Sustainable Organizations: Evaluating the Environmental Sustainability of Schools and Companies in a Regional Centre of Expertise

In Transition towards Sustainability: Bridging the Business and Education Sectors of Regional Centre of Expertise Greater Sendai Using Education for Sustainable Development-Based Social Learning

“…Characteristics that promote ESD in schools include policy mandates that allow the implementation of the whole-school management system, flexibility of teachers to innovate within the curriculum and re-orientate teaching towards more locally-relevant and practical solutions to sustainability problems, coherence of the ESD concept with other educational policies already in place, links with other relevant institutions, including NGOs, universities and research organizations, companies and sister schools, continuous professional development of teachers (CPD), and means of assessing the effectiveness of ESD-related activities [1,26]. Irrespective of the approach, ESD in its real and effective forms should give students the skills, perspectives, values, and knowledge to live sustainably in their communities.…”

“…Irrespective of the approach, ESD in its real and effective forms should give students the skills, perspectives, values, and knowledge to live sustainably in their communities. The concept of a whole school approach to sustainability or "sustainable schools" [1,26] (and several references therein) has ESD as the foundation. ESD in schools also poses a wider question regarding whether it has an agenda that is based on seeking behavioral change or one that is focused on learning [27,28] through capacity building and critical thinking [29].…”

“…RCE Greater Sendai (hereafter RCEGS) in Miyagi, Japan, is one of the RCE pioneers and has been coordinating the ESD practices of several stakeholders under its umbrella since its establishment in 2005, with Miyagi University of Education as its secretariat. The RCEGS's objectives and five focal points of activities, each including several actors, have been location-specific and are described in Ofei-Manu and Shimano [30] and Ofei-Manu and Shimano [1].…”

“…The other less examined aspect is the overall coordination of multi-stakeholder networks and their linkages within or between the focal points of RCEGS by the RCE Steering Committee aimed at realizing a shift in progress due to the learning performance outcomes and, as a result, the creation of a sustainable society in the region. Results of a related study indicated that the degree of sustainability of organizations in the education and business sectors were mixed and hence needed improvement [1]. This study therefore seeks to explore how to bridge the two sectors in the context of meeting the ESD and hence sustainable development goal(s) of the RCE through improving the ESD capacity of youth and company workers in the region using existing structures and tools in both sectors.…”

“…One principal goal of sustainability is attaining a state where the planet's resource extraction, use and the resultant pollution by particularly humans will be within its carrying capacity [1]. However, the current state of the environment and its potential adverse impact on society brings into question the effectiveness of the present world's educational systems and business practices to meet humanity's present and changing needs [2].…”