Abstract
This article will focus on involvement of Higher Education Institutions in promoting Education for Sustainable Development through UNEPs flagship programme Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability. To achieve this, the activities of the network are centered on three pillars: Education, Training and Networking.
Introduction
As affirmed in Agenda 21 and the Rio+20 outcome document—The Future We Want—(Brundtland & WCED, 1987), institutions of higher learning are agents of change and their enhanced engagement in promoting sustainability is vital. The importance of reorienting education and training towards sustainable development which meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the capacity of future generations to meet their needs has been emphasized at numerous declarations, action plans and summits.
Over the past decade, higher education institutions have stepped up their efforts on sustainability, in implementing the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014). This has been seen with the adoption of low-carbon strategies, mainstreaming environmental sustainability across the curriculum and engaging with community and stakeholders at all levels on priority sustainability issues.
To facilitate this process, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has focused its efforts on higher education around seven thematic priorities, namely Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Disasters and Conflicts, Environmental Governance, Chemicals and Wastes, Resource Efficiency and Environment under Review. UNEP has engaged with universities in these thematic areas, taking into account region-specific considerations in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and West Asia.
UNEP has developed sourcebooks for universities and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to reconcile current discipline-based educational structures with trans-disciplinary requirements of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), as well as thematic graduate curriculum sourcebooks on climate change adaptation, REDD+, green economy and ecosystems management. UNEP has been working on initiatives focused on integrating sustainable development into higher education which includes the transformation and development of green campuses, mainstreaming of environmental sustainability across curricula, training of policymakers utilizing universities as hubs and enhanced engagement with communities and student bodies.
Based on the successful experience of Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities (MESA), operational since 2004, UNEP has launched a Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability (GUPES) in the lead up to the United Nations World Conference on Sustainable Development also known as Rio+20 (UN, 2012).
Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability (GUPES)
GUPES was formed as the result of a consultative forum organized by UNEP and its partners in Nairobi, on 19 November 2010 to deliberate on ways of escalating UNEP’s enhanced engagement with universities and building on the successful MESA experience (UNEP, 2013). It was launched in June 2012, at Tongji University in Shanghai, China, in the lead up to the Rio+20 Summit (UNEP, 2013a).
GUPES is an interactive network with the aim of promoting the integration of environment and sustainability concerns into teaching, research, community engagement and management of universities; and enhancing student engagement and participation in sustainability activities both within and beyond universities. At present, over 400 universities are affiliated with GUPES, from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and West Asia, and more universities continue to express interest in GUPES.
GUPES and its partners have contributed towards ESD programmes by building stakeholder capacity (curriculum review, training courses and development of sourcebooks); encouraging and supporting universities to develop and implement their own transformative strategies for establishing green, resource-efficient and low-carbon campuses (greening universities initiative); and providing practical training on sustainable development to policymakers (leadership programmes).
GUPES has three broad goals, namely:
To provide a strategic platform for the mainstreaming of environment and sustainability concerns into university systems across the world, and to facilitate inter-university networking on sustainability issues with emphasis on South–South and North–South tertiary partnerships; To build, through university education systems, a professional capacity and leadership needed for the prevention of and responses to environmental issues, risks and associated sustainable development challenges (ECA, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c; Muller J., et al., 2001; Mbotech, 2011); and To contribute to revitalizing the global higher education system and enabling it to address current sustainable development challenges with emphasis on UNEP’s seven thematic priorities, viz. Climate Change, Ecosystems Management, Disasters and Conflicts, Environmental Governance, Chemicals and Wastes, Resource Efficiency and Environment under review.
GUPES activities focus around three key pillars, namely:
Education (development of curricula sourcebooks on Green Economy, REDD+, Climate Change Adaptation, Green Economy, Ecosystem Management, Higher Education guidelines for curriculum review and reorientation towards Sustainable Development and the Greening Universities Toolkit, Massive Open Online Courses—MOOCs—on sustainability-related topics); Training (over 10 annual training programmes involving over 300 policymakers (UNEP, 2013d)); and Networking (regional networks in Africa (UNEP, 2013a, 2013c), Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean (UNEP, 2013a)).
Conclusion
To fully address challenges to sustainability, we must address the economic, social and environmental pillars in tandem, as part of a triple helix approach. Through a strong sustainability model, we need to take cognizance of the fact that a productive economy thrives in a society that lives well within the limits of sustained ecosystem services. What we urgently need are new leaders who are committed to the ideals of sustainable development.
Universities are key agents in the development of current and future leaders. Universities can utilize low-carbon campuses as living laboratories in shaping the next generation of sustainability thought leaders. Many universities are already involved in mainstreaming environment and sustainability into their curricula, training, research and community engagement activities.
While much has been achieved in university partnerships over the past 10 years, a number of challenges continue to exist which are catalyzed by globalization and the rapid pace at which new knowledge is created and utilized, especially in our transition towards a green economy, as mandated by Rio+20: The Future We Want.
To address these challenges, there is an urgent need for open-ended networks of higher educational institutions focusing on environment and sustainability. Sustaining a global network like GUPES will require ongoing participation from university partners, expanded networks, open communication systems and extended support from partners that can build capacity, knowledge and support transformation within and across universities.
In the follow-up to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, and the adoption of a Global Action Programme on ESD, the role of higher education will be more important than ever, and will require continuous information sharing, training and acting towards environmental sustainability efforts across campus, curricula, student and community engagement, both within and outside university environments (Jowi, 2003).