The Challenge of Sustainability and the Role of Education

1. The Challenge of Sustainability and the Role of Education David V. J Bell, PhD Professor Emeritus and Former Dean Faculty of Environmental Studies York University Chair of the Board Learning for a Sustainable Future www.lsf-lst.ca

2. The Challenge of Sustainability for the 21st Century is Primarily Educational We are now on a path that is clearly unsustainable (climate change, social inequity, waste, overconsumption, health, etc.) Can humankind learn to live differently on this planet so current and future generations can have a (good) life? 2

3. Our pressures on the planet have increased with our numbers 6.7 billion (2009) 4 billion (1975) 2 billion (1920) 1 billion (1800) Source: UN Population Division 2004; Lee, 2003; Population Reference Bureau

4. World Gross Domestic Product “ great wealth” - heavy environmental and social price $70 trillion in 2009 $10 trillion in 1967 $1 trillion in 1900

5. Key Sustainability Issues for Canada • Generating “genuine wealth” • Improving efficiency (“Factor 10 economy”) • Shifting to clean energy • Reducing waste and pollution • Protecting and conserving water • Producing healthy food • Conserving, protecting and restoring Canadian nature • Building sustainable cities • Promoting global sustainability David Boyd, Sustainability Within a Generation: A New Vision for Canada, 2004

6. What is to be done? • “Humanity is standing at a moment in history when a Great Transformation is needed to respond to the immense threat to the Earth. This … can only be achieved with a new global contract between science and society … to tap all sources of ingenuity and cooperation….” (Potsdam Memorandum October 2007) • “The pressure on ecosystems will increase globally in coming decades unless human attitudes and actions change” (Kofi Anan)

7. How Can We Do This? If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed, If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people. Kuan Tzu Chinese Poet, c. 500 B.C.

8. 100 Years Ago:The World was Very Different! • Population (about 2 billion) • Global governance (few countries, numerous empires) • Technologies (automobile & telephone new; no electronic communications) • Business and finance primarily national • Miniscule “civil society sector” • No concept of global climate change, pollution health impacts • No concern about biodiversity, deforestation • No image of Earth from space 8

9. Meet basic needs for food, water, shelter, and energy of 9 billion people Stabilize the climate by reducing GHG emissions globally by more than 60% Reduce proportion of the world’s population living on $2 US per day or less (currently nearly half - 3 billion) Shift from 20th century capitalism to 21st century sustainable enterprise Achieve a factor 10 (or greater) economy Shift from linear take-make-waste production cycle to closed-loop, cradle-to-cradle Achieve a less violent, more peaceful world Looking Ahead 100 Years…How can we learn to change the way we live in order to: 9

10. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is Education for the 21st Century ESD: • is experiential, inquiry-based, place based, and action-oriented • teaches students to think in systems terms • explains inter-relationships between ecosystems and social systems (including the economy, culture etc) • inspires concern for fellow humans and for the biosphere (which makes all life possible) • strengthens capacity to think and act for the future and not only for the present

11. Traditional Education ESD Education • For Employment • Information Transfer • Passive • Textbook • Within the classroom • For Responsible Citizenship • Information mining and analysis; skill development; values clarification • Active • Authentic • Outside the classroom in the community

12. Connecting the Dots:7 Strategies for ESD

13. Why ESD is Crucial • Education for sustainable development is born out of a very simple idea: reaching sustainability will require more than legal frameworks, financial resources and green technologies, it also needs us to change the way we think – change that can best be obtained through education. • Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO,Tomorrow Today (Paris:UNESCO, 2010)

14. How to “Change The Way We Think” • ESD throughout K-12 formal education and post-secondary education • Non-formal ESD in all sectors (especially business and governments) • Informal ESD (including advertising, internet, social networks) to create a “culture of sustainability”

15. Educating? Or Learning? • Not all education results in learning • Much learning occurs outside (formal) education. (What have we learned from the global financial crisis??) • Increasing role of internet, instant communication • 3000 books will be published today! • 31 billion Google searches are performed each day [10-fold increase since 2006] • “Shift Happens” • “Social Learning” (and networking) • 45,000 Facebook Updates every 2 minutes! • Life-long learning [but vast ignorance remains]

16. Global Educational Challenges • Nearly a billion people (mainly women) are illiterate • 75 million school age children (mainly girls) lack access to primary education • In Latin America average educational attainment is Grade 4 • In parts of Africa it is measured in months (hence MDG of “Education for All”) • The world’s 70 million teachers must be engaged

17. UN Decade for ESD 2005-2014 • 4 major thrusts of UN Decade for ESD • Public awareness and understanding (informal ESD) • Access to quality basic education (formal ESD) • Reorienting existing education (formal ESD) • Training programs for all sectors (non-formal ESD)

18. The Bonn Declaration(mid-point of the UN Decade, April 2, 2009) “We have the knowledge, technology and the skills available to turn the situation around. We now need to mobilise our potential to make use of all opportunities for improving action and change.”

19. Definitions of Sustainable Development (SD) • Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs • Brundtland Commission, 1987 • “Creating opportunities, now and in the future” • Paul Rowland, Executive Director, AASHE • “Doing things better – not doing without.” • David Sukuki

20. My favorite definitions • “Conversations about the future” • Shift from “What has posterity done for me lately” to “What kind of legacy do we want to leave for our children and their grandchildren?” • “Connecting the dots.” • Overcoming the barriers of “silos, stovepipes and solitudes” • Connecting the social, environmental and economic dimensions • Collaborating with other stakeholders (governments, NGO’s, business, citizens)

21. Can education lead us out (e-ducere) of the present crisis? • A sustainable future requires transformed leadership throughout society • Public sector • Private sector • Voluntary sector/civil society • All aspects of education are implicated • Formal education (from Pre-K to Post Doctoral) • Non-formal education (ie training and professional development in workplaces) • Informal education (public “awareness” affected by media, the internet, and social networking)

22. The Special Role of Post-secondary Education “Humanity is residing in a ship of sorts, this planet earth, which has sprung a huge leak.... One would think that academia would be one of the most perceptive passengers on this ship…. But by and large all we hear is silence from this quarter….”James L. Elder, 1998

23. ESD: General Education for Post secondary students • “no [college or] university student should be permitted to graduate [today] without having completed a general course on sustainable development.” Klaus Wiegandt, Editor’s Introduction to Jill Jager et al,Our Planet: How Much More Can Earth Take? (2008) pp. xi-xii.

24. Why Colleges and Universities are Important • Teaching • Research • Community outreach • Leadership training: “The vast majority of today’s leaders attended institutions of higher learning (IHEs) and the leaders of tomorrow will also. IHEs educate or ‘train’ many of the professionals in our societies. Because these professionals work in or manage people who work in every economic sector both private and public, it is important that higher education incorporate sustainability into all of its programs.”

25. What is sustainability leadership? “The model of sustainability leadership does not assume that any single individual has the answers or "knows the way". “Instead, the model assumes that ordinary, everyday people—some in formal positions of power, others not—seek to expand their understanding of the challenges they see and share with others and develop a shared view of a viable pathway to create the future they want.” www.sustainabilityleaders.org

26. The Importance of Vision • “Some see the world as it is and ask why. I see a world that has never been, and ask, Why not?” • Robert Kennedy (quoting G. B. Shaw) • “If you don’t know where you’re going, you may never get there.” • Yogi Berra • "The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create." • Leonard I. Sweet, Author/Futurist

27. “The human being is the only animal that thinks about the future.” • “Until a chimp weeps at the thought of growing old alone, or smiles as it contemplates its summer vacation, or turns down a Fudgsicle because it already looks too fat in shorts, I will stand by my version of The Sentence. We think about the future in a way that no other animal can, does, or ever has, and that simple, ubiquitous, ordinary act is a defining feature of our humanity.” Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, p. 4

28. “We use our eyes to look into space and our imaginations to look into time.” • To see is to experience the world as it is, to remember is to experience the world as it was, but to imagine – ah to imagine is to experience the world as it isn’t and never has been, but as it might be. • The greatest achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real, and it is this ability that allows us to think about the future.” Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, pp. 5, 26

29. CEGEPs and Sustainability • CEGEPs influence (nearly) all Quebec youth • knowledge • understanding • Commitment/engagement • career choice • “CEGEP Vert” has at least 50 certified colleges • 22 at “Excellence” level • Greening Operations plus infusing sustainability ideas into curriculum and research What more can be done??

30. The Triple Implications of ESD • Change what we teach (curriculum) • Change the way we teach (pedagogy) • Change the way we run our institutions (whole institution approach)

31. “Twilight of the Lecture”? • “…[L]ectures are a way of transferring the instructor’s lecture notes to students notebooks without passing through the brains of either.” • “[Lectures] create the illusion of teaching for teachers, and the illusion of learning for learners.”

32. What’s the good news? “We are on the verge of a cultural shift… the moment when human culture … recognizes our place in the global ecosystem and our responsibility for all other life on Earth. EarthCat (based on Earth Charter Principles)

33. ESD and Societal Sustainability: Whither Canada? If we are on the verge of a cultural shift, why does the federal government seem to be moving backwards? • NRTEE eliminated • Stats Can shrunken • Attacks on environmental groups as enemies of the state • “emasculating” Fisheries Act • Firing scientists • Prisons and fighter jets top spending priorities

34. ESD, Responsible Citizenship, and the “Quebec Spring”? • [a good topic for discussion]

35. Should we be Optimists?? • “A pessimist is an informed optimist.” • Russian proverb • [but despair is a very poor motivator] • “ ’Hope’ is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.” • David Orr, lecture at York University 2008

36. The Aboriginal Thanksgiving Address Finally, we acknowledge one another, female and male. We give greetings and thanks that we have this opportunity to spend some time together. We turn our minds to our ancestors and our Elders. You are the carriers of knowledge, of our history. We acknowledge the adults among us. You represent the bridge between the past and the future. We also acknowledge our youth and children. It is to you that we will pass on the responsibilities we now carry. Soon, you will take our place in facing the challenges of life. Soon, you will carry the burden of your people. Do not forget the ways of the past as you move toward the future. Remember that we are to walk softly on our sacred Mother, the Earth, for we walk on the faces of the unborn, those who have yet to rise and take up the challenges of existence. We must consider the effects our actions will have on their ability to live a good life.

37. Contact: Dr. David Bell, Chair Learning for a Sustainable Future dvjbell@rogers.com www.lsf-lst.ca

38. Appendix: Additional Slides

39. The more influence we have in society, the greater our potential impact on the planet and the greater our responsibility to behave sustainably…. Priority areas for action include: • advancing education for sustainable development, including secondary and vocational education, and building of skills to help ensure that all of society can contribute to solutions that address today’s challenges and capitalize on opportunities. Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing. Report of the UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, January 2012 LSF’s Strategic Initiatives The Importance of ESD

40. Some Recent Sustainability Developments in Canadian Universities • Dalhousie: “College of Sustainability” • Royal Roads: new DSocSci • Trent new Master of Arts in Sustainability Studies (MASS)

41. “Capital Theory” Passing on to future generations equal or enhanced: • Financial/manufactured capital • Social/human capital • Natural capital • Cultural capital • (and don’t forget “passion capital”)

42. Sustainability: Underlying Values • Caring/respect for the Earth • Caring/respect for Each Other • Caring/respect for Future Generations

43. Thinking Smarter – finding new ways of doing things that: • Make Economic Sense • Are good for People and • Good for the Environment

44. Being wiser – simple rules for a small planet • Learn from nature (biomimickry) • Understand complex systems (everything is connected to everything else) • Anticipate and prevent (move “upstream” in your thinking) • We have nowhere else to go (so be stewards of the Earth) • Act with humility and compassion

45. Working together – finding new partners to move from rhetoric to action • Governments • Businesses • Educational community • Media and Voluntary Organizations • The Public

46. Core Concepts of Sustainability “Prospective” (futures-oriented, vision-led) ThinkingIntergenerational responsibility: “Conversations about the future” Integrated Systems Thinking“Connecting the dots” between environment, economy, society and culture; and between local, regional, national and global Governance/Decision Making/Intragenerational Equity Inclusion, Dignity, Human rights, Horizontal decision making,Stakeholder voices, Collaborative and participatory processes

48. Sustainability at York • Establishment of FES in 1968 (first faculty of its kind in the world) • Introduction of BES and PhD (1992) • Haub Chair in Schulich School of Business (1994) • Location for OLSP – LFS (O) – LSF (1995-) • UNESCO Chair in ESD (1997) • YCAS (1997) and then IRIS (2004) • Sustainable Enterprise Academy (1999) followed by SEdA (2005) • Presidential Task Force and signing of Talloires Declaration (2001) • Inclusion of Sustainability research area of strength (2002) • President’s Sustainability Council (2007) • Annual sustainability Reports (2009) • FirstSustainability Coordinator appointed (2011) • Glendon Sustainability Website (2011)

49. “Homo Sapiens: The Last 130,000 years; the Next 200 years.” • A book, a film, and a proposed university course under development by Michael Wadleigh(the producer of the biggest grossing documentary ever made – Woodstock 1970.) • Scientific evidence indicates that the current development model has about 200 years left in it

50. The Role of Business Education “Fundamental change to American institutions and industries has become unavoidable. Business schools have a unique opportunity to contribute to this change … by enabling young people to develop as responsible, ethical leaders who can build a new model of business success in society. Their ideal of business will look dramatically different from today's. It will value solid, long-term benefits to humankind in addition to shareholder profits, and it will represent a departure from the fallen house of cards we have all helped to create, both as business educators and practitioners, over the last several decades.” James Danko, Dean of Business, Villanova University