How University of Edinburgh does Sustainability – a fireside chat with Scott Davidson
Join members of the Institute of Directors and their guests for the first in a new series of fireside chats and networking lunch, where we explore how and why different organisations are developing their Sustainability initiatives, what impacts they hope to achieve.
We’ll explore aspects of how initiatives are prioritised and embedded into the organisation. This is a relaxed but in depth Chatham House conversation with plenty of opportunity for questions and views from the floor.
In this, the inaugural event in this series, we are delighted to welcome Scott Davidson, Head of Sustainability at University of Edinburgh. The University is a large and complex organisation with a £1.3bn turnover. It is a major landowner with a gross internal area roughly the size of the city of Inverness across 5 campuses and 980 hectares in Edinburgh. This presents unique challenges and opportunities for achieving the University’s ambitious sustainability goals; net zero by 2040 and 50% carbon reductions from baseline by the end of this year. Scott has a very wide remit across the organisation with a particular interest in getting changes to stick by embedding them into the culture.
Speakers
Scott Davidson
Scott joined the University in 2022 as Deputy Director for Social Responsibility and Sustainability and Head of Sustainability. Accountable for the delivery of the University's array of environmental strategies and plans including Zero by 2040 and the biodiversity action plan, he leads the sustainability team's work in taking a "whole institution response" to climate change and biodiversity. This response includes embedding sustainability within teaching and learning, research, partnerships and operations. Prior to joining the University Scott worked for the University of Bath and held various senior management roles in the sustainable consultancy and charity sector. Scott is a social psychologist by trade, a published author and award winning researcher in the fields of behaviour change and sustainability.

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