Working for sustainability transformation in an academic environment: the case of itdUPM

1. Julio Lumbreras
Working for sustainability transformation
in an academic environment:
the case of itdUPM

2. Outline
An introduction to itdUPM
How do we frame Campus contribution to sustainability?
Students & sustainable experiences
A niche within a traditional University regime?
Some examples
Four organizational design issues. Framework

3. Outline
An introduction to itdUPM
How do we frame Campus contribution to sustainability?
Students & sustainable experiences
A niche within a traditional University regime?
Some examples
Four organizational design issues. Framework

4. • Large (40.000 Graduate and Post-graduate
Students)
• Decentralized and muti-disciplinar (20 “Schools”)
• Internationally focused
• Strong relations with Industry
Technical University of Madrid (UPM)

5. UPM evolution on studies and research for development
Origins
20 action-research groups in international development were promoted
.
90s

6. UPM evolution on studies and research for development
Origins
20 action-research groups in international development were promoted
First steps to create an interdisciplinary centre
Masters Degree in Strategies & Technology for Development
90s
2008
2010

7. UPM evolution on studies and research for development
Origins
20 action-research groups in international development
First steps to create an interdisciplinary centre
Masters Degree in Strategies & Technology for Development
itdUPM is constitued
90s
2008
2010
2012

8. Outline
An introduction to itdUPM
How do we frame Campus contribution to sustainability?
Students & sustainable experiences
A niche within a traditional University regime?
Some examples
Four organizational design issues
A preliminary framework

9. Four Organizational Design Issues
Leadership and governance
Structure
Incentives
Identities

10. Leadership and governance
What team do we need to pilot the process in terms of
capabilities, leadership style...?
“From Egosystems to
Ecosystems”

11. Structure: a network organization
How to create new spaces that really promote cross-unit
relationships, fostering a sense of community and an open
culture of trust?
A networked organization is…
More than a “sexy” organization chart based on nodes and links.
More than a word that is repeated insistently.
An enabling, organic space where interactions are crucial,
… where processes and management systems are far from
bureaucracies,
… where strategic behaviour is far from formal planning, reinforcing
emergent strategies.

12. Incentives
Which are the incentives that we really have at our disposal
to stimulate internal collaboration?
3 Ms:
• Meaning
• Mastery
• Membership
When only intrinsic
motivators are available

13. Identities
How to wear two or three hats simultaneously (belonging to
a node, to a cluster and to a network)?
A new institutional framework had to be negotiated
(former institutional options -institutes and research
centres- were not conceived for networked
institutions)

14. Some sources of inspiration
Multi Level Perspective (Geels, 2012)
Regenerative sustainability (Robinson, 2014)
Interdisciplinarity and the “star model” (Bursztyn, 2013)
“Design, when everybody designs” (Manzini, 2015)

15. Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Problem solving
Sense making and
behavioral change
Campus as a multi-stakeholder space
(diffuse domain)
University community
(expert domain)
Inspired in Manzini 2015
How do we frame our contribution?

16. Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Problem solving
Sense making and
behavioral change
University community
(expert domain)
Inspired in Manzini 2015
How do we frame our contribution?
Interdisciplinary
research and
training
Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Dialogic and
transformative
conversations
Partnerships
for
sustainability
NICHES FOR
SUSTAINABILITY
Campus as a multi-stakeholder space
(diffuse domain)

17. Outline
An introduction to itdUPM
How do we frame Campus contribution to sustainability?
Students & sustainable experiences
A niche within a traditional University regime?
Some examples
Four organisational design issues. Framework

18. Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Problem solving
Sense making and
behavioral change
University community
(expert domain)
Inspired in Manzini 2015
Interdisciplinary
research and
training
Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Dialogic and
transformative
conversations
Partnerships
for
sustainability
NICHES FOR
SUSTAINABILITY
Campus as a multi-stakeholder space
(diffuse domain)
Examples

19. Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Problem solving
Sense making and
behavioral change
University community
(expert domain)
Inspired in Manzini 2015
How do we frame our contribution?
Interdisciplinar
research and
training
Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Dialogic and
transformative
conversations
Partnerships
for
sustainability
NICHES FOR
SUSTAINABILITY
Campus as a multi-stakeholder space
(diffuse domain)

20. Two universities: technical and social science
à Interdisciplinary
Partnership university-corporate
Open sessions – open knowledge
Master Degree as ecosystem

22. Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Problem solving
Sense making and
behavioral change
University community
(expert domain)
Inspired in Manzini 2015
How do we frame our contribution?
Interdisciplinary
research and
training
Students
Sustainable
Experiences
Dialogic and
transformative
conversations
Partnerships
for
sustainability
NICHES FOR
SUSTAINABILITY
Campus as a multi-stakeholder space
(diffuse domain)

23. Collaborative design
Focus on real problems
Application of theoretical knowledge
Collaborative process: diffuse and expert
design

24. Green wall between agronomist
and architects

25. Bench between architects and
industrial engineers

27. Testimony: “An amazing experience
both from academic and human
perspective, thanks to the method to
build upon knowledge sharing”

28. itdUPM today (after 4 years)
Growing figures: more than 200 members; increasing
budget, high numbers of applicants to the Master Degree
A wide international network (companies, NGOs,
international agencies, other universities…)
And a new infrastructure designed as an enabling and
collaborative spaces

29. Final thoughts
Sustainable ecosystem?
à How to increase collective leadership?
à How to implement efficient incentives?
Long term impact on behaviour?
à From concrete experience to systemic change
How to measure this impact?
à Do we need other form of measuring?

30. www.itd.upm.es @itdupm