Page 70 - DUT Annual Report 2023

COUNCIL STATEMENT ON SUSTAINABILITY
Our ENVISION2030 strategy ‘Sustainability’ perspective aligns itself with the three key pillars of equity, economy and the environment, where these find expression in the following three strategic objectives of ‘Distinctive Education’, ‘Financial Sustainability’, and ‘Green Ecosystems’.
Creating a compelling and future-oriented living and learning environment is the key attribute of our ‘Distinctive Education’ strategic objective. We acknowledged that a key driver of ‘Distinctive Education’ lies in fostering ‘A Uniquely DUT Experience’ and, in recognising people as the source giving rise to all that we do and are, we invested in a number of programmes to support staff development. Amongst these were general leadership skills training at the executive and senior manager level and a purpose- built academic leadership capacity development initiative for academic heads of departments. Additionally, the Grow Your Own Timber (GOOT) programme saw many academics recruited, with the support of internal and external financial assistance, to pursue doctoral qualifications and become established researchers. For students, the Siyaphumelela 2.0, funded by the Kresge Foundation, helped obviate potential drivers of student attrition with focused interventions through our ‘Holistic Student Support’ programme. The year in review also saw increased student participation in various co-curricular activities ranging from sports to culture.
In our commitment to the objective of ‘Financial Sustainability’, we pledged to align and leverage DUT’s resources to realise our stated goals/objectives and also to financial management aimed at supporting DUT’s needs. The university had a positive financial year, achieving a net surplus from operations, indicating that we are solvent and
PROFESSOR T.Z. MTHEMBU
liquid. Our positive financial status positioned us to align and leverage DUT’s resources, resulting in the ideation of a suite of ‘Disruptive Projects’, where such projects are earmarked to be cross-divisional, large-scale, high-impact, multi-year and multimillion-rand ‘business unusual’ flagships that will make a meaningful difference aligned to ENVISION2030’s ethos. Moreover, we continued to have seven months of working capital reserved throughout the financial year as per the university’s policy.
Our ‘Green Ecosystems’ strategic objective charges us to make environmental sustainability core to all university activities. DUT’s Green Campus Initiative (GCI) spearheaded cleaning campaigns in pursuit of an ecologically friendly institution supporting environmental sustainability in its operations. Drawing from lessons learned from an international benchmarking visit to India, we launched a solar panel pilot project at the Riverside campus. This project involves the installation of solar panels and inverters, aiming to promote a hybrid approach in our quest to reduce our reliance on municipalsupplied electricity. Furthermore, as part of our greening strategy, we have procured reverse vending machines to promote recycling and waste management on our campuses.
This statement provides a high-level overview of our achievements in 2023 in promoting sustainability at the university.
MR N.Z.W. MADINANE
Chairperson of Council
Vice-Chancellor and Principal
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DUT ANNUAL REPORT 2023