +44 (0)116 250 6569

E: areeves@dmu.ac.uk

W: /iesd

Social Media:

 

Personal profile

Andrew is a social scientist and educator with an academic focus on learning-based approaches to address the climate emergency and sustainable development within community and organisational settings.

Andrew is 私房俱乐部’s Project Director for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and leads on the Environmental Sustainability theme for 私房俱乐部’s ‘Universities for Leicester’ partnership with the University of Leicester.

His current research and knowledge exchange projects include the ‘Race to Zero Carbon Accelerator’ for Leicester, which is providing training and sustainability audits for SMEs to develop action plans to address climate change. Andrew is also co-ordinating a one-year Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) collaborative project to develop guidance on addressing sustainability issues within academic quality and student-voice processes for taught courses.

Prior recent research includes the Horizon2020 ‘eTEACHER’ project, which promoted energy-saving behaviour change in buildings across Europe via a gamified web-based app. Previous projects have focussed on capacity building for place-based climate change and sustainability initiatives in the Leicester area including “Communities Cutting Carbon” and Sustainable Harborough”. Andrew's PhD thesis explored the viability of achieving deep carbon emission cuts in existing social housing stock from an economic, social and technical perspective.

Andrew is module leader for "Leading Change for Sustainability”, which focuses on behaviour change and the practice of designing for pro-environmental change within social and organisational systems.

Andrew currently co-supervises five PhD students, each examining real-world sustainability initiatives in a range of contexts. These include the low-carbon retrofit of UK housing, sustainable housing and schooling in Nigeria and addressing sustainability in UK schools and universities. Previous supervised PhD research has addressed climate change adaptation in small island developing states, community-based sustainability, wellbeing through nature-connection and carbon footprint reduction through peer-to-peer support. All projects have drawn on cross-disciplinary approaches, focussing either on the UK or the Global South.

Previously at 私房俱乐部, Andrew worked as a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Learning and Study Support (CLaSS), specialising in support for doctoral students and innovating in online and participatory approaches to teaching and learning.

Outside of his role at 私房俱乐部, Andrew has co-founded several Leicester-based grassroots sustainability initiatives including Leicestershire’s first community energy co-operative, Greenlight festival and Leicester Carbon Rationing Action Group.

Research group affiliations

Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD)

Publications and outputs


  • dc.title: Mainstreaming sustainability across a UK university: principles and practices for civic engagement and Education for Sustainable Development dc.contributor.author: Reeves, Andrew dc.description.abstract: Universities are in many respects strongly positioned to lead societal efforts to transition towards sustainability, as future-focussed organisations with responsibilities towards, research, education and community benefit. However their operating contexts vary significantly - in terms of their size, history, culture, location, expertise and their understandings of the transformations that addressing the sustainable development agenda will entail. This presentation offers a reflective case study of one institution's ongoing work to meaningfully address sustainability across all activities, focussing upon two aspects: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the civic university agenda to partner with community actors for local and regional benefit. Drawing on experiences over the past five years and outputs from recent research on addressing ESD and civic agendas through university-wide activities and strategies, the talk offers principles and practices to consider that may have value for mainstreaming sustainability in a range of higher education settings.

  • dc.title: Civic collaboration for 鈥淪ustainability Skills鈥 and 鈥淕reen Jobs鈥: making ESD relatable dc.contributor.author: Reeves, Andrew; Jones, L. dc.description.abstract: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has an apparent strong fit with other key strategic agendas of universities, including the civic role of addressing regional socio-economic and environmental challenges, and the employability agenda to develop workplace preparedness of graduates. But do employment-related ESD priorities as articulated by policymakers and within universities (鈥済reen jobs鈥; 鈥渟ustainability skills and competencies鈥) align with how employers themselves understand their current challenges and future needs and the skills students need to be workplace-ready? This presentation shares findings and introduces questions raised from a stakeholder engagement project delivered in Leicester and Leicestershire in 2022 to explore potential collaborations between tertiary educators and employers to develop sustainability skills on a regional level. Building on two initial online poll questions on attendees鈥 views on these issues, our talk will highlight how concepts such as 鈥楪reen Jobs鈥 and 鈥楽ustainability Skills鈥 can be understood and highlight challenges around regional employers seeing the relevance and applicability of these issues for their operations and recruitment. We will offer ideas on how to address the employer engagement gap and enhance students鈥 workplace readiness, including closer university-employer educational partnerships and making professional roles addressing sustainability more relatable for employers and students through engaging case studies.

  • dc.title: Harnessing Academic Quality Processes to address Sustainability in Higher Education Courses: Issues and Opportunities in the UK dc.contributor.author: Reeves, Andrew; Gwilliam, J.; Harrison, P.; Prize, L.; Schantz, N.; Ribchester, C.; Hughes, T.; Gretton, S.; Strachan, S.; Logan, L.; Boxley, S.; Lengthorn, E.; Barrett, H.; Peres, S. dc.description.abstract: To mainstream education for sustainability across all courses in a higher education institution, there is clear value in harnessing academic quality processes, which regulate taught courses鈥 approval and enhancement. For UK universities, there has been slow progress to date in making sustainability feature in such processes and there is a lack of knowledge about what influences academic quality processes to be used in this way and of the impacts that result. This study addresses this knowledge gap using data from an online survey of staff in UK universities (n=84) and evidence from 11 universities taking part in a one-year collaborative project to enhance their use of academic quality processes to better address Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Our findings show that whilst institutional commitments to sustainability are now widespread, the adoption of academic quality processes to embed sustainability in the curriculum lags behind. Even where processes mention sustainability, this is frequently viewed as an ineffective 鈥渢ick-box鈥 exercise. To achieve impactful ESD adoption, academic quality processes that address sustainability rely upon a strong enabling environment. Key enabling factors include: strategic commitment to sustainability; available ESD expertise from staff mentors; and clear examples of strong ESD practice and associated academic quality documentation.

  • dc.title: Action-oriented ESD for community benefit: two sustainability audit case studies dc.contributor.author: Reeves, Andrew; Gretton, S. dc.description.abstract: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) often uses 鈥榓ction-oriented鈥 pedagogies, which aim to deliver mutual benefit for learners and community stakeholders. This presentation shares two contrasting approaches to partner students with local businesses to evaluate their sustainability impacts. At University of Leicester (UoL), a Sustainability Audit process originally delivered by staff has been adapted into a credit-bearing 鈥榳ork-related learning module鈥, delivered with undergraduate science students from four programmes. Working with real-world data and interdisciplinary approaches, students produce an evidence-based recommendations report for businesses, developing competencies as 鈥榗hange-makers鈥 in alignment with UoL strategy. The UoL audit process was shared with 私房俱乐部 (私房俱乐部) in a joint project where students were trained and paid to deliver sustainability audits. The process was revised into a user-friendly self-completion spreadsheet, designed for use without prior training. This entry-level process enables large-scale reach, potentially within hundreds of employer placements taking place through 私房俱乐部 annually, delivering on 私房俱乐部鈥檚 strategic commitment to 鈥榩artnerships with purpose鈥. Taken together, the case studies demonstrate cross-fertilisation between local universities and formal/informal curriculum linkages, highlighting diverse strategies for pursuing the ESD agenda in alignment with institutional priorities.

  • dc.title: ESD for all? Do Sustainability Competencies need Decolonising? dc.contributor.author: Reeves, Andrew; Salvi, Shweta; Kettle, E. dc.description.abstract: How should practices in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) take into account the critique offered by the Decolonising agenda of higher education pedagogy, assessment and euro-centric perspectives? This poster focuses on one aspect of this challenge 鈥 the long-established aim of ESD to develop cross-cutting learner competencies to empower them to effect transformative change for societal benefit. Most recently, an 8-competency framework put forward by UNESCO was enshrined in the joint AdvanceHE/QAA guidance on ESD curriculum design for the UK HE sector. These competencies include systemic thinking, collaborative working and adopting a reflexive and values-driven approach. Such ESD competency frameworks have been criticised as being overly Eurocentric, both in terms of who put them forward and the contexts in which they can be successfully applied, and little research has proposed sustainability competencies in broader societal contexts. This poster aims to initiate dialogue on sustainability competencies as viewed through a Decolonising lens, by: introducing the concept as currently used; highlighting potentially under-represented key competencies; and outlining principles for developing relevant competencies for global learners in any context. This work is relevant for any taught course which seeks to empower diverse learners, including international students, to effect transformative social change professionally or personally.

  • dc.title: Enabling local climate action towards net zero at community level: evaluating toolkits for SMEs and the voluntary sector dc.contributor.author: Reeves, Andrew; Mistry, A. dc.description.abstract: Enabling local climate action towards net zero at community level: evaluating toolkits for SMEs and the voluntary sector With countries and municipalities across the globe making climate change commitments towards 鈥楴et Zero鈥 carbon emissions within their region, there is an increasing need for strong engagement by all sectors of society, including citizens, businesses and communities. In parallel, the civic role of universities is creating a driver for them to support place-based responses to the climate emergency within their locality by leveraging their knowledge, skills and resources. This paper offers an example of where these agendas coincide, with two UK universities in the city of Leicester collaborating with the local municipality and business development networks to enable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) to develop net zero decarbonisation plans. The two target sectors both have significant roles to play 鈥 SMEs because they account for 60% of private sector employment and VSOs because as member-led or community-oriented organisations, they have strong opportunities to support public engagement processes. Over a one-year period, a self-service toolkit for organisations to develop decarbonisation plans was piloted with ten VSOs and forty SMEs. The toolkit includes a series of prompts and questions along with supporting guidance that can be used to devise a stated commitment to reducing carbon emissions and an annual plan of actions addressing energy in buildings, transport, procurement and learning. The engagement and evaluation process enabled each organisation to share views on their support needs, to pilot using the tool and to share evaluative feedback through surveys and/or interviews on its effectiveness. The findings highlight some of the key learning and resource needs articulated by organisations in these sectors and their priority actions on a pathway towards net zero. The widely differing levels of existing knowledge and engagement within these organisations also highlight the need for a broad range of support approaches, from entry-level to context-specific technical guidance. dc.description: Based in part on a project jointly delivered with University of Leicester and East Midlands Chamber, funded by UK Government via the Community Renewal Fund.

  • dc.title: Sustainable Development and Transnational Education Partnerships: Towards Global Sustainability Leadership and Transformative TNE dc.contributor.author: Reeves, Andrew; Ridon, Manjeet dc.description.abstract: In this guidance document, we aim to outline key principles, issues to consider and practical steps that can enable TNE partnerships to impact upon the Sustainable Development agenda. We also outline how HEIs can offer global sustainability leadership through their international collaborations and how an aspirational model of 鈥淭ransformative TNE鈥 can guide decision making in this area.

  • dc.title: Feedback on Leicester City Council鈥檚 draft Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan dc.contributor.author: Leicester Climate Emergency External Expert Commission; Reeves, Andrew dc.description.abstract: This document summarises feedback put forward by members of the External Expert Commission (EEC) to Leicester City Council on their draft Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan documents. dc.description: The EEC comprised members of staff at 私房俱乐部 (私房俱乐部) and the University of Leicester (UoL) with professional expertise in responses to climate change. The membership comprised: Ljiljana Marjanovic-Halburd, Mark Lemon, Birgit Painter, Rupert Gammon, Andrew Reeves and Karl Letten (私房俱乐部); and Sandra Lee, Chrispal Anand and Emma Kemp (University of Leicester). The report's lead author was Dr Andrew Reeves (areeves@dmu.ac.uk).

  • dc.title: Education for Sustainable Development and Academic Quality: Principles and Processes for Higher Education Providers dc.contributor.author: Reeves, Andrew; Gwilliam, J.; Harrison, P.; Price, L.; Schantz, N.; Ribchester, C.; Hughes, T.; Gretton, S.; Strachan, S.; Logan, L.; Boxley, S.; Lengthorn, E.; Barrett, H.; Peres, S. dc.description.abstract: This document reports the findings and recommendations from the 鈥淓SD and Academic Quality鈥 QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project. Led by 私房俱乐部, the project aimed to identify how Academic Quality (AQ) processes could support adoption of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Our project has been driven by a focus on providing insights of value to HEI practitioners, recognising the diversity of roles of staff and students with an interest in ESD, and the great range of contexts within HEIs which will shape viable and appropriate approaches. Three aspects to this work that we agreed were highly significant are: 1) Institutional and departmental context is a key driver of what is possible in a particular HEI. This includes the nature and degree of strategic commitments to sustainable development and capacity of staff and students. 2) Whilst strategic commitments to sustainability or ESD are increasingly frequent, explicit inclusion of ESD in AQ and SV processes is still rare. It is therefore timely to produce a report highlighting specific examples of what this can look like from a range of settings. 3) Although addressing ESD in AQ and SV processes is an important component of its mainstreaming across an institution, it is likely to be ineffective without a wider enabling environment, that motivates and empowers students and staff to understand the agenda and put it into practice. dc.description: This report is an output from a Collaborative Enhancement Project supported and funded by QAA Membership. The project is led by 私房俱乐部 in partnership with Cardiff University, Coventry University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Students Organising for Sustainability (UK), University of Bath, University of Derby, University of Exeter, University of Leicester, University of Strathclyde, University of Winchester, University of Worcester. Find out more about Collaborative Enhancement Projects on the QAA website We are grateful to the contributions from colleagues from across partner institutions, including: Sophia Goddard, Dana Miles, Graeme Stuart, Tom Harrison, Laura Sanderson, Rebecca Thirlby, Manjeet Ridon (De Montort University); Alice Jackson, Kathryn Brennan, Katherine Taylor (University of Leicester); Loreta Newman-Ford (Cardiff University); Ali Bakhit, Lizann Bonnar (University of Strathclyde); Hannah Beck, Selina Fletcher, Stacey Jones (Coventry University Group); Steve Cayzer (University of Bath); Jus魛啛n Hinshelwood, Catherine Taylor, Helen Cameron (University of Exeter); Elaine Owen (University of Derby); Sarah Motram (Manchester Metropolitan University).

  • dc.title: Household Energy Efficiency 鈥 why the older owner is stalled. dc.contributor.author: Rowlatt, J.; Reeves, Andrew; Morton, A.; Brown, Neil dc.description.abstract: Data shows continued failure to meet new-build targets which combined with low current retrofit works means UK housing stock consistently falls behind energy efficiency targets. The properties of concern are owned outright and occupied by pensioners. This briefing provides an overview, including the drivers, impacts and current research data finishing with clear policy advice to address the systemic causes. All the necessary infrastructure required to apply policy, regulatory and education levers already exist.

Key research outputs


Reeves, A. and Mitchell, A. (2016) Sowing Seeds and Promising a Harvest: Learning from the Delivery and Evaluation of a Local Sustainability Transition Initiative in the UK. Paper presented to International Energy Policy and Programme Evaluation Conference (IEPPEC), Amsterdam, 7-9 June 2016.


Reeves, A. (2016) Exploring Local and Community Capacity to Reduce Fuel Poverty: The Case of Home Energy Advice Visits in the UK. Energies, 9 (4), pp 27

Reeves, A., Lemon, M. and Cook, D. (2014) Jump-starting transition? Catalysing grassroots action on climate change. Energy Efficiency, 7 (1), pp. 115-132


Reeves, A. (2010) Making it viable: exploring the influence of organisational context on efforts to achieve deep carbon emission cuts in existing UK social housing. Energy Efficiency, 4 (1), pp. 75-92


Reeves, A., Taylor, S. and Fleming, P. (2010) Modelling the potential to achieve deep carbon emission cuts in existing UK social housing: The case of Peabody. Energy Policy, 38 (8), pp. 4241-4251.

Research interests/expertise

Education for Sustainable Development

Sustainable Communities

Energy Efficiency

Conservation Psychology

Permaculture

Social Enterprise

Learning Development

Action Research

Areas of teaching

Module Leader: Leading Change for Sustainability (MSc Energy and Sustainable Development).

Qualifications

PhD         Energy and Sustainable Development (私房俱乐部)         2006-2009

MMath     Mathematics (four-year masters degree, 1st class, hons)                  1996-2000

Membership of professional associations and societies

Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)

Consultancy work

 

Current research students

  • John Rowlatt -1st Supervisor (promoting low carbon housing retrofit through persona modelling)
  • Abi Okoya - 1st Supervisor (innovation in education and sustainable development in Nigeria)
  • Huraira Umar Baba - 1st Supervisor (compressed earth blocks as a sustainable building material in Nigeria)
  • Sarah Thomson  - 2nd Supervisor (barriers to Service Learning in UK higher education)
  • Tasnina Karim - 2nd supervisor (gender issues  influencing sustainability education in secondary schools)

Professional esteem indicators


  • Chair of the East Midlands Regional Centre of Excellence (RCE) for Education for Sustainable Development (2019-)
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