Common Language of Sustainability for Built Environment Professionals—The Quintuple Helix Model for Higher Education

Abstract

One of the repeating themes around the provision of the knowledge and skills needed for delivering sustainable communities is the idea of a “common language” for all built environment professionals. This suggestion has been repeated regularly with each new political and professional review within and between different sectors responsible for the delivery of sustainable communities. There have been multiple efforts to address academic limitations, industry fragmentation and promote more interdisciplinary working and sector collaboration. This research explored the role of skills for sustainable communities, particularly within the higher education (HE) sector, and the responses to support the development of a “common language of sustainability” that can be shared between different sectors, professional disciplines and stakeholders. As an interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners working with the HE sector in the North East of England, we evaluate the progression of sector collaboration to develop a quintuple helix model for HE. We use this as a suitable framework for systematically “mapping” out the mixed sector (academic, public, business, community and environmental organisations) inputs and influences into a representative sample of HE degree modules that are delivered from foundation and undergraduate to postgraduate levels, including examples of part-time and distance-learning modules. We developed a cascade of models which demonstrate increasing levels of collaboration and their potential positive impact on the effectiveness of education on sustainable communities. The methodological assessments of modules were followed by semi-structured group reflective analysis undertaken through a series of online workshops (recorded during the Covid19 lockdown) to set out a collective understanding of the generic skills needed for the delivery of sustainable communities. These generic skills for sustainable communities are presented as a pedagogical progression model of teaching activities and learning outcomes applied to the levels within HE. We propose sustainability education principles and progressions with the hope that they can have an impact on the design or review of current degree modules and programmes. The paper informs future sustainability research to be grounded in holism and systems thinking; better understanding of values, ethics, influencing and political impact; and procedural authenticity.

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“…The subsequent development of institutional models is associated with the inclusion into the education ecosystem of the environment in the broadest sense, in the form of environmental requirements, demand for sustainable development of the biological system, and taking into account the interests of environmental organisations and activists. This leads to the emergence of the Quintuple Helix model (Carayannis et al, 2012), where the ecological subsystem, while not seen as a component of the education ecosystem as such, is integrated into the learning and knowledge transfer mechanism in the form of sustainable development goals for the external (biological) and internal (social) environments (Crilly et al, 2020). By integrating these issues into educational programmes, the education ecosystem responds to increased public attention to the human impact on the environment.…”

Sustainable construction in the Nigerian construction industry: unsustainable practices, barriers and strategies

“…The following recommendations are suggested: Inclusion of sustainability as a core module in built environment courses : the introduction of sustainability as a core course for students at tertiary institutions would help educate them on how they can embrace sustainable practices and limit the impact of construction activities on the environment. Crilly et al (2020) recommended a review of the current built environment degree courses to include sustainability-focused courses to educate students about the concepts of sustainability. Introduction of country-based sustainability rating tools : the use of sustainability rating tools specifically designed for the Nigerian context would encourage sustainable practices among professionals in the construction industry. Olawumi and Chan (2020) developed a sustainability rating scheme that can be applied in a sub-Saharan African context.…”

“…Inclusion of sustainability as a core module in built environment courses : the introduction of sustainability as a core course for students at tertiary institutions would help educate them on how they can embrace sustainable practices and limit the impact of construction activities on the environment. Crilly et al (2020) recommended a review of the current built environment degree courses to include sustainability-focused courses to educate students about the concepts of sustainability.…”

A Systems Framework for Infrastructure Business Models for Resilient and Sustainable Urban Areas

“…Although not always intended in this way, such approaches provide a means of greater citizen participation (Borghys et al, 2020), offering potential to introduce new actors into infrastructure business models (Crilly et al, 2020).…”