Education for Sustainability: Some starting points

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Agenda 21: Earth Summit – The United Nations Programme of Action from Rio (1993) New York: United Nations. [Accessible as: United Nations Sustainable Development (2000) Agenda 21 [www] http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/agenda21text.htm (21 February 2003)].

Ali Khan, Shirley (1995), Taking Responsibility: Overview (London, Pluto Press; WWF UK [The Environmental Agenda: Taking Responsibility: Promoting Sustainable Practice through Higher Education Curricula]).

Ali Khan, Shirley (1996) Environmental Responsibility: A Review of the 1993 TOYNE REPORT, commissioned by Welsh Office, Department of the Environment, Department for Education and Employment (London, HMSO).

Ashmole, Anna (1996) Curriculum Greening: A resource pack for integrating environmental per­spectives into courses. University of Edinburgh's Environmental Agenda [www]  http://www.cecs.ed.ac.uk/greeninfo/gcpack/index2.htm (21 February 2003)

Bowers, C. A. (1995) Educating for an Ecologically Sustainable Culture: Rethinking Moral Edu­cation, Creativity, Intelligence, and Other Modern Orthodoxies (New York, State Uni­versity of New York Press [SUNY Series in Environmental Public Policy]).

Bowers, C. A. (2000), Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability (Athens; London, University of Georgia Press).

Cortese, Anthony D. (1999) Education for Sustainability: The University as a Model of Sustain­ability [www] http://www.secondnature.org/pdf/snwritings/articles/univmodel.pdf (22 February 2003)

Cortese, Anthony D. (1999a) Education for Sustainability: The Need for a New Human Perspec­tive [www] http://www.secondnature.org/pdf/snwritings/articles/humanpersp.pdf (22 February 2003)

CVCP/NUS/SCOP (1999) Statement of Environmental Intent (London, Committee of Vice-Chan­cellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom (CVCP) [document I/99/58 (a) and (b)]).

Ecological Education in Action. On Weaving Education, Culture, and the Environment (1999), ed. by Gregory A. Smith and Dilafruz R. Williams (Albany, NY, State University of New York Press).

Education and Learning for Sustainable Consumption (1999), ed. by OECD Environment Direc­torate and OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) (Paris, OECD [document: COM/ENV/CERI(99)64] [final report of Workshop held 14-15 September 1998, Paris]).

Education for Sustainability (1996), ed. by John Huckle and Stephen Sterling, foreword by Jona­thon Porritt (London, Earthscan).

Environmental Education. A Pathway to Sustainability (1993), ed. by John Fien (Geelong, Deakin University Press).

Environmental Responsibility [Toyne Report] (1993), ed. by Peter Toyne for the Department of Education/Department of the Environment (London, HMSO).

ESDebate: International Debate on Education for Sustainable Development (2000), ed. by Frits Hesselink, Peter Paul van Kempen and Arjen Wals (Gland; Cambridge, IUCN) [including CD-Rom].

Fien, John (1993), Education for the Environment. Critical Curriculum Theorising and Environ­mental Education (Geelong, Deakin University Press).

Greening the College Curriculum: A Guide to Environmental Teaching in the Liberal Arts (1996), ed. by Jonathan Collett and Stephen Karakashian (Washington, DC; Covelo, CA, Island Press).

IAU (International Association of Universities) (1993) The Swansea Declaration [www] http://www.unesco.org/iau/tfsd_swansea.html (21 February 2003)

IAU (International Association of Universities) (1993a) Sustainable Development and the Universities: IAU's position [www] http://www.unesco.org/iau/tfsd_first.html (21 February 2003)

Jucker, Rolf (2002) Our Common Illiteracy. Education as if the Earth and People Mattered (Frankfurt/M., New York, Lang [=Environmental Education, Communication and Sustainability; Vol. 10]). [more details]

McKeown, Rosalyn (1999), Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit. With assistance from Charles A. Hopkins and Regina Rizzi (University of Tennesse, Center for Geography and Environmental Education) [http://www.esdtoolkit.org/].

Orr, David W. (1994) Earth in Mind. On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect (Washington, DC, Island Press).

Plant, Malcolm (1998), Education for the Environment: Stimulating Practice (Dereham, Peter Francis Publishers).

Schumacher, E.F. (1993) Small is Beautiful. A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (London, Vintage [Original 1973]).

Sterling, Stephen (2001) Sustainable Education – Re-Visioning Learning and Change (Dartington, Green Books [=Schumacher Society Briefing No. 6]).

Sustainable Development Education Panel (1999) First Annual Report 1998. London: DETR [Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions]. (access to all reports: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/sustainable/educpanel/index.htm)

The Talloires Declaration of the University Presidents for a Sustainable Future (1995) [www] http://www.ulsf.org/programs_talloires.html (21 February 2003)

UNESCO (1997) Educating for a Sustainable Future – a Transdiciplinary Vision for Concerted Action. Paris: UNESCO [document EPD.97/CONF.401/CLD.1].

UWS (2002) Environmental Policy Statement of the University of Wales Swansea [www] http://www.swan.ac.uk/environment/uwsenpol.htm (21 February 2003)

Wylie, Vivian (1995), Taking Responsibility: Humanities and Social Sciences (London, Pluto Press; WWF UK [The Environmental Agenda: Taking Responsibility: Promoting Sustainable Practice through Higher Education Curricula]).

Education for Sustainability: some useful Websites

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• Welsh Assembly Government Advisory Panel on Education for Sustainable Development: http://www.wales.gov.uk/subieducationtraining/content/curri/apesd/apesd-intro_e.htm

• University of Wales Bangor: BA/BSc in Sustainable Development: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ies/sustainable_development.html

• Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (http://www.heps.org.uk/)

• Second Nature: Education for Sustainability [http://www.secondnature.org/]: This is a very good starting point for EfS. The sections on EfS, the EfS Profiles, Other Organisations and Suggested Readings are very helpful.

• Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future: Leadership for Global Environmental Literacy [http://www.ulsf.org/index.html]: This is the home of the Talloires Declaration which set the ball rolling for EfS in the university sector by accepting the responsibility universities have for a sustainable future. There is a very helpful section on "Programs & Services", including the "Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire" for colleges and universities.

• Sustainable Development on Campus: Tools for Campus Decision Makers [http://iisd1.iisd.ca/educate/default.htm]: This falls into five useful sec­tions:

o         Declarations: context and purpose for implementing EfS on campus.

o         Learn here: learn about integrating EfS into the curriculum and then putting it into practice on campus.

o         Policy Bank: Find campus policies on procurement, recycling, waste manage­ment, and related issues. Use the prototype policy evaluation tool. Submit your policies.

o         Resource links to reports and guides for university leadership, green campus administration, curriculum issues and student action.

• Greening the Campus: what can I do? [http://www.swan.ac.uk/environment/greening.htm] A practical guide, advising on implementation of various greening aspects (such as guiding principles, paper, PC usage, energy, purchasing, office pollution, recycling/waste, transport/car sharing, water, curriculum, staff development), including additional links.

• I have found the Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit, devel­oped by Rosalyn McKeown (1999), to be a very useful tool for games to introduce the concept of sustainability [http://www.esdtoolkit.org/] (Version 2). 

A similar tool is UNESCO's Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future. A Multimedia Teacher Education Programme [http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/]. Both give a good overview/introduction to the most important aspects of sustainability.

• Still useful: the Archive of the Higher Education 21 programme (http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/aboutus/default.asp?pageid=367)

Some useful US sites:

·        Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies (Oberlin College): a model example for a sustainable design process and building (http://www.oberlin.edu/envs/ajlc/).

·        Pennsylvania Consortium For Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy: 45 Pennsylvania colleges and universities working together to further sustainability: http://www.paconsortium.state.pa.us/

·        Campus Ecology Program of the National Wildlife Federation (http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/index.cfm).

·        Ball State University Council on the Environment: http://www.bsu.edu/provost/ceres/cote/

• National Curriculum online: Education for Sustainable Development: http://www.nc.uk.net/esd/

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