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Walter Leal Filho · Rafael Leal-Arcas
Editors

University
Initiatives in
Climate Change
Mitigation and
Adaptation
University Initiatives in Climate Change
Mitigation and Adaptation
Walter Leal Filho Rafael Leal-Arcas
•

Editors

University Initiatives
in Climate Change
Mitigation and Adaptation

123
Editors
Walter Leal Filho Rafael Leal-Arcas
Faculty of Life Sciences School of Law
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Queen Mary University of London
Hamburg London
Germany UK

ISBN 978-3-319-89589-5 ISBN 978-3-319-89590-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89590-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018938646

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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Preface

Much research on climate change is being performed by many universities around

the world. But despite this positive trend, there are only a few publications where an
interdisciplinary set of researchers may be able to tackle climate change issues from
a variety of perspectives: social sciences, natural sciences, economics, etc. This
book is an attempt to fill in this gap.
This publication involves researchers in the field of climate change in the widest
sense, not only from traditional climate science, but also from the fields of envi-
ronment, human geography, business and economics, arts, administration, and
media studies.
The aims of this book are twofold:
I. To provide researchers at universities from across the world performing
research on issues pertaining climate change with an opportunity to present
their works and research projects and also educational initiatives;
II. To introduce innovative methodological approaches and projects which aim to
offer a better understanding of climate change across society and economic
sectors.
Moreover, a further aim of this book, consistent with the philosophy of the “Climate
Change Management Series,” is to document and disseminate the wealth of
experiences on climate change research at universities taking place today.
This book is divided into two parts:
• Part I contains papers which describe experiences from climate change research,
education, and studies.
• Part II describes experiences and lessons from climate change and related
projects.

v
vi Preface

We thank the authors for their willingness to share their knowledge, know-how,
and experiences, as well as the many peer reviewers, which have helped us to
ensure the quality of the manuscripts.
Enjoy your reading!

Hamburg, Germany Walter Leal Filho

London, UK Rafael Leal-Arcas
Summer 2018
Acknowledgements

The co-editor of this book, Prof. Dr. Rafael Leal-Arcas, gratefully acknowledges
the financial help from two European Union grants: Jean Monnet Chair in EU
International Economic Law (project number 575061-EPP-1-2016-1-UK-EPPJMO-
CHAIR) and the WiseGRID project (number 731205), funded by the European
Commission’s Horizon 2020. Both grants have been awarded to Prof. Dr. Rafael
Leal-Arcas.

Summer 2018 Prof. Dr. Rafael Leal-Arcas

vii
Contents

Part I Experiences From Climate Change Research, Education

and Studies
Introducing the International Climate Change Information
Programme (ICCIP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Walter Leal Filho
Educating Students and Their Future Employers to Minimise
Environmental and Climate Impacts Through Cost-Effective
Environmental Management Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Kay Emblen-Perry and Les Duckers
Carbon Management Planning in UK Universities: A Journey to Low
Carbon Built Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Muhammad Usman Mazhar, Richard Bull, Mark Lemon
and Saad Bin Saleem Ahmad
Understanding the Role of Networks in Stimulating Adaptation
Actions on the Ground: Examples from Two African Case Studies . . . . 57
Gina Ziervogel, Lorena Pasquini and Jessica Lee
Climate Resilience Planning and Organizational Learning on
Campuses and Beyond: A Comparative Study of Three Higher
Education Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Camille Washington-Ottombre, Sarah E. Brylinsky, Dennis B. Carlberg
and Dano Weisbord
Language and Climate Change: Towards Language of Sustainability
in Promoting Climate Change Mitigation in Malawi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Peter Mayeso Jiyajiya
Behavioural Approaches of Rural Women Farmers to Mitigation and
Adaptation Measures of Climate Change in Abia State, Nigeria . . . . . . 111
Ogechi Jubilant Umeh and Ike Nwachukwu

ix
x Contents

Climate Change Impacts and Research in the Caribbean: Constraints,

Opportunities and the Role of Tertiary Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Lisa Benjamin and Adelle Thomas
Greening Theatre Landscapes: Developing Sustainable Practice
Futures in Theatre Graduates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Linda Hassall and Stephen Rowan
Integrated Rainwater Harvesting Practices for Poverty Reduction
Under Climate Change: Micro-Evidence from Ethiopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Anteneh Girma, Menale Kassie, Siegfried Bauer and Walter Leal Filho
Impact of Renewable Technology on Lignocellulosic Material of Palm
Fruit Fibre: Strategy for Climate Change and Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Onifade Tawakalitu Bola, Wandiga Shem Oyoo, Bello Isah Adewale,
Jekayinfa Simeon Olatayo and Harvey J. Patricia
Maize Yields in Varying Rainfall Regimes and Cropping Systems
Across Southern Africa: A Modelling Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Siyabusa Mkuhlani, Walter Mupangwa and Isaiah Nyagumbo
Climate Change Education Trends in Canadian Post-secondary
Educational Institutions (PSIs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Ana Maria Martinez and Steve Alsop

Part II Experiences and Lessons From Climate Change and Related

Projects
Geospatial Analysis of Rainfall and Temperature Variations Effect
on Maize (Zea Mays) Yield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Olumuyiwa Idowu Ojo, Johnson Olawale Olonnu
and Masengo Francois Ilunga
Climate Change Adaptation for Russian Cities: A Case Study of the
Thermal Comfort Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Natalia Shartova and Pavel Konstantinov
Integrating Biofertilizers with Conservation Agriculture Can Enhance
Its Capacity to Mitigate Climate Change: Examples from Southern
Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Isaiah I. C. Wakindiki, Mashapa E. Malobane and Adornis D. Nciizah
Exergy-Based Responsibility Allocation of Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . 291
Hossein Khajehpour, Yadollah Saboohi and George Tsatsaronis
Geo-Web Services and New Exchange Formats to Develop Future
Services Supporting Climate Change Adaptation Measures . . . . . . . . . . 317
Martin Scheinert, Hardy Pundt and Andrea Heilmann
Contents xi

Interdisciplinary Research on Energy Efficiency Standards

and Climate Change Mitigation: Methods, Results,
and Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Carl J. Dalhammar and Jessika Luth Richter
Counting the Hot Air: Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Accounting Principles
for National GHG Emission Inventories (NEIs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Sooksiri Chamsuk
Climate Change “Conditionality”: The Case for Bundling the Fate of
International Trade Legal Obligations and Climate-Change-Relevant
Legal Obligations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Eduardo Alvarez Armas
Peruvian Amazonian Natives and Climate Change: Minorities Facing
a Global Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Guillermo Mandelli Constant, Erika Sänger Do Amaral,
Alberto Paucar-Caceres, Silvia Quispe Prieto and Manuel Caipa Ramos
 Part I
Experiences From Climate Change
Research, Education and Studies
Introducing the International Climate
Change Information Programme
(ICCIP)

Walter Leal Filho

Abstract This final chapter introduces the International Climate Change

Information Programme (ICCIP) and describes some of its activities, outlining what
the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences is doing in respect of climate change
adaptation. It also outlines various opportunities for cooperation with universities
interested on matters related to climate change.

Keywords Climate change
Adaptation
Training
Information-research

1 Introduction

Over the past 15 years, a noticeable increase in the level of attention given to
climate issues has been observed. Finding practical, workable and cost-efficient
solutions to the problems posed by climate change has become a priority to many
countries. Also, even though the engagement of the private sector on climate
matters is not as high and it could be, non-governmental organisations as well as the
general public are interested on climate matters in a way not seen before.
But even though climate change is a matter of great scientific relevance and of
broad general interest, there are many problems related to its communication (e.g.
Moser 2007). There is a need to consider the importance and difficulties inherent in
talking about climate change to different types of publics using various types of
communication tools and strategies (Nerlich et al. 2010). For instance, climate
change is often regarded as too broad in scope, as too abstract in respect of its
implementation, too complex and therefore too difficult to understand. Yet, much
could be gained by ensuring matters related to climate change are better understood

W. Leal Filho (&)

Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate
Change Management”, Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University
of Applied Sciences, Lohbrügger Kirchstraße 65, 21033 Hamburg, Germany
e-mail: info@iccip.net

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019 3

W. Leal Filho and R. Leal-Arcas (eds.), University Initiatives in Climate Change
Mitigation and Adaptation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89590-1_1
4 W. Leal Filho

and if people—especially the youth (Leal Filho et al. 2010) are motivated to engage
in the global efforts to address the challenges posed by climate change.
There is thus a perceived need for concrete action in order to address the problems
inherent to the communication of climate change and to undertake a set of informa-
tion, communication, education and awareness-raising initiatives which may allow it
to better understood. It is on the basis of this reality that the “International Climate
Change Information Programme” (ICCIP) has been created.
The need for the “International Climate Change Information Programme”
was identified during “Climate 2008”, the world’s first scientific conference on
climate change held online on 3–7 November 2008. The effectiveness of Climate
2008—which was followed by various other online climate conferences since (Leal
Filho et al. 2015) and is an initiative led by the Hamburg University of Applied
Sciences in Germany, allowed it to extend it further, in partnership with a wide
range of national and international organisations such as UNEP, UNESCO, WMO,
IPCC, FAO and many others agencies.
Since the governments of 195 nations endorsed the Paris Agreement in 2015, a
new momentum was provided towards efforts aimed at reducing global greenhouse
gas emissions. The Paris Agreement establishes the principle that future national
plans will be no less ambitious than existing ones, which means that national
climate action plans will provide a firm floor and foundation for higher ambition. In
addition, countries will submit updated climate plans—called nationally determined
contributions (NDCs)—every five years, thereby steadily increasing their ambition
in the long term. Climate action, according to the Paris Agreement, will also be
taken forward in the period before 2020. Countries will continue to engage in a
process on mitigation opportunities and will put added focus on adaptation
opportunities. This, in turn, means that the global demand for information on
climate change has increased, and so has the need for mechanisms which allow a
broader understanding of what it means and how it affects people’s lives.
Due to its scope, it is necessary to consider climate change as a process influ-
enced by various variables, as outlined in Fig. 1. Therefore, the search for solutions
to the problems caused by climate change cannot be uni-dimensional: it needs to be
pursued in an integrated way.

Fig. 1 Some of the variables

that influence climate change
(Leal Filho 2009)
Introducing the International Climate Change Information … 5

The creation of the “International Climate Change Information Programme”

is a concrete step towards the goal of “climate change understanding for all”,
supporting the ongoing efforts towards the search for solutions for the problems
associated with climate change, an issue which is global in nature, but which needs
to be supported by concrete regional and local efforts.

2 Aims of the “International Climate Change Information

Programme”

The aims of the “International Climate Change Information Programme” are:

• to disseminate the latest findings from scientific research on climate change,
including elements related to its environmental, social, economic and policy
aspects in a way that allow them to be understood by the non-specialist audi-
ence. This will take place by means of books, chapters, journal articles and
information via the media;
• to undertake education, communication and awareness-raising projects on
matters related to climate change in both industrialised and developing countries
in cooperation with UN agencies, universities, scientific institutions, govern-
ment bodies, NGOs and other stakeholders;
• to network people and organisations ways to discuss the problems, barriers,
challenges and chances and potentials related to communication on climate
change.
Based on the fact that personal interactions are important in order to foster a dialogue
and the search for new solutions, ICCIP also organises specialist events round the
world. These events have over the years encouraged more networking and information
exchange and have catalysed many new cooperation initiatives and projects.

3 Target Groups

The ICCIP aims to reach a broad audience which consists of:

• Scientists,
• Decision-makers,
• Enterprises,
• NGOs,
• Universities,
• Schools,
• Local communities and
• Interested individuals
6 W. Leal Filho

All these groups have benefitted from the activities undertaken as part of the
ICCIP, since its creation in 2008.

4 Activities

Some of the most common misconceptions related to climate change (Leal Filho
2009) are:
i. Climate change is too abstract an issue
ii. Climate change is too broad a topic
iii. Climate change is mostly a technical matter where calculations and forecasts
are made
iv. There are no trained people to handle the approach of climate change topics
in an understandable way
v. The amount of resources needed to communicate climate change do not justify
it
vi. Climate change has too wide a scientific basis
If one carefully examines them, the above outlined misconceptions have quite
deep roots. It is thus important to understand them so as to allow misconceptions to
be overcome. The following activities have been performed by the “International
Climate Change Information Programme” since its creation in 2008:
• Organisation of information events on different aspects of climate change,
including environmental, social, economic and policy aspects, which were
attended by over 5.000 delegates to date. Some of the events in 2018/2019 are:
7–9 February 2018: World Symposium on Climate Change Communication,
Graz, Austria
3–5 April 2018: World Symposium on Climate Change and Biodiversity
(WSCCB-2018), Manchester, UK
10–12 April 2018: International Symposium on Climate Change and Museums:
critical approaches to engagement and management, Manchester, United
Kingdom
14–15 May 2018: Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation, University of
Ibadan, Nigeria
19–21 June 2018: Symposium on Climate Change and Coastal Zone
Management, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada
3–5 July 2018: International Scientific Conference on Climate Change
Adaptation in Eastern Europe, Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and
Herzegovina
13–15 February 2019: World Symposium on Climate Change and Tourism,
Bariloche, Argentina
Introducing the International Climate Change Information … 7

20–21 February 2019: Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation in Latin

America, Lima, Peru
11–13 September 2019: 3rd World Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation,
Akure, Nigeria
• Production of books, chapters, on climate change, tackles its various ramifica-
tions. The book series “Climate Change Management” was initiated with
Springer in 2009 http://www.springer.com/series/8740 which has published
over 30 volumes to date, including ground-breaking publications such as:
Universities and Climate Change (2010)
The Political, Social and Economic Aspects of Climate Change (2011)
Climate Changes and Disasters Risk Management (2012)
Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation (2014)
Climate Change Research at Universities (2017)
Handbook of Climate Change Communication (2018)
• The publication of scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. Some of the
recent papers published by the ICCIP team and associates are:
Leal Filho et al. (2016) An assessment of smallholder soil and water conser-
vation practices and perceptions in contrasting agro-ecological regions in
Zimbabwe. In Water Resources and Rural Development, https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.wrr.2016.09.001
Leal Filho, W., Ayal, D. (2017) Farmers’ perceptions of climate variability and
its adverse impacts on crop and livestock production in Ethiopia. In Journal of
Arid Environments, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.01.007—https://
authors.elsevier.com/a/1UPwBVu7-iGLd
Leal Filho, W., Modesto, F., Nagy, G., Saroar, M., Toaukum (2017) Fostering
coastal resilience to climate change vulnerability in Bangladesh, Brazil,
Cameroon and Uruguay: a cross-country comparison. In Mitig Adapt Strateg
Glob Change (2017) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-017-9750-3
Leal Filho, W., Nzengya, D., Muasya, G., Wanzuu, J. (2017) Climate change
responses among the Maasai Community in Kenya. Climatic Change, Volume
145, Issue 1–2, pp 71–83|https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-017-2087-9
Leal Filho, W., Chérif, S., Azeiteiro, U. (2017) The role of farmers’ perceptions
in coping with climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Global
Warming, Vol. 12, Nos. 3/4, 2017. pp. 483–498. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijgw.
2017.10005907.
• The “International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management”,
created in 2009 http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/ijccsm.htm, is a fully
indexed journal and is since 2017 an open-access periodical;
• Execution of education, communication and awareness-raising projects on
matters related to climate change in both industrialised and developing
countries;
8 W. Leal Filho

• Organisation of joint activities in cooperation with UN agencies, universities,

scientific institutions, government bodies, NGOs and other stakeholders.
The “International Climate Change Information Programme” has also a
mailing list, which networks people and organisations ways to discuss the prob-
lems, barriers, challenges and chances and potentials related to communication on
climate change.
Ultimately, the “International Climate Change Information Programme”
breaks the barriers seen when one tries to communicate climate change and suggest
measures to address the existing deficiencies.

5 Partnership

The “International Climate Change Information Programme” is an initiative

led by the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, working in
cooperation with Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and a wide number of
organisations. These are:
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
• European Space Agency (ESA)
• Food and Agriculture Organisations of the United Nations (FAO)
• Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC)
• Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
• Sahara and Sahel Observatory
• Information Board of Climate Change Communication (IOCCC)
In addition, ICCP has worked with various media partners which have reported
on its activities:
• WELT Gruppe
• NDR Info
• TIME Magazine
• The Economist
• European Sustainability Review
• Baltic Sea Magazine
The fact that climate change is now seen and perceived as being a major chal-
lenge to both industrialised and developing countries, means that substantial efforts
are now being seen, in order to address the problem and its various ramifications.
The “International Climate Change Information Programme” has over the
years engaged on a variety of projects, one of which is the project “ACP-EU
Introducing the International Climate Change Information … 9

Technology-Transfer Network on Rainwater Harvesting Irrigation Management for

Sustainable Dryland Agriculture, Food Security and Poverty Alleviation in
sub-Saharan Africa” or AFRHINET http://afrhinet.eu/.
Through AFRHINET, the implementation of integrated theoretical and practical
capacity-building, and the development of technology-transfer and demonstration
projects in the field of rainwater harvesting irrigation (RWHI) took place in a
sample of African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zimbabwe). In
addition, the knowledge and use of RWHI management for small-scale irrigation in
rural dryland areas of sub-Saharan Africa were enhanced.
Moreover, AFRHINET set in motion the development of research and
technology-transfer centres, and a transnational network, as platforms for cooper-
ation and the exchange of experience in RWHI management. The network com-
prises micro-enterprises, non-governmental and public actors, academic/scientific
institutions, and rural dryland local communities, especially farmers, women and
youth groups.
Parallel to the international efforts being undertaken in respect of the mitigation
of climate change and of its impacts, there is a perceived need for sound climate
change adaptation strategies, which may be implemented by means of concrete
projects, all of which need to have measurable and tangible goals, so as to yield the
expected outputs. Climate change adaptation projects are important for two main
reasons:
• firstly, they offer the possibility to cope with the impacts or consequences of
climate change in the short or medium term, hence alleviating the pressure on
people and on ecosystems suffering from it, especially in developing nations;
• secondly, climate change adaptation projects—especially if implemented in the
context of adaptation strategies at the macrolevel—can serve the purpose of
mobilising public and private stakeholders, engaging them in the
problem-solving process.
Since there is a perceived need to develop evaluation techniques for climate
change projects, ICCIP also started the project Evaluating Climate Change
Adaptation, whose structure is described in Box 1.

Box 1 The Project Evaluating Climate Change Adaptation

Worldwide, there are in excess of 300 internationally funded climate change
adaptation projects being implemented at present, whose combined budget is
well in excess of US$1 billion. All of them have specific targets and goals,
but a few of them make provisions for external assessments of their effec-
tiveness, cater for proper quality control procedures, or have—apart from
periodical reports—systems in place which allow them to fully address cur-
rent and future problems in a pre-emptive way. This states of affairs illustrates
the need for a research project which looks at the evaluation of the effec-
tiveness and impacts of climate change projects in a dynamic way. It is for
10 W. Leal Filho

this purpose that the project Evaluating Climate Change Adaptation is

being undertaken.
Aims of the project
The project Evaluating Climate Change Adaptation aims to:
(a) investigate the elements which prevent climate change adaptation pro-
jects from being fully successful, including structural and logistical
problems, as well as other implementation issues;
(b) review, by means of a survey of individual projects, the extent to which
quality control is embedded into projects and the effectiveness of current
mechanisms aimed at improving the quality of their delivery;
(c) provide recommendations for further improvements, identifying needs
and shortcomings, as well as factors that currently hinder—or may in the
future endanger—the achievement of a project’s targets or from achiev-
ing its expected results.
Thanks to its scope and approach, the project Evaluating Climate
Change Adaptation will provide project teams with an opportunity enhance
the delivery of their projects, hence honouring the commitments in respect of
funding and staff time.
Expected Outputs
The project Evaluating Climate Change Adaptation will produce a report
which will outline the main problems, issues and barriers seen in imple-
menting climate change adaptation projects. This state-of-the-art document
will be useful in offering guidance and supporting the delivery of the hun-
dreds of climate change adaptation projects currently being undertaken,
worldwide.

6 Conclusions and Opportunities for Collaboration

Since its creation in 2008, ICCIP has evolved to become the world’s largest
non-government funded information, communication and education programme on
climate change. Thanks to the inclusive approach and diversity of activities, it is
highly attractive and engages thousands of people around the world, who benefit
from its works, publications and events.
ICCIP is keen to cooperate with academic and research organisations, in the
execution of the research projects, events and preparation of joint publications.
Please contact the ICCIP Team in Hamburg to discuss possible cooperation
opportunities: info@iccip.net.
Introducing the International Climate Change Information … 11

References

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Leal Filho, W., Grima, J., & Pace, P. (2010). Perceived frameworks of young people on global
warming and ozone depletion. Journal of Baltic Science Education, 9(1), 35–49.
Leal Filho, W., Mannke, F., Manolas, E., & Al-Amin, A. Q. (2015). The effectiveness of climate
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Educating Students and Their Future
Employers to Minimise Environmental
and Climate Impacts Through
Cost-Effective Environmental
Management Strategies

Kay Emblen-Perry and Les Duckers

Abstract Traditionally, internal views from UK businesses expect the maximisation

of profits and delivery of value for the customer; the external view expects realistic
profits and provision of employment. However, this view is changing, with cus-
tomers increasingly demanding products and services that also demonstrate envi-
ronmental responsibility and minimise climate impacts. Although the cause–effect
relationship between business operations, negative environmental impacts and cli-
mate change is well established, there is now an enhanced appreciation that envi-
ronmental challenges are systemic, interlinked and cannot be addressed in isolation.
Despite the proliferation of ‘low-cost’ or ‘no-cost’ technological and behavioural
opportunities, businesses struggle to realise opportunities that address these inter-
linked challenges, demonstrate environmental responsibility and minimise climate
impacts, as they are embedded in economic systems in which improvement equals
investment. Environmental improvement interventions have become synonymous
with cost consumption rather than cost saving—frequently at odds with corporate
financial strategies. In an attempt to change this view, support the mitigation of
climate change through the reduction in environmental impacts and develop suc-
cessful employment-ready graduates skilled in effective environmental improvement
techniques, an innovative Environmental Strategy Module engaging postgraduate
students in environmental management strategy design is taught at Coventry
University. This offers students a more financially accessible approach to environ-
mental improvement: a self-funding environmental management strategy created
through the Environmental Value for Money Framework. This paper presents a
conceptual study of the Environmental Value for Money Framework and its
engagement of students as future employees in creating self-funded, economically

K. Emblen-Perry (&)
Worcester Business School, University of Worcester, Worcester WR1 3AS, UK
e-mail: k.emblenperry@worc.ac.uk
L. Duckers
Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
e-mail: L.Duckers@coventry.ac.uk

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019 13

W. Leal Filho and R. Leal-Arcas (eds.), University Initiatives in Climate Change
Mitigation and Adaptation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89590-1_2
14 K. Emblen-Perry and L. Duckers

viable environmental management strategies. It also offers this framework as a

mechanism to encourage businesses to engage in carefully planned and economically
viable strategic environmental improvements.

Keywords Environmental management strategy Environmental responsibility


Environmental impacts Environmental Value for Money Framework

1 Introduction

Over the last 3 decades, there has been a growing recognition from pressure groups,
trade organisations, politicians and the public of the need to rethink businesses’ role
on creating sustainable futures. Firstly, there is an acknowledgement that organi-
sations can severely affect climate change through their day-to-day operations and
therefore need to minimise their environmental impacts (Finke et al. 2016; Carbon
Trust 2015). Secondly, as highlighted within the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) 4 and 12, there is a growing expectation that educational systems should
contribute to developing a sustainable society (United Nations 2017). UNESCO
(2017) argues that the momentum for Education for Sustainability (EfS) has never
been stronger but to achieve the development of skills, values and attitudes required
to develop sustainable futures, education systems must introduce pedagogies that
empower learners to transform the way they think and act.
The understanding of the cause–effect relationships of environmental challenges
from the use of natural resources, generation of waste and creation of environmental
pollution (which are key environmental impacts of businesses) and climate change
has evolved in recent years. It is now generally accepted that these challenges are
systemic in nature and cannot be tackled in isolation (European Environment
Agency 2015). This paper therefore supports the mitigation of climate change by
provoking environmental impact reduction.
Although there is widespread external pressure for organisations to demonstrate
environmental responsibility, a positive, proactive response has not been forth-
coming across all UK commercial sectors. Whilst it has become normal for large
UK organisations to recognise their actual and/or potential environmental impacts
and implement a strategic response, it is still uncommon for SMEs to adopt formal
environmental management strategies (Graafland and Smid 2016). Rather, where
environmental responsibility is accepted, it is more usual for SMEs to adopt an ad
hoc approach to reduce and mitigate environmental impacts (Panwar et al. 2016).
During the authors’ attempts to recruit smaller companies for a previous
student-led, live environmental audit project, it was recognised that whilst many
businesses expressed an interest in minimising their impact on the environment
very few were familiar with environmental management practices or how to
implement environmental improvement processes. Cassells and Lewis (2017) found
a similar lack of engagement with environmental management strategies despite
growing expectations from stakeholders to behave environmentally responsibly and
Educating Students and Their Future Employers to Minimise … 15

adopt principles and practices of environmental management. Larger organisations

generally recognise that management systems, auditing processes and certification
schemes (e.g. ISO14001, ISO50001, EMAS) offer tested approaches for improving
environmental sustainability performance that can give them a badge of environ-
mental responsibility.
However, there is a lack of appropriately trained staff to drive the sustainability
agenda within organisations, which is reducing their ability to contribute to envi-
ronmental protection and minimise climate impacts. EfS has lagged behind the
sustainability interests of businesses (Benn and Dunphy 2009; Lambrechts and
Ceulemans 2013) so that management curricula have not adequately prepared
students to deal with sustainability issues (Waddock 2007). This growing sus-
tainability skills gap has left only 13% of UK organisations possessing the skills
required to compete successfully in a sustainable economy (IEMA 2014).
Universities are now playing an increasingly important role in closing this skills
gap, with increasing resource invested in enhancing graduate employability
(Cashian et al. 2015) and adopting real-world settings within learning and teaching
(Wiek et al. 2014) to develop employment-ready graduates.
In response to this demand for environmentally literate students and to poten-
tially reduce the environmental impacts of businesses, the authors have designed an
innovative postgraduate Environmental Strategy Module that is an integral part of
the Environmental Management M.Sc. at Coventry University. It focuses learning,
teaching and assessment (LTA) around the creation of a proactive, self-funded
five-year environmental management strategy for a simulated business utilising the
Environmental Value for Money Framework (EVFM Framework). This engages
students in a real-world scenario to enhance EfS and feed forward practical skills
that are able to reduce environmental impacts through cost-effective environmental
management strategies to their future employers.
This paper presents a conceptual study of a practical approach to EfS that con-
tributes to the minimisation of environmental impacts that are linked to climate
change, energy consumption, pollution and use of natural resources. It explores the
Environmental Management Strategy Module, with a particular focus on the EVFM
Framework as a dual-purpose tool. Firstly, a learning, teaching and assessment
approach generates academic success through the engagement of students in envi-
ronmental strategy design in a simulated real-world setting. Secondly, it facilitates an
innovative methodology for environmental management strategy design for organ-
isations seeking a cost-effective approach to environmental improvements. This
self-funded approach to environmental strategy design is particularly valuable for
organisations that do not currently benefit from the value for money environmental
improvement interventions that are widely available as they expect them to require
initial financial investment. The authors have linked these two aspects of the EVFM
Framework to provide a ‘feed forward’ experience for students who can take this
knowledge and academic experience into their business careers.
This paper adds to the discourse on LTA for EfS and offers experience-based
guidance to other educators implementing active learning in real-world settings. It
16 K. Emblen-Perry and L. Duckers

also offers a tool that may help mitigate climate change by provoking environ-
mental impact reduction.

2 Environmental Management Strategy

in an Organisational Context

An Environmental management strategy is important as it allows an organisation to

contribute to sustainable development through the application of environmental
management processes (Shrivastava and Shrivastava 1995). Benefits from adopting
an environmental management strategy include cost savings, reduction of risk,
increased stakeholder engagement and demonstration of responsibility (Fothergill
et al. 2017), regulatory compliance (Khalili and Duecker 2013) and more
market-focused benefits such as client demands and image benefits (Potoski and
Prakash 2004; Campos 2012).
Environmental audits are a fundamental part of an environmental management
strategy. These voluntary, essential management procedures allow organisations to
detect problems before they effect operations (Beckett and Murray 2000), develop
systematic approaches to improving environmental performance (Hillary 2004),
avoid or manage environmental harm whilst improving economic performance
(Viegas et al. 2013) and provide a benchmark from where to measure subsequent
change (Clark 1998).
Whilst it is normal for large organisations to have an environmental management
strategy, conduct environmental audits and possibly obtain accreditation, most
smaller companies in the UK appear reluctant to adopt such strategic approaches so
that many environmental issues remain peripheral to the day-to-day running of the
business (Studer et al. 2008). Khalili and Duecker (2013) consider financial con-
straints the key to this disengagement and suggest the biggest challenge facing
organisations is access to resources to support the development of an environmental
management strategy. They highlight the limiting effects of the conflict of max-
imising financial performance whilst minimising negative environmental impacts.
The perception of intervention costs, rather than their reality, may also act as a barrier
to formal environmental management (Ervin et al. 2012). Reluctance to engage
formally in environmental management may also involve cultural barriers and
challenges. Large (2012) suggests accreditation forces a specific approach to envi-
ronmental improvement that may not suit a number of businesses, particularly SMEs.
An environmental management strategy can contribute to the achievement of
Sustainable Development Goals 9 and 12 that promote the adoption of sustainable
practices so that organisations do more and better with less (United Nations 2017).
SDG 12 advocates awareness raising, education and the provision of adequate
information to encourage sustainable production whilst SDG 9 supports the
achievement of environmental objectives through technological progress (United
Nations 2017). An environmental audit as part of an environmental management
Educating Students and Their Future Employers to Minimise … 17

strategy also supports the adoption of sustainability reporting promoted by SDG 12.
However, the lack of a standardised framework to integrate environmental excel-
lence into a business strategy discourages the adoption of strategic interventions to
minimise climate impacts.

3 Environmental Management Strategy in a Learning,

Teaching and Assessment Context

Both students and their potential employers now expect academics to promote
employment skills within LTA (Pegg et al. 2012) so that employment-ready gradu-
ates and postgraduates with environmental sustainability knowledge and appropriate
employability skills are able to join organisations after completing their studies. This
contributes to the achievement of SDG 4, which targets all learners to have relevant
skills for employment and the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable
development (United Nations 2017). The promotion of employment skills within
Higher Education (HE) is particularly important in the UK, as 85% of graduate roles
now require environmental sustainability knowledge (Drayson 2014). However, an
environmental skills gap exists, and in many cases, the environmental knowledge of
the graduates does not meet business needs (Laurinkari and Tarvainen 2017).
Alongside the need for environmentally literate employees, students’ preferences
for interactive, experiential learning have also reshaped the practice of Education
for Sustainability (EfS) in HE (HEFCE 2013; Higher Education Academy 2016).
Together, these are replacing traditional instructivist approaches to learning,
teaching and assessment with participatory and collaborative user interactions
(Conole and Alevizou 2010).
The need for sustainability advocates and drive for sustainable futures requires
more integrated and practical solutions that engage future sustainability profes-
sionals in proactive actions rather than reactive resolutions. However, EfS pro-
grammes frequently exclude such proactive approaches to the inherently complex
environmental sustainability (Viegas et al. 2016). Ferreira et al. (2006) suggest this
proactive, integrated learning develops by combining environmental management
with project-based learning to provide a holistic view of reality.
The inclusion of an environmental management strategy project as a LTA
methodology provides a significant opportunity to develop students’ theoretical and
practical work. This stimulates self-directed learning (Moalosi et al. 2012),
increases integrated thinking which creates knowledge through collating and syn-
thesising information (Nonaka 1994) and enhances softer employment skills such
as commitment and responsibility (Ferreira et al. 2006). Crosthwaite et al. (2006)
suggest these generic and transferable employability skills are more likely to
develop when students engage with realistic and relevant experiences in contexts
that they find meaningful.
18 K. Emblen-Perry and L. Duckers

Oblinger and Oblinger (2005) and Wiek et al. (2014) emphasise the importance
of educating students in real-world settings. This learning, teaching and assessment
approach is intended to trigger students’ thinking, which develops learning for
insight (Beech and MacIntosh 2012), and challenge preferences for just-in-time
learning to achieve the long-term transformation rather than short-term victories
advocated by Sharp (2012). The authors consider that utilising a company
brief-driven environmental management strategy assignment immerses students in
real-world project-based and solution-orientated learning and supports the positive
outcomes of ‘learning by doing’—engaging students (Dewey 1916) and complex
problem-solving (Wiek et al. 2014). Corcoran and Wals (2004) recognise that an
audit project is both an outcome and a process of learning.

4 The Design of the Study

This conceptual study focuses on the authors’ experiences of the creation and
application of an innovative, cost-effective environmental management strategy that
has been adopted as the LTA methodology for the postgraduate Environmental
Strategy Module. It makes use of observations of students’ in-class and post-study
applications of the EVFM Framework and analysis tools provided to support
in-class and assignment activities. Secondary research has been undertaken to
provide the evidence base for the strategic interventions presented in the EVFM
Framework example. The authors have undertaken this research to offer other
educators in the sustainability community a practical tool for EfS that may
encourage students’ long-term transformation to successful environmental practi-
tioners and sustainability advocates and provide practical support to organisations
seeking cost-efficient environmental improvement opportunities.

5 Environmental Management Strategy in the Module

Context

The Environmental Strategy Module forms a fundamental part of the

Environmental Management M.Sc., providing vital sustainability knowledge, skills
and values and practical employment skills to promote environmental responsibility
within individuals and organisations. The authors aim to encourage students to
develop an individual and collective sense of responsibility that Burgess (2006) and
Ellison and Wu (2008) consider able to motivate learning for good practice. The
authors designed the module to introduce students to the opportunities available to
organisations that can minimise climate impacts through cost-effective environ-
mental management strategies. This learning, teaching and assessment approach
aligns with the SDGs, which advocate utilising resources more effectively and
Educating Students and Their Future Employers to Minimise … 19

doing more and better with less (United Nations 2017). It is the authors’ intention to
train students in the use of tools and techniques and develop environmental
knowledge, skills and values that can feed forward into their future workplaces to
provoke environmental responsibility and climate action.
The module runs in six, 4-h sessions held weekly. Each session includes the
foundation knowledge of business sustainability appropriate for postgraduate stu-
dents, practical activities to promote the integration and synthesis of this infor-
mation and exploration of potential solutions to emerging issues. This enables
students to explore the effect of sustainable and unsustainable behaviours on
businesses, particularly their internal and external pressures from and impacts on
stakeholders. The authors also provide audit process and skills training throughout
the module in formal and informal training sessions.
The module assignment comprises of two elements; firstly, students are required
to undertake an environmental audit of the simulated, real-life company presented
in the form of a mixed-media case study, and secondly, they utilise the audit
findings to design a five-year self-funded environmental management strategy
utilising the EVFM Framework. Within this, the students are required to generate
an Environmental Fund to create a budget to pay for larger interventions that can
generate more significant mitigation impacts and financial savings. Whilst students
create a theoretical environmental management strategy, the approach is equally
valid for real-world organisations.
In preparation for the module’s taught sessions and assignment, each student
receives a company briefing document that contains a detailed profile of a simulated
real-life engineering company based in the UK’s West Midlands region. This
company brief includes mixed-media information (text, photographs, data sheets,
etc.) on the company’s size, history and operational activities, including supply
chain transport and material handling. In order to complete an effective environ-
mental audit, the results of which provide baseline data for the EVFM Framework,
the student is able to request additional information in an ‘audit meeting’ in which
one of the authors acts as the company’s auditee. Additional company data
requested typically include site plan, energy consumption and utility bills, raw
materials purchased, waste quantities, environmental incidents, stakeholder com-
plaints and chemical storage. The authors note that they do not provide a split of
energy data between heating and process energy to engage students in tools and
techniques for energy consumption analysis such as Degree Day Analysis.
The student undertakes a detailed environmental audit of the simulated company
utilising the company brief and information obtained from the audit meeting. Their
audit can identify areas of good practice, detect problems and provide the bench-
mark from which to recommend subsequent strategic change. This audit, the initial
part of the assignment, then feeds forward into the assessed five-year improvement
strategy for the case study company.
As part of the in-class support, the authors present additional environmental
performance analysis tools and techniques to assist students to design the ‘no-cost’
foundation year of their strategy. Examples of these tools are presented within the
interventions explored below. Undertaking and understanding the value of more
20 K. Emblen-Perry and L. Duckers

detailed performance evaluation can raise awareness, educate and encourage both
students and organisations to measure and analyse their own performance. This can,
in turn, enhance organisational performance improvement and provoke sustain-
ability reporting in line with the aims of SDG 12. The incorporation of investment
in environmentally sustainable technologies in the environmental management
strategy supports SDG 9.
The authors take this self-funded approach to strategic environmental manage-
ment to demonstrate that environmental performance can be improved without
relying on fixed and variable asset budgets that could be used elsewhere within an
organisation to improve competitiveness. The ‘no-cost’ starting point is incorpo-
rated to encourage students and organisations to rethink assumptions that envi-
ronmental improvement is costly and research simple starting interventions that are
able to be implemented in all sizes of organisation to extend and provoke envi-
ronmental responsibility within silent and ad hoc environmental actors.

6 The EVFM Framework

The EVFM Framework provides the students and educators a LTA tool that
comprises the core of the module assignment and facilitates in-class activities and
independent study that can enhance formative and summative feedback. It also,
perhaps most importantly, provides a tool that students can use to demonstrate their
environmental skills and knowledge within their future workplaces and promote a
new, value for money, ‘no-cost’ approach to environmental management and
minimising climate impacts.
The framework captures the current costs of facilities and operations that have an
environmental impact in the ‘Environmental Activity’ column. Evidence-based
improvement interventions are then proposed and recorded as a ‘Saving Measure’
along with their financial benefits (shown as a positive cost) and implementation
costs (shown as a negative cost). Over the five-year period of the strategy, the
interventions and actions combine to form a self-funded environmental manage-
ment strategy.
The EVFM Framework captures and evaluates improvement opportunities
against the benchmark of the current activity cost to demonstrate the cost saving
available from each improvement intervention and the long-term cost and envi-
ronmental benefits of the initiative implemented. Savings achieved against the
current operating cost (for students this is calculated from information provided in
their case study brief) during each year are identified and balanced to create the total
for the year. This savings total is then transferred to the following year’s
‘Environmental Fund at the start of the year’, to create the investment budget for
costlier and more impactful improvement interventions. The savings raised in each
year do not have to be spent in the following year; budget surpluses can accumulate
over the current strategy period. In practice, a planned surplus could also be
deliberately built up and carried forward into future strategy periods to allow
Educating Students and Their Future Employers to Minimise … 21

high-cost interventions to be funded. As the EVFM Framework generates a

self-funded environmental strategy, the Environmental Fund starting balance is zero
by design.
Although the EFVM Framework captures the benefits of environmental
improvement interventions and efficient utilisation of resources as financial savings,
the authors recognise that these could also convert into environmental impact
savings such as reduced carbon emissions or water consumption reduction.
Financial parameters are adopted, as organisations are most likely to change
practices if they can benefit financially (Hillary and Burr 2011). The financial
savings achieved in the environmental management strategy example presented
below highlight the value offered by the self-funding approach to environmental
performance improvement through the EVFM Framework, particularly for finan-
cially constrained organisations.

7 Cost-Effective Environmental Management Strategy

Figure 1 contains an example of a self-funded, cost-effective environmental man-

agement strategy generated through the EVFM Framework. This example, taken
from a student’s assignment, utilises the material provided in the company brief and
the additional information obtained through participating in the audit meeting.
Environmental performance improvement interventions are included in the
example presented to demonstrate the process and positive outcomes of this
self-funded approach to minimisation of climate impacts. The EVFM Framework in
Fig. 1 includes short descriptions of the actions proposed; additional details are
included below, along with benefit calculations and some analysis tools presented
in class. These provide students a sense of agency in their strategy design and are of
use to organisations adopting this strategic approach to environmental performance
improvement. The environmental management strategy presented here highlights
the learning available from this innovative approach to EfS and the potential
financial benefits emanating from environmental impact minimisation for
real-world organisations.

8 Self-funded Environmental Management Strategy

in Practice

1. Energy consumption reduction: Good housekeeping

Implementing good housekeeping is an effective intervention that can introduce
long-term ‘no-cost’ behavioural change. Switching off unwanted heating, lights,
production equipment and IT, closing windows, etc., could reduce consumption of
electricity by 30% (Carbon Trust 2011). In addition, ensuring effective control of
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 "Here's the Forest Boundary," said Jacob, "and now we'll get to the
Warren House yonder, rest a bit and start for home.'

"I always feel sorry to turn at the end of a great day," she answered,
"and this is the greatest day, but one, that ever I have lived."

He kissed her.

"And that one was the day you asked me to marry you, Jacob."

"Don't I know it?"

The Warren House stood before them under a ragged sycamore. It was
almost the loneliest inhabited dwelling in Devon, and its squat, white face
peered out upon the wilderness from under a black, tar-pitched roof. The
rabbit warrens spread on either hand and the dwelling lay in the protection
of a tumulus that piled up to the northward.

"I love this forgotten place," declared Bullstone. "In some moods—not
now, but once when I was younger and less content than now—I've thought
it would be a very good place to live, beyond the fret and cark of life."

But Margery shivered.

"I'd have to be broke in mind and body and not wishful to live at all,
before I'd live here," she said.

Indeed the spot was somewhat melancholy and calculated to chill a

cheerful spirit. Death seemed to have made this place a home. Evidences of
mortality stared round about. In one corner of the little yard was a heap of
bones, and suspended from a low bough of the sycamore, there hung a
flayed horse by a hook.

"I'm sorry for my pretty Auna that she has to pass up here," declared
Margery. "She must be properly glad to wind away down into our beautiful
valley and come to Red House and Shipley Bridge."

"You should see Auna Head," he answered,—"that's where she rises, in

a desert of bog and cotton grass under Ryder's Hill. Lonesome there if you
like. Hardly will you hear a bee booming and never see colt or head of kine.
Nothing but the pad marks of a fox and the sweep of his brush in the mud.
We'll ride up some Sunday when I've got your pony. Now let's go in, and
you'll see two men that are so nearly content as ever I knew men to be, for
all their loneliness. Father and son they are."

"I know them well enough," she answered, "I've often met 'em coming
in with rabbits when I was exercising the dogs."

"The deuce you have! And never told me?"

She smiled at him.

"Benny Veale's a good-looking chap, and his father's a fine old man and
kindly."

"I'm hearing things," exclaimed Jacob.

"You get to talk to a lot of people out with the puppies. Everybody's so
interested in them."

"And interested in you, I reckon. Well, you won't walk puppies and talk
to strangers much longer."

Now came a riot of life in the shape of the warrener's dogs. Half a dozen
lean, wiry creatures, barking and gambolling, ran before a man. They
worked for him on the warren, and the dead horse represented meals to
come. They wagged their tails and saluted the Irish terriers in friendship.
Benny Veale followed them—a sun-tanned, red lad in a blue sailor's jersey
and long boots. He was carrying a dozen dead rabbits, but threw them down
and saluted the visitors.

"Who'd have thought to see you, Mr. Bullstone!" he exclaimed, grinning

at Margery.

"Where's the governor?" asked Jacob.

"He'll be along direckly minute."

 "Can you give us a cup of tea, Ned?"

"Ess I can, then; I'll make it."

"How's the rabbits?"

"No lack—just getting busy again; but us don't do much for a fortnight
yet."

He lifted his voice and shouted.

"Here's Mr. Bullstone come up over, father."

Then an old, bent man appeared from the hillocks of the warren. He
walked with a long stick and was bowed in the back and lame; but he
revealed a cheerful countenance and proved an elderly edition of his son,
though his red hair was nearly white and had dwindled to little patches
above his ears. Upon his head not a hair remained.

He beamed from a mouth wherein teeth were few.

"So here's the she!" he said, first shaking Margery's hand. "And I wish
you both luck I'm sure. 'Tis a terrible blow to Benny I can tell you, for he's
been chattering about you, Miss, ever since he first catched sight of you
along with the little dogs."

Benny did not hear this jest: he had gone in to prepare tea; but Jacob did
hear and little liked it.

"You're getting too old for this place and this job," he said. "About time
you took your bones down to the village, Frederick."

"Granted," answered Mr. Veale. "I did ought to be gone; but I say that
every winter, and yet find myself up for one more season come summer
again. I'm better this year than what I was last."

"You look very well indeed, Mr. Veale," declared Margery.

 "The point of the wedge is in," confessed Frederick humorously. "Death
have got it among my bones, and will hammer it home in God's good time;
but my vitals is all working very suent yet, and if I sleep a lot, I'm
wonderful between whiles."

They entered a rough, unclean kitchen cumbered with trappers' tools.

Jacob was not at ease and regretted that they had come. He cut short Benny
in some simple gallantries and having drunk a cup of tea, declared that they
must push forward.

But Mr. Veale protested.

"Bide a bit," he said, "and smoke your pipe. Us don't have visitors very
oft I warn 'e."

"I do trust you be going to ask us to the wedding, Miss," ventured

Benny, who could not take his eyes off Margery's face.

"I'd like for you to come," she answered. "I hope there will be a brave
rally of neighbours I'm sure."

"You'll be married from the post-office, of course," assumed Benny's

father. "Trust Mr. and Mrs. Huxam to do it in good order. But be she willing
to go to Church, or can the Chosen Few hold lawful marriage?"

"It's going to be in Church, because Mr. Bullstone's Church of

England," explained Margery.

"And when do it happen, Miss?" asked Benny.

"Next November."

Jacob gave each man a fill from his pouch and the talk ran for a time on
dogs; then he rose to depart.

"Well, may your love adventures all turn out well and fine," said Mr.
Veale, "and the Lord remember you and be good to the pair of you."
 Benny shyly took a sprig of white heath from a jam jar, where it stood
in water.

"Found it yesterday. Please accept of it, Miss."

She thanked him and guessed he had intended to present it on the

following day, when it was probable they would have met at Shipley Bridge
—she with her puppies, he with a cart of rabbits on his way to Brent. But
before Huntingdon Warren House was lost on their homeward way, Jacob
asked her to drop the flower.

"I don't like that sort of nonsense," he said. "The young man made a
hole in his manners offering it, in my opinion. I'll forgive him this time,
because he used to be a sailor and they don't know better."

Margery instantly flung away the blossoms.

"A mannerless oaf," added Jacob, "else he'd have known wiser than to
stare at you as though you were a show. I'll ask you not to take note of him
if you meet him again without me."

Margery wondered and her heart beat a little quicker.

"Isn't he a good sort of man?" she asked.

"For all I know; but the woman that's going to marry me needn't trouble
whether any other man's good or not."

"That's true," she said, smiling to herself. "I never thought about how
good you were when I began to love you—only how wonderful and
precious. Love don't take much account of goodness or badness I reckon."

"Very often not, till too late."

"Then it's a bit of added fortune to fall in love with a right good man,"
she said.

"Safest no doubt. But I wasn't quite like you. I did take into account
your goodness; and I wouldn't have let myself love you, as I do love you, if
you hadn't been better than gold. If I'd found you were light and didn't take
life seriously, I should still have been interested in you and anxious for your
future and wishful to advance it; but I shouldn't have fallen in love with
you, Margery."

"You fright me when you say that," she answered, "because we all know
lovers can't see straight; and now I shall fear you'll find me not half so good
as you think."

"There—there; now you're fishing for praise! You know yourself very
well; and if you hadn't been my sort, you wouldn't have fallen in love with
me. And don't you be fearing I'm too serious and like to bore you. I love life
and the good things of life, though work's the best of them and wears best.
But we won't miss the junkettings and revels now and then; though with
your upbringing, I shouldn't wonder if you proved a thought more stiff-
starched than I, for all my age and experience."

They chatted very joyously together and then a good thing happened,
for in the shaking moss, where a spring was born and bubbled up out of the
granite, Jacob marked a piece of bog heather, white as snow, and though he
had to wade half up his leggings to get it, he did not hesitate.

"There!" he said, "there's your white heather, and now you've got your
luck from me and none else."

"I'll treasure it up for ever and ever," she said. "I've got my luck from
you—that's a true word in the sight of God; and I hope a time is coming
when you'll say you've got your luck from me."

"Luck's a poor word," he answered. "I've got my new life from you,
Margery. All that's coming means you—all."

"Who laughed at me and said I was talking poetry on Ugborough?" she

asked, with the evening light on her dark hair and in her eyes.

Jacob put his arm round her.

"What I say isn't poetry—unless God's truth be poetry," he answered.

 So they came home together beside the river.

CHAPTER III

THE RESCUE

Two persons, ignorant of each other's presence, sat nigh the river on a
windy day in October. The latter rains had fallen, the springs were unsealed.
Each rillet was swollen to a gushing stream and the rivers ran in torrents.
North and south they shouted from their drowned fountains and hurried a
mighty volume of cherry red and spumy water back again to the Channel
and the Severn Sea, whence it had come.

Auna, running riotously high above her summer bed, hung dead sticks
and withered foliage on inundated branch and bough, to mark her progress
and leave a signal of her autumn frolic. She shouted, wild as a mænad, and
leapt from rock to rock, swirling here, flinging wide, glassy billows there,
and submerging each familiar stock and stone along her banks. The height
of the freshet was over and the river had already fallen a foot from her
torrent of the day before. Now sunshine filled the valley, while the fires of
the fall flashed on oak and beech and the last of the rowan berries.

On Shipley Bridge sat a man smoking and waiting to keep an

appointment. He was to meet Benny Veale from the warrens, and beside
him, in a limp heap of grey and white fur, lay a dozen dead rabbits.

Adam Winter, the new tenant of Shipley Farm, was a man of thirty with
a fair, commonplace face. He stood only five feet eight, but was well built
and strongly put together. He wore a small moustache and a little patch of
sandy whisker before each ear. His pale blue eyes were kindly, the
expression of his face amiable, easy and rather wistful.

He had failed at Brent and lost half his capital, an inheritance from his
dead father; and now he was trying his luck again on a smaller place, with
the moorman's privileges of turbary and grazing. A maiden aunt kept house
for him, and his right hand was an elder brother, Samuel Winter, a man
weak-minded and lacking in self-control, yet resolute to work, happy in
solitude and not difficult to manage.

Adam had made a start and being of a temperate and reflective nature in
most affairs of life, faced the future without fear. He was not ambitious, or
concerned to do much more than keep his aunt and brother and himself in
solvency. Five years earlier he had been in love in a tepid fashion, but his
romance came to nothing and its failure left him cast down for a short while
only. He soon recovered, but revived no ambition to wed.

Here, then, he lingered with the sun on his back, appreciated the gentle
warmth, smoked his pipe, listened to the thunder of the river in the gorge
beneath him and perceived that the granite bridge vibrated to its rough
challenge.

A heavy network of boughs hid the valley above him. Otherwise he had
observed the only other occupant of the spot, where sat Margery on her
favourite ledge, now only just clear of the water. The pool beneath her
remained calm no more, but was alive and dancing and deep. The bottom
had disappeared in the peat-soaked current, and little argosies of spume
trembled here with bursting bubbles, while half the backwater was hidden
under the honey-coloured churnings of the river. Her favourite, smooth
reaches were no longer smooth; her laughing stickles were drowned. All
heaved and rolled with unwonted weight of waters, and against the deep
baying of the river, Margery's puppies lifted their shrill yap. Above her
crossed the arms of oak and ash; upon the banks the fern was down and the
tawny brakes spread sodden purple under much rain. Beneath this point,
Auna narrowed to a cleft, where an augmented waterfall now tumbled into
the gully below.
 Margery sat and brooded, for the day was one of eventful character in
her life. To-morrow her reign as kennel-maid at Red House would end; she
was to return home and not reappear until after her marriage. Happiness
dominated her mind; yet there were regrets. Never again would she wear
doublet and hose; and that grieved her, for she loved this attire and
marvelled why women should be denied such seemly and convenient
raiment. It was a small thing, yet not to be relinquished without sighs. And
she would be queen of the puppy dogs no more. The busy, russet creatures,
growing sturdy now and ripe for discipline, still made her the centre of their
activities and joys. Their eyes were ever uplifted to her, for she was their
god—the benignant power that ordered their world, chastened them,
cheered them and encouraged them, applauded them, made games for them,
flung fir cones for them, consoled them in disaster, shared their joy, filled
their little, ever hungry bellies.

Now they nosed her and squeaked into her ears, while she sat with
elbows on knees and chin in hands as motionless as the grey stones.

"Oh, you duckies!" she said aloud, "how am I going to say good-bye to
you even for six weeks? But half of you will be sold and out in the world
before I come back."

She pushed them away and the pups scattered to pursue their pleasure.
They were wide awake to the meaning of water and she felt no fear for
them, but concentrated on herself and the days to come.

There stole into her heart a feeling that the past had been too good to
continue long.

"It isn't often what's good turns into what's better," thought Margery.
"My days can't be so perfect for ever, if what mother says is true."

Then suddenly, without one preliminary monition, Mrs. Huxam's

prophecy was confirmed, and the rag of many colours that men call life rent
for Margery and revealed a new thing.

She heard a sudden howl of terror from a puppy, and leaping up, saw
one of her charges in the river. Two playing on the bank had rolled together
at water's brink, and in a moment one was over. The current tumbled the
small thing away and swept him into the main channel. He now bore down
upon Margery, who stood ten yards below, and she perceived that the sole
way to save him must be by wading to the central tide, where it gleamed
between two shallows a few yards above the fall. If she failed, the terrier
would certainly go over and make an end of himself. He was drowning
already, with terrified eyes and black nose lifted, while he swept downward
like a dead leaf, beating the water with his paws.

She did not hesitate, but dashed in at once, knee deep, thigh deep, all
unconscious of the forces against her. She intercepted the little lump of red
hair, grabbed him, and then, finding herself powerless to stem the heaving
water, took both hands to the puppy and flung him five yards to the bank.
Happily he fell light on broken fern, where he lay shivering, shaking and
weeping till his brothers found him.

To plunge before the stream had been easy but, against the flood water,
return proved impossible for Margery. The river converged and held her
now at the centre of the current, where its energies were concentrating for
the fall. She heard the roar behind her and felt fierce hands thrusting her
backwards toward it. She strove to fight forward, but her long, slim legs
were not built to oppose such power. She swayed, and as she lifted one foot,
the other was instantly swept from under her. Now she was up to her waist
and in another two seconds off her feet and rolled over. A yard above the
waterfall her head and shoulders were heaved up and she tried to catch a
rock in vain. Then she screamed, with the terror of sudden death in her
voice, and a moment later vanished in the great, amber-coloured roll of the
river, as it swept to its fall.

Her cry had been heard, though it seemed doubtful whether a human
being could survive that shattering drop, even if the rocks were merciful.
But Adam Winter caught the shriek and, jumping to his feet and peering
under the boughs, was just in time to see a human arm and leg thrust from
the resounding arc of the waterfall and hurled into the welter of foam
beneath. He knew the place and wasted no time. He judged that some
foolhardy boy had fallen into the water and been swept to destruction; but
the scream made it clear that the victim had come to his ordeal with plenty
of life in him.

Winter scrambled down the bank, flinging off his coat as he did so. If
any thought passed through his mind as he automatically rushed to his task,
it was one of annoyance that he should be called to a business so
unpleasant. The discomfort troubled him more than the danger; indeed for
him there was little danger. He jumped over a bank into the river, found it
reach to his middle and then ploughed up from the shallow end of the hole
to the deep water under the fall. The place was dark and full of the din of
the water. He saw a hand sweep up and disappear; then he left the ground
and swam a few strokes to the boiling dance of the foam.

Good fortune favoured Adam, for he came straight upon Margery's

floating body, held her before she sank again, got his shoulder under her
and so swam the little distance necessary to reach foothold. Then he stood
up, gripped her round the waist and presently carried her clear of the river.
Not till he found her hair all over his face did he know that he had saved a
woman. He brushed it away and recognised Margery; then, in great dread
that he carried a corpse, set out with her to the Red House. His own place
was nearer, but Adam felt impelled up the valley.

The girl remained quite unconscious. She was not heavy and he made
good way, finding time to wonder what had brought her into the river. Then
the puppies appeared and crept in doubt and dismay round him. To see their
god limp, silent, still, thus carried in a man's arms, appalled them. They
barked and whimpered, but would not lose sight of their guardian and
followed in an agitated company at Winter's heels.

Thus they came, until Bullstone, proceeding under the fir trees to find
Margery, suddenly discovered her in Winter's arms. The blood surged up to
his face; he stared; he snorted and then charged forward.

"What in God's name——?" roared Jacob; then he dropped his ash

sapling and almost snatched the unconscious girl from Adam.

"Fell into the river and went over the rocks into the pool," said the
younger man quietly. "Please the Lord she ain't dead. I don't think she is."
 Jacob was panting.

"For any man but me to touch her!" he almost groaned, to himself rather
than the rescuer.

Winter stared and stopped. He was about to explain events, but Jacob
strode away, the puppies streaming behind him.

He lifted his voice and bawled for help before he reached his door. Then
Mrs. Bullstone hastened and found him already beside the kitchen fire. He
lowered Margery to the ground, bade his mother undress her and went for
brandy.

Returning with it he found the sufferer had regained consciousness. She

could not speak but her eyes were open. She drank; then Jacob went for
blankets and within ten minutes had left the house, hastened to the stables
and saddled a horse. He quickly galloped off to Brent for a doctor and
Margery's mother.

In time they arrived, to a turmoil of talk and tears from Mrs. Bullstone
—a dislocated, agitated upheaval in which Judith Huxam and her daughter
alone preserved calm. The physician found Margery bruised and cruelly
shaken, but without a broken bone. There was concussion, how severe he
could not immediately determine.

He directed them and asked a question of Jacob before leaving.

"How did she get in the water? Not intentionally I hope?"

For the last time that day Bullstone was staggered beyond reason.

"'Intentionally?' Good God, doctor, she's engaged to marry me!" he said.

Then happened a strange thing, for in the morning, Margery proved already
better after sleep, and sitting beside a convalescent sweetheart, Bullstone
was reminded of one he had forgotten.

With deep emotion he came to her and gasped to see how small
Margery appeared, sitting up with a pink shawl round her shoulders and her
hair down.

Out of his joy and to steady himself, he blamed her—even assuming an

angry manner.

"Properly mad, and must mean a screw loose in you," he said. "To go
into a raging torrent like that for a puppy! You never thought of me."

"Of course I thought of you," she answered in a weary, little voice. "It
was your dog and I had to save it. But in truth I thought of nothing. I was in
the water before I began to think."

The threatened shadow seemed still to hang over her. Her voice was
weak and her manner listless.

"I'd give ten years of my life if it had been me who rescued you," he
said. "It's proper gall to think that any other man did it."

"You must forgive him—for my sake, Jacob."

"Forgive him! The mischief is that I'm under a life-long obligation now,
and he may be the sort to rub it in. Not that he'll need to. I shan't forget that
my debts are for ever beyond payment."

"Have you thanked him?"

"Not yet."

She was silent and then expressed a desire that startled her lover.

"No more have I. But I'm not going to let the day pass before I do."

"I'll say all there's need to say."

"No, Jacob. Life's life. I'm properly thankful not to be drowned. Think
what he's done for me! If you say a word against, you'll vex me, and I
mustn't be vexed."
 The subject dropped while she talked of her accident—such of it as she
remembered; but she felt desirous to know the exact sequel, and that only
Adam Winter could tell her. When Jacob put her off and told her to trust
Winter to him, she became quite silent. Then she asked him to leave her.

He went and presently the doctor called and gave a good report. He, too,
brought discomfort, for Margery had repeated her wish to thank Adam
Winter, and begged that she might do so immediately. She was wilful and
strangely insistent, as it seemed to Jacob. Her mother, however, supported
her and held it a right thing to happen. The doctor therefore advised that Mr.
Winter should see her before she slept. He had found Margery so
completely recovered that there was no need to call again.

"Keep her in bed one more day, and then let her get up and stop by the
fire," he said. "Youth will never cease to astonish me."

Jacob Bullstone went to Shipley Farm after midday dinner and

summoned Adam Winter.

"You've done more than I can pay, as you well know," he said, "and
that's granted; but if it's ever in my power to lessen the obligation, I gladly
shall, for I little like to be in any man's debt."

"No need to talk that way. There's no debt and no obligation. Who
wouldn't have done the same? Didn't Miss Huxam go in the water herself
after a puppy? We do these things, not for any return, but because we must.
I'd have done as much for a sheep—so would you. I hope she's out of
danger?"

"She's wishful to see you—nothing will do but she thanks you herself
this instant moment."

"No need at all."

"So I say—no hurry anyway; but that's her will and she must be obeyed,
if you please."
 "Them caught from the grave like that did ought to be humoured," said
Adam's aunt. She was a little woman with grey hair and a red face.

"I'll come, then, if it must be so," said Winter. "The green plover be
back, and I shot a brace this morning. Will she accept 'em?"

"No, thanks; I'll get a bird or two for her presently."

The men returned together. Their walk had been silent on Jacob's part,
while Adam related the particulars of the rescue.

"I properly thank you," said Margery, when they ascended to her room
and Adam took a chair in the window, while Bullstone stood with his hands
in his pocket at the foot of the bed and Judith Huxam sat beside it.

"We'll never, never forget it, Jacob and me," continued Margery.

"I hope you will, then," answered the farmer. "Why such a noise about
it? Duty's duty. In fact 'twas more of a pleasure than a duty, I'm sure, and if I
hadn't much feared you was a goner, I should have enjoyed the fun."

Jacob's eyes were restless, he frowned and moved about. Then he turned
his back and examined some family photographs on Margery's mantelshelf.

"To save a life is a great thing, Mr. Winter," said Mrs. Huxam. "Now,
whatever your own life's got in store for you, you can always remember that
you had a hand, under God, in keeping a human creature alive."

"The puppy's no worse," declared Margery, "and if he knew which it

was, Jacob would never part with it. But we never shall know, for I don't
remember which I saved. You must be terrible strong to have faced that
awful water. It took me like a leaf."

"Wasn't the water's fault," he answered. "Young women can't go playing

about with the rivers in flood. A little item like you was bound to be swept
away."

"It's a wonderful thing to look at a man who's saved your life," said
Margery.
 "Wish I was a finer object," he replied.

Jacob hid his emotion, but had to speak and occupy himself. The invalid
was nursing two young puppies from the last litter. She had demanded
something to play with.

"Best let me take them back," he said. "Mustn't keep Mr. Winter—he's a
busy man. And mustn't spoil young dogs. Bless it, you're cuddling them as
if they was a brace of babbies!"

"They are babbies," answered Margery, "and if you can't cuddle

babbies, what should you cuddle?"

She was wilful still and continued to speak in a tired, small voice.

"Are you fond of dogs?" she asked, and Adam declared that he was.

"What's life without 'em, I say," he answered.

"So do I," she replied. "Jacob can't see the human side of dogs—no, you
can't, Jacob. He's all for discipline."

"Quite right too," declared Winter. "You must put into the heart of a dog
his bounden duty from the first, else he'll grow up a nuisance to himself and
everybody else. Work did ought to be found for every dog. If it ain't, they
think life's all play and that makes 'em selfish."

"Jacob's the whole law and the prophets about dogs," asserted Margery.
"They're blessed creatures and nothing's too good for them—you know you
think so, Jacob."

"They haven't got souls, however," explained Mrs. Huxam, "and you
had no sort of right, Margery, to run the risk of drowning for a dog."

"Some dogs have got far bigger souls than some men," answered her
daughter; "and you've only got to look in their eyes to see 'em."

"That's a wicked thing to say, and I'm sorry you said it," replied Judith.
"It shows your mind is wandering still and there's fever left in your brain.
So these men had best to be gone. You forget your religion, Margery."

The girl was silenced, but Adam Winter, who did not fear Mrs. Huxam,
ventured on a doubtful joke.

"The dogs have got religion anyway," he assured them, "for I'm sure the
little ones worship your darter, ma'am; and the big ones worship Mr.
Bullstone."

"'Tis a great thing to search to the heart of a dog," murmured Margery,

"and nobody ever did that like Jacob."

Adam Winter, conscious that his last remark had annoyed Mrs. Huxam,
though she did not answer it with words, got up to go his way.

"Mustn't bide no more," he said. "And I hope you'll soon be down house
and as right as rain, Miss."

She stretched out a hand and he took it and stood a moment on his way
to the door.

"Mind you come to our wedding," bade Margery. "I will have you there;
there wouldn't have been a wedding at all but for you."

"I'll gladly come, be sure."

He went through the door, and Bullstone followed without speaking.

BOOK I
 CHAPTER I

JEREMY

The market town of Brent differed but little from like boroughs linked
by the artery of the railroad to centres greater than themselves. It grew,
reacted to the ordinary stimuli and, upon discovery of Dartmoor as a
healthful resort of pilgrimage, enlarged its borders to meet increasing
demand.

An environment was created after the usual pattern, and from the village
centre of shops and cottages, there extended good roads on which stood
single and semi-detached houses with gardens about them. The class of
shop improved to serve the class of customer; the atmosphere thickened
from its primitive simplicity. Change increasingly dominated Brent,
creating an environment wherein to be honest and fearless grew more
difficult, while cowardice and hypocrisy were encouraged by the nature of
things.

Human capacity was displayed at its customary levels; greed and creed,
after the inevitable rule, dominated the minds of men and women and
infected the minds of the children. Education progressed, but its evidences
were often painful, and, along with it, things worthy of preservation
departed for ever. Modern education promotes selfishness and egotism in
the pupil, but neglects any valuable formative influence on character—the
result of that narrow and unimaginative type of man and woman foremost
in the ranks of the certified teachers.

Ambition at Brent was only understood in terms of cash; among many

of the young men and women cleverness became only another name for
cunning. They were brought up, generation after generation, on the ideals of
their parents, which proved a far more penetrative principle than the
teaching of their schools. Then dawned class consciousness and class
prejudice; and the fresh point of view took shape in creation of new values
and animosities. The timid admired the bold, who had courage to scant his
service, yet draw his wages. The worker who robbed his employer,
confident that trade unionism would support him in any open conflict,
became the hero of the shop; while the employer retaliated without patience
or perspicuity. Thus worthless and unsocial ideals were created in minds
upon the way to adolescence.

The church stood in the midst—architecturally a very beautiful and

dignified object. Its significance otherwise only related to form and
ceremony. So many had ceased to go, that the timorous began to feel they,
too, might stay away without suffering in reputation, or trade. There were
various chapels, also, and a few spirits reflected the past and professed
obsolescent opinions, while a small minority still actually practised them.

Of such were the postmistress and her husband, Judith and Barlow
Huxam. To the Chosen Few they belonged—the woman from her birth, the
man by adoption; for Judith insisted, as a condition of marriage, that
Barlow must join her particular sect and he, much in love and of no deep
convictions, did not hesitate to oblige her. And still the pair worshipped
with that mournful denomination, while the Chosen Few lived up to their
proud title and became yearly fewer. This fact brought sorrow, but not
surprise, to Mrs. Huxam. Fewer, indeed, were chosen, for the good reason
that fewer deserved to be. She took a long view, and though admitting that
her own generation was painfully distinguished by a lack of just persons in
all classes, yet hoped that better times might be coming and subsequent
humanity provide a more handsome inheritance for the Kingdom.

Apart from her religious predilections, Mrs. Huxam was stern, but
reasonable. She knew that offences must come, while regretting that more
appeared to come from Brent than most other places. She was not
censorious, though glad to remember that the mills of God always ground
small in the long run; and she never wavered in conviction that all was for
the best and divinely preordained.

Her husband she honoured and respected, and indeed he was a man
worthy of respect and honour. He had earned admiration and applause, for
to have lived with Judith through thirty-five unclouded years argued great
gifts of patience and philosophy on the part of Mr. Huxam. They worked in
perfect amity and their drapery establishment was still the most important
shop in Brent.
 Judith felt prouder of her own family than her husband's, and a slight to
any member of the clan was an affront upon herself. A bachelor brother
lived at Plymouth. He owned trawlers and prospered, letting it be known
that his niece, Margery, would some day inherit his possessions. Mrs.
Huxam's father, Tobias Pulleyblank, a saddler, had been dead ten years, and
her mother passed a year earlier. But other Pulleyblanks still flourished
round about. They lifted steadfast lights on a naughty world, and nothing
had disappointed Judith Huxam more than to find that Pulleyblank blood
was not pre-potent in the veins of her own boy and girl. They both lacked
that steel of character and indomitable will power she herself possessed;
and though Margery Bullstone, the elder child, married to a prosperous
man, had done her duty and given her mother just cause for gratification
and contentment, of Jeremy, her son, this could not be admitted.

It happened that Jeremy Huxam's parents were now dwelling on this

subject, for, upon the following day, Jeremy was due to return home. Once
more he had been tried in the ranks of men and found wanting.

Barlow and his wife were in bed. They retired early and, as a rule,
conversed for an hour on the interests of the day before sleeping. When Mr.
Huxam stretched his hand for a little box beside him and took a
mucilaginous lozenge for his 'tubes,' that was the signal that conversation
must cease and sleep be sought.

"Jeremy certainly is a puzzling man," he confessed, "and I wish there

was more of you in him and less of me. He's not altogether soft, and he's not
altogether lazy, and he's always civil spoken and respectful, and everybody
likes him; yet what does he amount to? A dead weight on our hands, and no
sooner, after unheard-of efforts, do we launch him into deep water, than he's
back on the beach again."

"It's lack of purpose," said Judith. "He's like one of them ants you see in
the woods. They'll tug and tug and wander this way and that, pulling along
a scrap of rubbish; and they'll climb up a stone and fall off a score of times
and get no forwarder. Yet you can't deny the creatures are busy enough. Of
Jeremy you can only say that he's himself and made as his Maker willed
him to be. He'll never treat time like a servant, but let it master him. That's
what our Thomas understood, though only a child when he died."