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Sustainability and Scotland's Colleges

3 Sustainability in context

Sustainability and sustainable development

For some 40 years there has been increasing awareness of environmental issues and that global economic development trends are not sustainable. The Kyoto Protocol and the European Union Burden Sharing Agreement commits the UK to a 12.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, against 1990 levels. The Scottish Climate Change Bill introduces targets to reduce Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Set against this context, Scotland’s colleges have important responsibilities as providers of education and training to prepare learners to contribute to sustainable economic growth. Colleges also have responsibilities as consumers of resources to minimise their impact on the wider environment.

Definitions of sustainable development are numerous and diverse. However, the most commonly quoted definition of sustainable development is contained within Our Common Future (1987) The Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) ⁵ is as follows:

‘Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Annual Report for 2004-05⁶ identifies the Brundtland Commission’s concept of sustainable development as having shaped the international agenda and the international community’s attitude towards economic, social and environmental development. The definition identifies environment, society, and economy as three key pillars or components of sustainability. McKeown (2002) ⁷ illustrates succinctly the intertwined nature of these components. ‘Sustainable development has three components: environment, society, and economy. If you consider the three to be overlapping circles of the same size, the area of overlap in the centre is human well-being. As the environment, society, and economy become more aligned, the area of overlap increases, and so does human well-being.’

Sustainable development education

The SDE Network is the Scottish network for organisations and individuals involved in sustainable development education⁸.

The SDE Network members are ‘committed to enabling people to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to build a fair, just and equitable society that is living within the environmental limits of our planet’. In 2007, the SDE Network synthesised the many definitions of sustainable development education in use both nationally and internationally into one that had resonance with the Scottish sustainable development and education communities. Over 20 definitions from international organisations, governments and education organisations were gathered and collated for this activity. The proposed definition was circulated within the Scottish sustainable development and education communities during 2008 and refined in light of comments and feedback received.

‘Sustainable Development Education is the process of acquiring the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to build local and global societies that are just, equitable and living within the environmental limits of our planet, both now and in the future.

A sustainable society is one that at local and global level is fair, equitable and living within the environmental limits of our planet both now and in the future. ‘Sustainable development’ is the term given to the process of developing global society to move from where it is now to a state of sustainability.’ ⁹

The definition of SDE aligns well with the Brundtland definition of sustainable development shown above and reflects the three key components of sustainability: environment, society and economy. It is the definition of sustainable development education used in the SDE survey.

Key knowledge, skills and attitudes in sustainable development education

The SDE Network members highlight that undertaking sustainable development and achieving sustainability requires the development of new knowledge, skills and attitudes. They provide the following very helpful definitions of the key knowledge, skills and attitudes in sustainable development education:

‘Key knowledge in Sustainable Development Education (SDE)

The key knowledge and understanding that sustainability requires and that SDE seeks to cultivate is focused around six principles that were created to encapsulate the 27 principles agreed at the UN Environment and Development Conference held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992:

• the interdependent nature of our society and life on our planet;
• the limited carrying capacity of our planet;
• the value of biological, social and cultural diversity in maintaining the wellbeing of our planet and our society;
• the essential role of rights and responsibilities in a sustainable society;
• the essential role of equity and justice in a sustainable society; and
• the presence of uncertainty and the need for precaution in making decisions about our planet and our society.

Key skills in Sustainable Development Education

The key skills that sustainability requires and SDE seeks to cultivate are:

• the skills to understand the relationships between different issues, appreciate how they are connected and, as a result, make decisions and solve problems in a joined-up way;
• the skills to enable groups to make collective decisions and work cooperatively together even though all members of the group may not hold the same views and power may not be distributed evenly among the group; and
• the skills to think critically about problems, issues and situations to enable individuals and groups to move beyond thinking about how can we make the systems and products we have less unsustainable, to thinking about the kind of systems and products we need to achieve sustainability.

Key attitudes in Sustainable Development Education

The key attitudes that sustainability requires and SDE seeks to cultivate are:

• the confidence to take action and the confidence that these actions will make a positive difference;
• the appreciation that we are all part of society and that our individual behaviours must be balanced by our responsibilities as members of that society;
• the attitude that humanity is part of the natural world, that we depend on it for our wellbeing and that we must respect its limits and live in harmony with it;
• an attitude of respect for the biological, social and cultural differences and diversity that are a fundamental part of our world; and
• An attitude for caring for your self, for other people, for other living things and for our planet.’ ¹⁰

These definitions of the key knowledge, skills and attitudes in sustainable development education are used widely in post-school education. They are used in the SDE survey and feature in the support notes to the SQA Higher National Unit Teaching in Further Education: Sustainable Development Education. The definitions are included in the Learning and Skills Council publication Embedding Sustainable Development in the Curriculum¹¹, which aims to support staff who wish to introduce SDE in their teaching.

Sustainable development education in the college curriculum

The report Embedding sustainability into the curriculum of Scotland’s universities and colleges by John Forster Associates for SFC (2006) ¹² established a sustainable literacy baseline by identifying the extent to which sustainable development was incorporated into the curriculum of colleges and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Scotland.

Forster (2006) refers to the working definition of sustainable literacy provided by the former Department for Education and Skills (DfES) National Curriculum Handbook, which is to:

‘…develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, locally and globally that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future.’

The SDE survey commented on the progress made by colleges against the baseline established by the Forster report. The survey provides a helpful summary of Forster’s principal findings, as follows.

• There is little documented commitment to sustainability within colleges and universities at a strategic level.
• Many institutions seem in principle to be willing to adopt a more sustainable direction, but, demonstrate little willingness to make it a priority, particularly in universities.
• There are some institutions that have genuinely embraced sustainability and built it into their culture.
• Where sustainability is fully embraced, colleges and universities have established relationships with and involve employers, the community and learners and the approach they take is linked to the management of its estate and its curriculum.
• There are many examples of teaching that embed sustainability.
• Much of the provision seems to depend largely on the enthusiasm and knowledge of individual members of staff rather than institutional commitment.

John Wheatley College’s Easterhouse Campus where a wind turbine, some 15m high, provides a clear visual statement to the local community of the college’s commitment to saving energy and sustainable technologies.

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