Dear Nageswara

Thanks for posing this very important question. I believe that any method to promote sustainability has be holistic that attends to systemic, attitudinal and behavioral issues.

1. We must adopt a systems thinking approach to the issue. This is how it has also been discussed in the attached paper in relation to Vietnam context. .

2. The learning method should be exciting and enjoyable adult learning approaches designed to be in consonance with the needs of the participants. The techniques adopted must complement systems thinking approach.

3. Every one has to be the focus groups, not children alone--children as well as adults. There is an advantage of teaching it to children, as has been said by dear Deshmukh and Behrouz. That is an age group when people have indelible marks of values that are imbibed in them. But for making the concept successful, even adults have to be taught so that they can become aware of the issues, and also pass them on to children that lead to their habit formation.

4. Sustainability must be imbibed as a value in children.

5. As part of the systems thinking, participatory methods should be adopted for developing solutions to sustainability issues. It should also be so done for evaluating the progress of the initiatives at every stage. Teaching of sustainability should also be through participatory method so as to be more effective.

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&sid=011110a3-321d-4bc0-9de1-82725fcff309%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=70360333

I guess the best thing is to impart knowledge on not to waste, reuse and recycle. The other aspect leading to unsustainable development is available resources at hand. To cite an example ~40% of food in rich middle east homes go to waste. This is because too much is available at too little price. This is a society which was most resource sensitive prior to oil and has survived on the minimum. The new cities, use of lights, excessive air conditioning, huge malls, excessive street lights, these are the things we have not seen when we were kids, but the current generation is growing in this setup and are lest careful because everything they dream of is at hand. Certainly, introduction of sustainability concept in curriculum is extremely useful but when they dont see implementation, it becomes a fiction.

The best way could be to "catch them young ". That is start sensitizing these concepts at early stage , may be at school level itself. Once younger generation is sensitized, the message will be passed on to the next generation and these students will act as change agents and as catalyst in transforming the society.

Sustainability is indeed a societal issue and everyone must be involved in this mission. Mere inclusion in academic curriculum will not help. One has to demonstrate and put the actions in place.

Yes you are right Deshmukh, but as i wrote earlier the concept when not practiced becomes a fiction. If the concept is not implemented sustainablility is not possible, this is what is hapenning in US, sustainability is taught at school but not practiced. The worse case is middle-east excessive energy utilization, resources utilization although they were so resource efficient prior to oil some 60 years back.

I believe the best is presenting examples of everyday life. Especially those examples who oppose common sense.

The WCED defines ‘sustainable development’, defining it as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

The possible ways are:

1-teaching the primary concepts in early education

2-through internet with giving incentives(small prizes for winners of quizes,etc)

3-through media advertisement (TV. radio,...)

4-Developing appropriate games for kids

5-selection and training the young activists

I agree with you Saif. There is such a large amount of wastage done in many countries including India in the name of festivals, celebrations, etc. Rich people and rich countries are likely to waste more. Similarly big cities and towns waste more energy. People are familiar with it but do not care or do not have the sensitivity for it. It is that sensitization which is an important element.

A simple fact is the various battery chargers that we use for laptops, cell phones, etc. which are used, but how many will remove it from the socket after the charging over? They do consume some power over the unused time. So if everyone uses it only during the charging and removes it will be saving a few mW of power. Multiply that by millions and billions of them, you can see the power or energy saved.

Here is a curriculum frame work for schools from Australian government. It provides curriculum ideas through out the school from elementary to high school. It provides a list of activities that allow the students to practice the principles.

http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/9b2e74ca-c909-4d57-bae3-c515c20957de/files/curriculum-framework.pdf

Teaching that 'sustainability is about reducing our ecological footprint, while simultaneously improving the quality of life that we value' within our education system and reinforced by our own EXAMPLE and the good examples of others that practicing sustainability is personally MEANINGFUL and RELEVANT.

Practical points have been suggested by Behrouz.

Principles & workable ideas first needs to be practiced & when the generation next actually sees these, only then there is a hope that they will put in in practice. Seeing is believing, & these needs to be vividly shown by the elders,till then any amount of talks may not be helpful.

The concept of sustainability has become a very essential issue. All of us, rich or poor people or countries, should contribute to quality of life and sustainability.

Dear @Nageswara, Thank you for the important issue because it affects our lives and there must be programs, forums, and courses at the schools and universities to introduce guidance, warnings, and recommendations for the people about the importance of sustainable development.

If we teach well and with sense of responsibility towards earth and society sustainability can be achieved. Young minds need not taught a special subject on sustainability. Instead if they can be reasoned for what they have taught at present like knowing nature, man-environment interaction, and mutual co-existence. Things would be fine with small interventions, as small kids at such level do not understand the concept of climate change or global warming. They must be sensitive to alternatives available to them for all that what they do which consumes less energy, adds to natural cycle and sensitive to ecology. They have been away from nature, just bring them close to nature, program all the teaching and learning close to nature. At the higher levels they can be taught about the technologies and their alternatives. A different life style which explores synthesis with life around us should be adopted in the teaching materials. I do not wish to recommend sustainability as separate set of subject, instead we should adopt it in our current teaching methods on whatever we explore with students.

Dear Nageswara

Thanks for posing this very important question. I believe that any method to promote sustainability has be holistic that attends to systemic, attitudinal and behavioral issues.

1. We must adopt a systems thinking approach to the issue. This is how it has also been discussed in the attached paper in relation to Vietnam context. .

2. The learning method should be exciting and enjoyable adult learning approaches designed to be in consonance with the needs of the participants. The techniques adopted must complement systems thinking approach.

3. Every one has to be the focus groups, not children alone--children as well as adults. There is an advantage of teaching it to children, as has been said by dear Deshmukh and Behrouz. That is an age group when people have indelible marks of values that are imbibed in them. But for making the concept successful, even adults have to be taught so that they can become aware of the issues, and also pass them on to children that lead to their habit formation.

4. Sustainability must be imbibed as a value in children.

5. As part of the systems thinking, participatory methods should be adopted for developing solutions to sustainability issues. It should also be so done for evaluating the progress of the initiatives at every stage. Teaching of sustainability should also be through participatory method so as to be more effective.

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&sid=011110a3-321d-4bc0-9de1-82725fcff309%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=70360333

Setting the example by living for it ourselves.

It is a very good question and it is so difficult to teach. Here in the Middle East, it is already important to teach to save energy and not to throw the garbage anywhere. But I fundamentally believe that setting examples by our behavior will have at least as much long term impact as teaching it on the intellectual level.

In the end, most of our students are still in the process of defining themselves and they look at examples.

So, whatever method we choose for teaching, in my humble opinion we must set the example ourselves, not during the lecture alone but always....

Words without action will in this case perhaps even be counterproductive.

just my two cents (piaster)

It is a systemic and complex, but we can at least try our best effort to achieved sustainability.

Start by teaching it as habit and character education(of caring and effort of sustainability to our life), role model it , build subject of sustainability at least in each level of education to recall and remind of what can we do for sustainability and what effect if we don't take part of action to retained it.

Purpose system and real case scenario to student(PBL/inquiry learning) how to plan,retain/maintain sustainability, example paperless system, clean energy usage, waste management system, green building architecture and etc.

Use of proportional resources non exploitation of our limited resources exposure of recycle material as teaching learning resources.

This is mostly a MACRO plan for the overall betterment of PEOPLE - ACTIVITIES - SOCIETY. Sustainability is an ideal state of ECONOMIC and OPPORTUNITY BALANCE which supports the present and also favors the future of all all major groups/ classifications such as women / children / youth/ poor / working class / farmers / indigenous / trade unions, industry, scientific organizations etc.,

As the development of society picks ups speed, there comes areas which are neglected or exploited and forgotten such as the WASTE generation, ENVIRONMENT degradation, Natural Resource depletion etc.,

Hence the curriculum of education should cover right from MORAL INSTRUCTIONS to all subjects should cover Sustainability customized into their folds...

Great discussions. I guess it is to be introduced and practiced. Incentives and subsidies should be provided to societies which try to implement sustainable development. In most countries these small subsidies and tax rebates can be very useful for green growth.

Dear Nageswara,

Dear All,

The crucial role of earlier teaching was first discovered by the Jesuit monks. They said give me but the first four years of a child. The question is how to distribute the knowledge to arrive in time to everybody?

Unfortunately, knowledge or data is not sufficient. I am sure right knowledge on smoking can touch everybody in time however the number of smokers is too high. In addition, they have right to smoke.

I think the trouble is the controversy on how people percept circumstances of sustainability, and they choose - as always - the more convenient solution: not to do anything and they think one more beer is more values than to save environment. Many people cannot understand that commons like soil, water, air became good marketable goods for some as earlier the destroying of the same commons were allowed them by leaders.

I think one should persuade (?) people on the right behaviour and making mems of sustainability to permanent fashion. This sentence means that most of the people cannot be persuaded but to teach them attitudes which have got immediate answers in forms of some benefits. This is but the task of psychologists and marketing specialist!

Dear All,

Please, face the fact that the rate of real Homo sapiens is but around 20-30% in the whole race. The others cannot be persuaded see the example of the Eastern islands! What did think the man who cut out the last tree at this island? I am afraid, most of the people do the same thing these days!

This is a UNESCO site that provides directions for Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future. "United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development"

It provides professional development for student teachers, teachers, curriculum developers, education policy makers, and authors of educational materials. The modules are divided into 4 themes.

http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/

Introduce curricula at the every level starting from community/grass roots level with inclusion of the following (some example below) in line with sustainable development to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Some examples about what may be included in the curricula or R&D programmes (related to sustainability) are as follows:

-why there is a need for green tax/carbon tax?

-how could we reduce our carbon footprint and ecological footprint?

-why should we use energy efficient appliances?

-why should we conserve natural resources such as water, forests and biodiversity?

-why should we adapt a green life style?

-why should we practise conservation agriculture (e.g. no till)?

-why should we recycle wastes?

- how the climate change (rise of temperatures, rise of sea level) will have effects on future agriculture, fisheries, water resources, biodiversity, diseases and parasites, assets and infrastructure

-how the ecosystems goods and services will be impacted in a changing climate?

-why should be conserve or restore forests?

Global concerns about climate change, energy use, environmental impacts, and limits to financial resources for the development and quality of life require new and different approaches to planning, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining development solutions and systems. People need to realize that environment and development need to be seen together. Development requires extensive use of natural resources and all the basic resources required for living come from the Earth. So we must develop let’s say more “clean development mechanism” which will allow to change social behaviour starting from the schools, policy makers, decision makers, managers, owners etc. It is not always easy to change social behaviour but we must focus on this. Those mechanisms must be only from the positive point of view and not for the negative ones. For example, we cannot organize a workshop which will present that pollution is in critical level, but we must present practices focusing on waste prevention and how we can increase quality of life through waste reduction. Also, it is better to present that protecting biodiversity has positive impact to the environment without saying “NO you cannot” develop one area which belongs to NATURA 2000; it’s better to say YES but before you must develop the way you will protect and promote biodiversity.

Clean development mechanism need to change a lot of things. For example, the 3 pillars of sustainability must be 4. The fourth one must be the “politics”. Governments need to change the way or the mechanism that anyone can be involved in Politics. They must find the way to refresh their decision makers. This will help to develop new fresh ideas. A general legislation or a directive or a law which will not allow anyone to be in the same position for 10 years.

Through the clean development mechanism we must develop the way to “thinking long term” and not “thinking short term” and to provide “supplies and provisions” for understanding systems within which we live and to recognize the limits. Also, to implement practicing fairness and whatever we do to embrace creativity.

We need to develop the ability to make a choice which respects the relationship between the three “Es” – economy, ecology and equality. If all the three “e’s” are incorporated in the national goals of countries then it would be possible to develop a sustainable society

Dear all, I think that the answer depends on what you understand as sustainable development and, most of all, to which group/public you are talking to. There is a very funny - but also pretty interesting - animated movie called "Monsters INC." that can be used to introduce the discussion about the theme among children, teenagers and even undergrads. The way the monsters change their energy production - from scaring kids to make them laugh - is a very nice and simple way to start the discussion about sustainability, IMHO.

I think logically schools are the best place to introduce concepts of sustainability. But how about the proportion of population who never goes to school for any formal education that will constitute 40 - 50% of worlds population. They hardly know about the issues we are discussing at length. Their main issue is to meet their end, for which they often adapt non sustainable ways. But should we blame them?. A very basic issue is economic desparity, most of the people whom we want to teach sustainability dont understand what is being told, these concept are so new and unrealistic to them, when they dont have safe drinking water, often very unsafe shelter, very limited choice of food that too not all teh times, how can we teach them sustainable development?

I agree with Debi S. Saini that sustainability is a matter of behavior. It is important, but not sufficient, introduce this concept in schools because we have to consider that one of our characteristics is to be sensitive to the immediate consequences of our behavior. This is a phylogenetic characteristic, a natural characteristic. People must learn to emit sustainable behavior despite remote consequences (delayed consequences), which can only be done through the establishment of social contingencies. In that sense, the whole society should be mobilized.

thank you for all for nice information