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The Centre for Understanding Sustainable Practice

The aim of CUSP is to educate and inspire people to embrace sustainable practice as a fundamental component of their daily lives.

The Centre for Understanding Sustainable Practice will operate in the context of a new £0.5 million Virtual Centre. This Centre will bring together a broad range of cross-faculty academic expertise in Energy, Business, Architecture and Social subjects from the Robert Gordon University. It will further broaden its foundations by forming links with the University of Aberdeen and others working in the field, covering land management, marine conservation and island communities.

As such, CUSP will:

Seek to change thinking, behaviour and practice, focussing on sustainable development, in all areas of activity by individuals, organisations, and government
Develop a strong activity-based research theme engaging with public and business to determine current constraints and drivers of resistance. Only when these constraints and drivers are thoroughly understood can platforms for positive change be built and the ensuing research outputs be fully utilised
Assimilate and disseminate research work utilising both established and novel methodologies and sources
Use education as a key agent of change in promoting sustainable practice; this includes using educators to provide citizens and the workforce with an informed basis upon which to review and modify their behaviour
Use extensive outreach activity to work in partnership with a range of stakeholders including schools, community groups, industry, local authorities to help deliver this ambitious agenda by providing them with information and knowledge on sustainability practice and development
Develop and implement a wide-ranging communications plan that uses all types of media technologies to raise awareness and promote good practice around sustainability across the globe
Seek to influence policy development promoting sustainability as an integral part of decision making processes, at all levels, (local, national and European)

For more information, please contact:

Dr Alan Owen (Director)
email: a.owen@rgu.ac.uk
Tel: 01224 262360
or
Sharon MacPherson (Centre Coordinator)
email: s.f.macpherson1@rgu.ac.uk
Tel: 01224 262362