Climate Action Summit 2012 Education for Sustainability @ UWS

1. Climate Action Summit 2012 Education for Sustainability @ UWS

2. Forum Overview Focus • A new role for higher education – the opportunity • Key lessons on effective change in education • Motivators for engagement in EfS • Building Education for Sustainability across the University

3. The strategic context & opportunity for UWS • UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development – UN University & 100 RCEs • AVCC (now UA) commitment to DESD 2006 & review 2012 • Rio +20 – Higher Education Treaty on EfS • National Action Plan for EfS - 2009 • ACARA & VET – specific focus on sustainability • Predicted increase in demand – Hanover 2010/GUNI • Talloires Network leaders conference • Sustainable Futures Leadership Academy • Universities as living laboratories on sustainability – the UWS master plan for Hawkesbury

4. Key lessons from 40 years’ innovation & research in school, VET, higher and community education • Good ideas with no ideas on how to implement them are wasted ideas • Reformers have the misplaced notion that change is achieved by brute logic • We rise to great heights by a winding staircase • Change doesn’t just happen but must be led • People are more likely to act their way into new ways of thinking than think their way into new ways of acting • I hear & I forget, I see & I remember, I do & I understand • Change is a complex learning (and unlearning) process for all concerned: it is not an event

5. What engages people in change (i.e. learning)? Relevance & feasibility Intrinsic motivators • An immediate/shared crisis • Seeing an icon for one’s life about to disappear • The health of one’s children & loved ones • Relationships, relationships, relationships – connection • Moral purpose Extrinsic motivators • Compliance • Penalties • Rewards & awards • Jobs/income – Walmart & the Blue Economy • Loss of business/strategic position/image

6. What engages people in change (i.e. learning) cont’d Peer group • What the peer group does • Active encouragement and support • Workable solutions to gaps via a network of ‘fellow travellers’ Seeing successful examples in action • Site visits • Virtual visits • University as a Living Laboratory for Sustainability

7. Emerging jobs and demand • Jobs & Enterprises • Environment, Energy, Water, Business, Industry, Law, Manufacture, Design, Transport, Government, Public Policy, Councils, NGOs, NFPs, Blue Economy, compliance, sustainability accounting • Half the employers in the UK are giving focus to this • US Bureau of statistics predicts increase of 20% by 2018 • Demand • UK 2010 HE students – 80% believe skills in this area are key; sustainability credentials of uni influence choice, 65% want EfS embedded • USA – the Princeton study; Tufts as an exemplar; Tufts database • AASHE best schools with high demand – UCLA, New Hampshire, ASU, Chico State, Emory, Furman, Portland State, San Diego State, Simon Fraser, UBC, Royal Roads

8. The Blue Economy – Money from Waste & Business as ecology

9. The Blue Economy – Money from Waste & Business as ecology

10. Some current EfS initiatives at UWS • UWS Riverfarm – a U.N. Case study of EfS • Partnership with HEN, TAFE WSI, HCMA, GWS schools • Living Laboratory • GPIS & augmented reality • Learning through experience • SURF • UN University Regional Centre of Expertise in EfS • Co-op Ed Students and placements

13. Key challenges & solutions – from TLSHE • The financial imperative • Engaging the senior executives • No room for more in the curriculum • Finding proven solutions and approaches – networking with AASHE, Copernicus etc Your views, questions & suggestions