Bringing Sustainability to Life Climate Action Summit 2012 Education for UWS

Bringing Sustainability to Life 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

Bringing Sustainability to Life 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 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

Bringing Sustainability to Life 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

Bringing Sustainability to Life 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

Bringing Sustainability to Life 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

Bringing Sustainability to Life 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

Bringing Sustainability to Life The Blue Economy – Money from Waste & Business as ecology

Bringing Sustainability to Life The Blue Economy – Money from Waste & Business as ecology

Bringing Sustainability to Life 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

Bringing Sustainability to Life

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