Education of Environment and Sustainability
The Sustainable Development Youth Leaders Education program will develop knowledge, skills and attitudes about sustainability. This program not only increases knowledge and awareness, but also improves skills and enables individuals to make more informed decisions about the environment. In addition, the program allows students to focus on finding solutions to real world problems, unlike conventional education
The educational challenges for sustainable societies are great for several reasons: The global sustainability challenge is unprecedented in both magnitude and complexity, there is no history of societies willingly and deliberately taking steps to institutionalize restraints and change individual and collective behaviors to achieve greater sustainability, and a constructive educational response must include a comprehensive, coordinated attempt to redefine the human role in nature and reexamine many assumptions, values, and actions we have long taken for granted. We must “prepare each student to lead a sustainable lifestyle” and “place ecosystems concepts at the intellectual center of all disciplines.”
Just as there is a wide range of definitions for sustainable development, there is great diversity in the characterizations of education for sustainability. One starting place in considering the content of education for sustainability is to examine the relationship with environmental education.
THE SDG YOUTH LEADERSHIP PROGRAM (YOUTH 2030) has developed a set of guidelines for environmental education, “Excellence in Environmental Education – Guidelines for Learning . The Guidelines provide a conceptual framework for environmental education, and they are organized around themes that are well aligned with the ideas shaping education for sustainability. Indeed, some have suggested that education for sustainability become the new focus and justification for environmental education.
I have been involved in this program since October 2025
