Sustainability is a concept at the heart of the UAE’s development goals. While the country’s Vision 2021 National Agenda focuses on air quality, water resources, clean energy infrastructure and green growth plans, the National Climate Change Plan of the UAE (2017 — 2050) outlines a framework for achieving these sustainability development goals (SDGs).
With a staff and student body of more than 25,000 and over 67,000 alumni, the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) is the UAE’s largest applied higher education institution, and uniquely positioned to help the country meet its SDGs, says Dr Abdullatif Al Shamsi, president and CEO of HCT. “It is my role to oversee such projects and ensure that we are at the vanguard of innovation in educational practices, which includes the adoption of sustainability practices and principles.
“Our sustainability goals, which are mapped to the National Agenda, are a set of social, economic and environmental objectives that the international community has committed to achieve by 2030. The SDG framework consists of 17 goals, of which HCT has already achieved “Good Health and Well Being” and “Life on Land”.
An all-inclusive approach
Under Dr Al Shamsi’s leadership, HCT has adopted a holistic perspective to sustainability — but what does that mean in practice? “We view it as a fully integrated concept embedded into the curriculum. Therefore, we don’t treat it as a standalone course, but we embed elements of it into all our programmes, whether they be in engineering, IT, applied media, business, education or health sciences.
“HCT students are provided with the principles of sustainable methods, practices and activities with reference to environmental, socioeconomic and cultural aspects in various fields of development.
“They are provided with an understanding of current industry practices in sustainable manner, and many course learning outcomes have sustainability factors embed in them, such as sustainable tourism, urban transportation, sustainability in civil engineering, environmental engineering and solid waste management, to name a few.”
He’s keen to stress that HCT students aren’t just taught about sustainability in an environmental context. “For something to continue in operation it must be sustainable, such as sustainably running a business with finances, sales or marketing,” he says.
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HCT is a higher education institution that emphasises the ideals of productivity, self-determination and excellence
Sustainability must be addressed in students’ capstone projects, which are created towards the end of a degree programme. “They convert concepts of sustainability from their classes into a practical project that seeks to solve an issue affecting society. These can be based on design thinking processes or sustainable enterprises.”
Last year, HCT won the Green World Award ‘World Champion of Champions’. This award reflected HCT’s commitment to environmental best practices by The Green Organisation, which was established in 1994 as an international, independent, non-profit, non-political environment group that recognises environmental best practices.
Leadership values
To help staff, students and stakeholders appreciate an ethos of sustainability, Dr Al Shamsi says there are three key elements to his leadership — none of which you can learn from a textbook.
“First, you have to have a clear vision and mission to believe in. It’s a belief of the leader and the whole organisation to rally everyone around this vision and the organisation.
“Number two, I strongly believe that you should hire smarter people than yourself. Get bright people who know how to do things better. When they believe in their initiatives, they will help you come up with creative ideas to move things forward.
“Number three is about executing the vision. As a leader, as an individual, you need to be connected with what’s happening on the ground level.”
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Last year, HCT won the Green World Award ‘World Champion of Champions’
For Dr Al Shamsi, this third point is achieved through engaging with students and faculty. “I teach courses within HCT because when I teach I hear directly from students; I listen to their comments, their views, understand the issues and glitches that need to be corrected moving forward.”
As a decision-maker, Dr Al Shamsi believes that leaders should be accessible to all staff — not just a very senior team — and that being aware of the views of students and junior staff helps him to keep an ear to the ground. “I think that will make you more dynamic in the decision-making process.”
Every leadership story has an inflection point, that seminal moment of personal growth that laid the foundation for today’s success. For Dr Al Shamsi, that moment arrived in the Eighties, when the then high school graduate departed for the US to continue his education.
“I was 17, spoke very little English and had never been on a plane before.” He contrasts this with the Emirati youth of today — “They’ve learned English from grade one and are already connected to the world through social media. It’s a lot less of a culture shock for them when they travel.”
His journey since then — bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from Boston University, a doctor in philosophy from Duke, nearly a decade teaching at UAE University followed by seven years leading the Institute of Applied Technology — has shaped a world view that has a healthy respect for innovation at its heart.
“We live in a very different world. In 2014, I wrote a book called Welcome to the iPad Generation, where I talked about how we should deal with this generation differently — we are dealing with a new breed of digitally connected human. They have many different skill sets — they can multitask and prefer a more visual methodology. I strongly believe today we have to teach our kids very different on the way we were taught.”
Pandemic-driven innovation
For educators of all levels, the coronavirus pandemic presented an unprecedented challenge to old pedagogies with a rapid shift to online teaching and learning. However, it was also an opportune moment for Dr Al Shamsi and HCT to adopt innovative approaches to a new kind of learning.
Last February, as the pandemic was escalating worldwide, Dr Al Shamsi received a call from the UAE Minister of Education, who asked how long HCT would need to transition to an online education delivery model.
“I told him we’d be ready from tomorrow,” he says with a smile. While he acknowledges there were some technical issues at the beginning — due to thousands of students simultaneously coming online — he credits HCT’s robust technological infrastructure for a relatively smooth shift to digital education.
While the pandemic has thrown a spanner into the works of many a business, Dr Al Shamsi says it hasn’t had a major detrimental impact on HCT’s operations or sustainability plans, thanks to meticulous planning by senior management as well as a thorough study of Covid-19’s impact on HCT’s sustainability initiatives, both during and after the pandemic.
HCT’s 2017-2021 strategic plan is anchored in the UAE’s vision of creating technical leaders and entrepreneurs of the future
“Therefore, student success, teaching and learning capabilities, research and innovation opportunities, human capital requirements, sustainability and well-being aspects were prioritised and enhanced through this period, in order to sustain a continuity of HCT’s core business of educating and graduating students.
“The pandemic has caused a seismic shift in the education landscape. We will see less need for brick-and-mortar campuses as education becomes more oriented towards technology-enabled learning with a reinvigorated focus on online and remote work and study.
“The modern workplace has also undergone major upheavals during the pandemic, with a greater emphasis on employees working from home. For HCT, it has seen productivity from both academic and administrative staff being maintained, while providing them with beneficial work-life balances.”
The pandemic has sharpened HCT’s focus on a hybrid education model, which provides students a more personalised approach to learning through courses delivered both online and on campus.
“The disruptions have led to the genesis of the ‘new normal’ of education, which will be highly digital in format, on-demand in delivery, personalised by design, and agile to adapt to emerging, or unpredicted, trends,” he says.
HCT has a long-term goal of achieving zero waste through the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and smart systems for reducing, segregating and recycling waste
HCT’s sustainability initiatives
Throughout 2021, HCT is focusing on a number of sustainability- oriented policies and programmes:
- A Green Building Policy mandates that new construction, major renovations, operations and maintenance conform to LEED Silver standards and Estidama Pearl 3 or better. In late 2018, HCT began the process of obtaining Estidama ratings for its new Abu Dhabi men’s and women’s campuses in Baniyas, as well as Estidama Pearl 2 rating for a turbo engine hangar and storage space located at the HCT-Al Ain Women’s campus.
- There is also a plan to participate in the LEED Volume Certification programme.
- A Sustainable Purchasing Policy, which mandates the creation of a cross-campus team tasked with developing sustainable purchasing guidelines for a wide range of products and services, including green, emission-reducing products rated to Energy Star standards.
- A Zero Waste Policy establishes waste reduction and diversion benchmarks. It has a long-term goal of achieving zero waste through the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and smart systems for reducing, segregating and recycling waste.
- The HCT Carbon Neutral Plan, which came about due to HCT signing the pledge to the Global Universities and Colleges’ Climate Commitment (GUCCC), agrees to take action to address climate change. The plan outlines HCT’s path in neutralising its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.