The World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg made it clear that political leadership the world over is incapable of rising to the challenges of sustainability. Yet, most of the hundred or so world leaders who attended have a higher education degree from some of the world's most prestigious universities. This paper tries to address some of the key challenges this poses for universities. It looks at the changing professional landscape within the EU, parameters of a higher education (HE) that would produce Earth-literate leaders, at the concept of a sustainable university and ecological footprinting as a tool to measure this, and at the implications all this has for the HE and geography curriculum.

Presents the results of an Internet survey of all the humanities faculties in Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the UK and of a review of the international debate both on sustainability in general and education for sustainability in particular. Argues for a complex, transdisciplinary and broad approach to education for sustainability (EfS). Such an approach has to acknowledge the relative relevance of education within contemporary society, along with other “educators” such as the media, the economy and the shadow curriculum of institutional practice. It has to be fully aware of the reasons and the extent of the unsustainability of our current situation, but it also has to sketch out what a sustainable society might mean. Only on this basis can we then develop effective and sensible proposals for EfS. Ends with ten practical strategies to further EfS in higher education institutions.

No abstract