ALT Digital Sustainability SIG – Sustainability Blueprint
Spotlight: “What is the long-term vision for sustainability within Digital Education at Leeds, and how are we engaging staff to deliver it?”
Dr Joanna Brown, ALT Digital Sustainability SIG Officer, is excited to share the Sustainability Blueprint (2025-30)1 for Digital Education at the University of Leeds2. Joanna is a founding member of the SIG and has been an enthusiastic advocate for digital sustainability throughout our journey towards developing our identity as a SIG. We hope you find this spotlight inspiring and, as you read it, consider how you might take action in your own context.
“Our Blueprint vision is that Digital Education (DE) at Leeds will:
- become a team in which everyone understands and engages with what sustainability means, and how they can promote positive environmental and social impact.
- lead our community in the adoption of sustainable approaches to digital technologies, and utilise our expertise and facilities to promote sustainability through education.
- use the opportunities presented by digital technology to advance sustainability goals whilst working actively to acknowledge, surface, and mitigate the footprint of digital technologies.
To help us achieve this, DE developed sixteen objectives with input from staff across the service and the support of the DE Staff Sustainability Architects3 and the University’s central Sustainability Service:
- Engagement
- Support DE staff to improve their knowledge and awareness of sustainability.
- Celebrate and communicate sustainability successes and case studies with both internal and external audiences to raise awareness, increase engagement, and share best practice, showing sector leadership in this area through relevant sector bodies (e.g., ALT and JISC).
- Raise awareness of the sustainability concerns caused by digital technologies, to those within DE as well as the wider University community, including small- and large-scale digital transformation projects.
- Explore opportunities to develop and share best practice for hosting virtual events and experiences.
- Environment
- Keep waste to a minimum by reusing, and repurposing digital and physical resources, and adopting more circular practices where possible through collaboration with IT, while ensuring the operations of DE remain current.
- Encourage sustainable practices as part of all events hosted within DE spaces, or by DE, including catering, resource use, and travel.
- Work with Procurement and IT to embed sustainable purchasing practices and work with suppliers of our digital education systems to advocate for sustainability to be embedded in product development.
- Support the University’s Plastics Programme by removing single-use plastics and replacing these with sustainable alternatives wherever possible (e.g. in events, equipment, and HELIX resources).
- Identify and implement opportunities to decrease greenhouse gas emissions related to business travel.
- Continue to develop and celebrate the success of our fully online courses and Masters programmes that increase access to high quality education and support students to succeed globally.
- Social impact
- Develop learning resources and opportunities to support the embedding of the Sustainable Curriculum.
- Develop learning resources that can be shared beyond our University community, particularly benefitting those with limited access to other forms of higher education.
- Engage with relevant frameworks and sector bodies (e.g., FELT (ALT), OER, JISC), to ensure we are advancing our practices to have a positive social impact.
- Explore opportunities to offer HELIX4 spaces and digital support for community projects e.g., for repair cafés, local school visits, and third sector organisations.
- Explore opportunities to include nature-focused activities as part of staff wellbeing and professional development initiatives, e.g., away days at Gair Wood or with partners such as RSPB or Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
Our progress so far
In September 2025, we launched the Blueprint at the University-wide Digital Education Network event, featuring guest speaker Rita Bateson (Eblana Learning), who delivered an engaging talk on the Mindful Use of AI in Education. Since then, Rita has also delivered a thought-provoking webinar for the ALT Digital Education SIG with a follow-up #ALTC blog.
A key early challenge was how to engage more than 150 colleagues across the Digital Education service, embed the Blueprint’s vision, and make progress across a wide set of objectives. To do this, we established a small cross-service network of staff who could act as local champions within their teams. By emphasising the objectives and ideas most relevant to each area, we broadened ownership and created space for people to contribute their expertise.
For example, Adlina Hassan from our Communications team has developed a comprehensive 12-month communications plan to support staff understanding and engagement.
Other notable achievements include the appointment of a Digital Learning Content Developer dedicated to Sustainability, as well as a nature-focused campus tree trail that we hosted as part of our DE Winter Staff Day.
We look forward to seeing more Blueprint initiatives come to life and to continuing to build momentum by collaborating with Schools and Services across the University.
Some questions for you!
- Which part of the Leeds Sustainability Blueprint resonates most with your own work or context—and why?
- Have you seen inspiring examples of sustainable digital practice elsewhere that others could learn from?
- What sustainability challenges have you encountered when working with digital tools or technologies? How have you tried to address them?
- If you could champion one sustainability‑focused initiative within Digital Education, what would it be?
- What support, resources, or collaborations would help you contribute more effectively to sustainable digital practice?
1. The Sustainability Blueprint programme is the University of Leeds’ award-winning flagship framework for embedding sustainability. Supported by the Sustainability Service, it enables Schools and Services to identify and act on their own bespoke environmental and social goals.
2. Digital Education (DE) at the University of Leeds has over 150 staff who support campus-based staff and students as well as fully online students across the world. A range of experts, including learning technologists, media producers, 3D animators and graphic designers, work together to enable the student learning to be enhanced while contributing to wider institutional aspirations.
3. Sustainability Architects are staff and students who act as ambassadors for sustainability, leading projects and initiatives within schools and services. Staff architects need to be approved by the school/service and the Sustainability Service and have a 0.05 FTE time commitment.
4. HELIX is an innovation hub for students, staff, and the local community. It offers cutting-edge digital provision including immersive technologies and cutting-edge multimedia production studios, as well as a physical makerspace.
How to connect with the Digital Sustainability SIG
If you want to connect with or follow our SIG you can do so in the following ways:
Please reach out to us if you want to create something for our blog space or perhaps want to deliver a webinar/co-host an event.