The future we want

Abstract

Purpose-This paper aims to provide a description of the achievements of the United Nations (UN) Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) with a focus on higher education, and it describes some of the key issues which will guide sustainable development in the coming years. Design/methodology/approach-The paper initially presents an analysis of past developments, complemented by an assessment of the emphasis on sustainable development by the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. In particular, it makes cross-references to the deliberations held at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, with a special emphasis to the document "The Future we Want". It concludes by listing a set of suggestions and measures that both industrialised and developing countries may consider to translate the principles of sustainable development into reality. Findings-Sustainable development is and will continue to be a matter of substantial international interest and concern. The developments achieved over the past 20 years have been substantial, but there are still many gaps and need which need to be met, so as to improve its prospects in the next two decades. Originality/value-The paper provides useful insights which allow a better understanding of the role of universities in fostering sustainable development, and some of the key issues need to be considered, so as to allow things to move in the right direction.

A Professional Competences’ Diagnosis in Education for Sustainability: A Case Study from the Standpoint of the Education Guidance Service (EGS) in the Spanish Context

“…In order to educate on sustainability, as previously mentioned, certain key competences are necessary to enable students to constructively and responsibly participate in society [2][3][4]. These competencies include cognitive, motivational, affective, and procedural elements.…”

“…Educators face a great challenge, and the Education for Sustainability Development (ESD) is presented as a necessary tool to address it, especially given that it is the key to generating more awareness and sustainable societies. Likewise, in order to educate about sustainability, certain key competencies are necessary to enable students to constructively and responsibly participate in society [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The concept of competency can be understood as 'a functionally linked complex of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable successful task performance and problem solving; when…”

Developing a sustainability reporting assessment tool for higher education institutions: The University of California

“…By way of illustration, UC is the first university in the world to sign the Montreal Carbon Pledge, a UN Principles for The results of the ESEG framework analysis show that UC is performing more strongly in the environmental and educational dimensions while the social and governance dimensions are lagging behind. This framework can be used to evaluate the performance level of sustainability reporting among higher education institutions.The state of sustainability reporting in universities is bittersweet(Leal Filho, Manolas, & Pace, 2015). On the one hand, higher education has not been relatively successful in integrating sustainability into its curricula, operations, outreach, assessment, reporting and raising awareness.…”

Education for sustainable development in higher education: evaluating coherence between theory andpraxis

“…In addition, according to Lambrechts et al (forthcoming), in a study conducted in Belgian universities, competences for sustainable development dealing with system orientation, future orientation, personal commitment and action taking are virtually absent. It is thus important to strengthen sustainable development-related competencies in the curricula, such as: understanding complexity; identifying connections and interdependencies; participating in democratic decision-making processes; and critically questioning systems, policies and routines that appear fundamentally unsustainable (Leal Filho, Manolas, and Pace 2015).…”

“…Nevertheless, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment states that education for sustainable development is insufficient, and more informed and strategic measures are needed to address goals such as environmental protection (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). Also, the report of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20 highlights the need to improve the capability of the education systems to prepare societies to pursue sustainable development (Leal Filho, Manolas, and Pace 2015). Those improvements include the enhancement of teacher training, the development of curricula towards sustainability and the development of training programmes that prepare students for careers in fields related to sustainability (UN 2012).…”