Overview

Potted History of the Sustainability Institute

The Sustainability Institute, established in 1999 by Eve Annecke and Mark Swilling, focuses on learning for sustainable living and is based within the Lynedoch EcoVillage Development, Stellenbosch. The focus has been combining practice with theory in a way that integrates ecology and equity in support of a sustainable South Africa, with special reference to ways of reducing and eradicating poverty.

Summary of current initiatives:

A home base at the Lynedoch EcoVillage Development which demonstrates child-centred sustainable living in practice
Mphil in Sustainable Development Planning and Management (130 participants in 2006)
Phd (up to 10 candidates)
Early Childhood Development (50 participants in 2006)
Job creation for youth through Sustainable Construction training (40 participants)
Community Development Management and Practice focusing on capacity building and career pathing in the HIV/Aids sector and then impacting on civil society as a whole
Further projects (applied research) on strategic design of sustainable neighbourhoods at Phillipi Agri-Business Place, Oude Molen and other locations
Ongoing research such as Government's Economic Policy, Sustainable Cities, the Non-Profit Sector, complexity theory, leadership development

1999 – 2002:

Strategic participation, at executive management level, in the Spier Estate which culminated in the award to Spier of one of the first Fair Trade in Tourism in SA awards in 2003.

The Spier Wine Estate is owned by the Enthoven Family who believe that Spier should express a vision that values heritage, diversity, inclusivity and sustainability. The first challenge of the Sustainability Institute was to participate in creating a sustainable context for the Spier developments, demonstrating in practice a working example of an integrated private/public/community partnership, which would provide the space for the future learning programmes. A partnership emerged between the Sustainability Institute Trust, Lynedoch Development (Section 21 not-for-profit company), Spier Holdings and the Stellenbosch Municipality. The Sustainability Institute is located in the Lynedoch EcoVillage Development, Lynedoch Road, Stellenbosch.

In 2002, Eve Annecke became the full-time director of the Sustainability Institute and Mark Swilling was appointed as a Professor at the University of Stellenbosch. Since 2002, the Sustainability Institute has operated independently from Spier, but with some grant funding support and ongoing participation of Adrian Enthoven on the Institute board.

2000 – 2005, and ongoing:

Founding members of Lynedoch EcoVillage Development, as part of the work described above, which included the facilitation of the following

Ecological preschool (35 farmworker children) focusing on early learning, bodywork and sustainability.
Government Primary School for approximately 500 (90% farmworker) children, which includes work focusing on ecology and non-violence.
Ecological renovation of an old steel-framed hall that now houses a combination of NGOs and businesses: Lynedoch Primary School, AGAMA renewable energy, USIKO (wilderness therapy with young adolescent men at risk), Groundwater Africa, the Sustainability Institute and Dimpo di Kopane (performing arts) – this building has won awards for architecture and international best practice in sustainable construction.
Guest house – restored historical building.
Mixed income ecological housing development for 38 houses, including 15 subsidy sites, as part of our facilitation of processes to access land for housing and infrastructure for promoting the government’s land reform and subsidised housing programme.
On-site waste treatment through a biolytic filter and integrated wetland system.
Re-use of water, solar water heating, sustainable building construction, indigenous planting.
Land reform through the set up of a partnership between Spier Estate and the Sustainability Institute for a 10ha organic farm managed by Eric Swarts, a local emerging farmer

The focus on further developing a sustainable context, into a ‘sustainable neighbourhood’ has been core to the identity of the Sustainability Institute. Participants in the training programmes listed below are able to engage in their learning at a place where in practice they are able to experience first hand the issues within their courses. (Whether these be Early Childhood Development, Masters level degrees, Community Development Management, anti-poverty initiatives, social and environmental development, etc)

This has also been a site of applied research for masters level thesis work.

2002 – 2005 and ongoing

Partnership with the University of Stellenbosch that delivers at the Sustainability Institute, Lynedoch Development, an MPhil in Sustainable Development Planning and Management, an MPhil in Sustainable Agriculture, and a PhD programme.

The partnership with the University of Stellenbosch makes possible the offering of fully accredited masters’ level degrees through the appointment of Professor Mark Swilling within the School of Public Management and Planning. He is head of the Sustainable Development Division in the School of Public Management and Planning and also appointed Academic Director of the Sustainability Institute. Eve Annecke is appointed as extra ordinary lecturer at the SOPMP.

Mphil in Sustainable Development Planning and Management

On a post-graduate level, this part-time degree offers the following modules (with each module delivered over 6 consecutive days):

Sustainable Development (Prof Mark Swilling/Eve Annecke)
Corporate Citizenship (Prof Malcolm McIntosh/Dr Ralph Hamman)
Complexity Theory (Prof Paul Cilliers)
Leadership and Ethics (Prof Johan Hattingh/Eve Annecke)
Ecological Design (Dr Daniel Irurah)
Sustainable Cities (Prof Mark Swilling)
Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture (Dr Tarak Kate)
Globalisation, Civil Society and Governance (Prof Jan Nederveen Petersen)
Development Planning Theory and Practice (Anneke Muller/Firoz Kahn)
Development Planning Systems, Policy and Law (Anneke Muller)
Development Planning and Environmental Analysis (Anneke Muller)
Applied Economics (Johan Akron)

This international teaching team, and its learning approach, is co-ordinated by the Director and Academic Director. Each module is made up of pre-reading, compulsory classroom attendance, community work, group assignment, individual journal and individual assignment. After the modules are completed, an integrated thesis is required for 50% of the final mark.

There were 92 registered participants by 2005, and 45 more were accepted for the end January, 2006 intake. This degree has 2/3 South African participants, with 1/3 African and 7 other countries represented.

The co-ordination of this degree includes: administration, engagement with the University of Stellenbosch, working with the teaching team, thesis supervision, assignment marking, individual engagement with participants, building the relationship between the participants and the community of Lynedoch Development.

Mphil in Sustainable Agriculture

This degree is a pilot from the beginning of 2005 until mid-2006. It is for 8 participants and designed to build a cadre of black commercial farmers focusing on farm management and sustainable agriculture.

The following modules are offered:

Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture
Systems and Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture I
Systems and Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture II
Managing Sustainable Agricultural Enterprises I: General Management
Managing Sustainable Agricultural Enterprises II: Financial Management
Managing Sustainable Agricultural Enterprises III: Marketing & Information Technology
Policy & Legal Framework for Rural Development and the Agricultural Sector

In addition to the above compulsory modules, each participant spends 3 months as interns on established, sustainable farms. The evaluation consists of an individual assignment per module, group assignment, individual journal, report and presentation on internship, business plan proposal.

The Sustainability Institute has a contract with Spier Holdings to manage, for 10 years, 10 ha of organic farm land. This farm is a teaching base for the Sustainable Agriculture programme, and the farming business is managed on a full-time basis by an emerging farmer, Eric Swarts.

The full-time Sustainable Agriculture academic programme co-ordinator is Patrick Tobin, with support from the Academic Director and the Director.

Phd programme

There are an increasing number of registered Phd candidates, supervised by the Academic Director. All attend bi-annual workshops, held at the Sustainability Institute with ongoing supervision. The theoretical approach used is one of transdisciplinarity and all projects in which the candidates are involved are supportive of building sustainability in its broadest sense.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) Programme

We set up the Lynedoch Crèche in 2002. In 2004 we began with our first ECD accredited training programme, a pilot for 13 women from Manenburg, Cape Flats, and a farm crèche in the Winelands. The daily activities for this programme consist of:

Partnering the ‘model’ ecological crèche within the Lynedoch Development for 35 farmworker children; holding 11 x 5 day course modules here at the Sustainability Institute; material making within each module for participants use in their ECD centres in Manenburg; on-site visits from our staff for hands-on consultation and assessment between modules; presentations from participants on their efforts to put into practice what they have learned on their course; full-on formal assessment of written portfolios; external moderation and verification in order to provide accreditation for Levels 4 and 5.

The modules covered are:

An ecological approach to Early Childhood Development
Preparation of the adult
The Child
Introduction to the prepared environment
Practical activities
Sensorial activities
Art
Maths
Cultures
Fundamentals: numeracy literacy
Fundamentals: communication literacy

This programme will hold 2 courses, for 25 learners each, from January 2006. Our work will continue in Manenburg, and extend into Phillipi where we will run a course for women participating in the Agri-Business Place (– a project focusing on entrepreneurship within small farmers, urban agriculture and in the design phase of becoming a ‘sustainable neighbourhood’.)

2005 - Sustainable construction training

This programme trained 40 builders on site in the skills of sustainable construction while they were building the first ten adobe brick houses. Funded by the Swiss South Africa Cooperative Initiative, this project has has resulted in the design and development of unit standards that may be registered as part of CETA (Construction Education and Training Authority). All trainees were previously unemployed youth and will graduate with qualifications that will increase their chances of accessing employment in the growing sustainable construction sector. Already one group has set up adobe brickmaking business.

2004 – 2005 and ongoing:

Community Development Management and Practice

Creating an enabling framework for career-pathing within civil society is core to this programme. Taking into account the dearth of capacity in the NGO/CBO sector, this programme has focused on the HIV/Aids sector and is engaged in the following:

unit standard writing for registration with the Education and Training Seta, against which competencies would be assessed;
building a network of training service providers who agree to collaborate on assessment standards and moderation in order to deliver accredited, high quality, competent and capable community development workers – not merely the delivery of training without any form of SETA accreditation;
the establishment of a network of CBOs who will participate in the programme, with direct linkages with the Federation of the Urban Poor, uTshani Fund (Mark Swilling is on the Board), and the Community Urban Resource Centre (Eve Annecke is Chairperson of the Board).

Starting in 2005

During the course of 2005, the Sustainability Institute start to branch out into a wider set of research, policy development, and project implementation areas. These included the following:

write up of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development coordinated by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism - this emerged out of similar policy work for the Western Cape Provincial Government which resulted in the publication of the Western Cape Sustainable Development Implementation Plan;
signing of an agreement between the Sustainability Institute, City of Cape Town and EU-based E-Systems Foundation to manage a complex research programme to map out a 25-year framework for how the City of Cape Town can develop a sustainable energy, water and waste infrastructure - this project is funded by the United Nations Development Programme and CORDAID (Holland);
the Sustainability Institute set up a joint venture with Investec Bank, BAT and Abalimi to develop the Phillipi Agri-Business Place as a ‘sustainable neighbourhood’ around building agricultural entrepreneurship through information, capacity-building and small business development - low and middle-cost housing will be part of this development (approximately 300 units), plus facilities for a range of community-based development projects and businesses;
Oude Molen has been announced by the Western Cape Provincial Government as an ‘eco-village’ site, with the Sustainability Institute contracted to design the development framework for 600 mixed-income housing units, small business, environmental endeavours, child-centred space, heritage site, mental health facility, etc;
plus various other 'sustainable neighbourhood' initiatives driven by a range of organisations including private developers, local authorities and NGOs.

Ongoing empirical academic research included the following, all of which was or will be published: