How Education Is Embracing Sustainability
To truly create a sustainable world we need each element of our society to reflect the nature of sustainability.
Or, to look at it another way, to ensure the future is sustainable we need to make sure the next generation have the tools and knowledge to fully master sustainability.
For this reason sustainable universities are even more important than you would originally think.
These bastions of higher education are helping to educate and form tomorrow’s leaders and imparting the importance of sustainability will go a long way in terms of creating a brighter future.
Let’s look at what’s being done in the field of sustainable education.
Canada has some stellar institutions embracing sustainability and showing the power that exists in it. In fact, in terms of overall score on the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings, the country leads when it comes to sustainable education.
McMaster University is seeking to lead in the area of sustainability and has created an Office of Sustainability as well as an Energy Management and Sustainability Division. The university has set up the McMaster University Sustainability Policy to detail its intents to shape the university into a model of sustainability.
It is clearly on the right path and is doing solid work as McMaster was ranked the top school in Canada and second in the world.
Simon Fraser University is another institution blazing the sustainable trail and has been ranked as one of the greenest universities in the world.
SFU, on top of having a Sustainability Office, has numerous certified sustainable spaces and 373 courses that address sustainability.
York University has the McEwen Graduate Study & Research Building, a new structure designed to both exemplify and promote sustainability, innovation and healthy-living. The building itself has a green roof and a natural ventilation system as well as sustainable features like recycled bricks and recaptured water.
In this sustainable paradise students can attend the Erivan K. Haub Program in Business and Sustainability and learn more about this vital field.
University of British Columbia and University of Montreal are also worth noting, as both appear in the top 10 of Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings.
Canada’s solid presence in this field should be celebrated and nurtured, as this is the way our educational institutions should be going.
The Sustainable Development Goals require worldwide adoption if we are going to successfully reach the 2030 Agenda. A large part of this is ensuring the next generations continue the work. The good news is sustainable universities are being developed across the globe.
Australasia stands just behind Canada in terms of overall presence, with six universities in the top 25. It also has Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS), a partnership working towards more sustainable campuses.
Japan is also making its presence known. The country houses the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, a global institute devoted to finding the path to a sustainable world. As well, both Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo are making gains in the field.
Although the systems and specifics are going to vary from country to country there are enough similarities that a shared organization can be used to amass and analyze the data surrounding sustainable education.
Enter the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi), a network created to help nurture the development of sustainable universities across the globe.
GUNi has the potential to make needed change by helping to create connections between developed and developing nations and by giving countries the means to share resources and knowledge. Home to a network of over 210 institutions and an invaluable cache of knowledge this network is doing great work spreading the word through conferences, seminars, summer schools and workshops.
There are also initiatives looking at more concentrated areas. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), for example, looks at sustainable education in North America.
These organizations will prove to be very important in the quest to create a sustainable world as, even in island countries, no man is an island and a truly sustainable society requires teamwork from everyone.
Education is incredibly important and can be seen as one of the things that separates us from other animals.
How we use said education is incredibly important, as this act of teaching and knowledge sharing is helping to develop the minds of tomorrow’s leaders.
By introducing sustainable universities and sustainable education we are helping to stress the incredible importance of this concept and its role in the future of humanity. We are also helping to pass on vital information to people who will lead tomorrow and will oversee the next stage of sustainability.
This is so very important and if we go down this road I believe there is real hope for the future.