Sustainable
development and
sustainable living
Teaching and learning strategies
for sustainable development

What is sustainable development? –
interactive activity on definitions

Analysing an issue

Moving from issues to solutions

Measuring sustainable development

Ecological footprints and carbon footprints
– websites and trialling

Simulation game
What does Sustainable
development mean to you?
Sustainabingo
Some definitions
Discuss the following definitions


Who or what are they aimed at?
Do they recognise limits of the
biosphere?
Sustainable development is

development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.
Our Common Future, World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED, 1987), (also
known as the Brundtland Report)
Sustainable development

Improving the quality of life while
living within the earth's carrying
capacities.
(World Conservation Union / United Nations
Environment Programme / World Wide Fund for
Nature, (1991) Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for
Sustainable Living.)
Sustainable development

maintenance of essential ecological
processes and life support systems,
the preservation of genetic diversity,
and the sustainable utilization of
species and ecosystems.
IUCN, WWF and UNEP (1980) The World Conservation
Strategy. Gland, Switzerland.
Sustainable development is
about:

ensuring a better quality of life for everyone now
and for generations to come. This means meeting
five objectives at the same time, in the UK and the
world as a whole:
– improving the quality of life while living within the earth's
carrying capacities;
– social progress that recognises the needs of everyone;
– effective protection of the environment;
– prudent use of natural resources;
– maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth
and employment.
HM Government (1999), UK Government Sustainable Development
Strategy, July 1999.
Huckle (1996, p 3)
Like liberty, justice and democracy,
sustainability has no single agreed meaning.
It takes on meaning within different political
ideologies and programmes underpinned by
different kinds of knowledge, values and
philosophies.
Views of sustainable
development

adapted from http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/node/42
(accessed February 2011)
Giddings, Hopwood and O’Brien (2002)Available at:
http://www.sustainable-cities.org.uk/db_docs/SDarticle2.pdf
(accessed February 2011)

Giddings, Hopwood and O’Brien, 2002 Available at:
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/db_docs/SDarticle2.pdf (accessed February
2011)
Who decides?
local
past
global
future
Drivers for change?
Analysing an issue
Natural
What resources are used?
What are the impacts on the
environment?
N
Economic
Who decides?
Where are the decision
makers located? Who is in
control of the process?
What is the impact?
E
W
S
Social
What are the cultural impacts,
Who gains, who loses?
What are the
positive/negative
effects, who
gains, who loses?
Ways of measuring
sustainable development
Indicators
 GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
= (consumption + investment +
government spending) – (indirect
taxes + exports – imports)


Human development index - lifespan,
knowledge, and standard of living
(GDP)
Human Poverty index
– probability at birth of not surviving to age
40,
– adult literacy rate,
– population without sustainable access to
an improved water source,
– children underweight for age,
– population below income poverty line
The Index of Sustainable Economic
Welfare
ISEW = Consumer spending adjusted for
income inequality + non-defensive public
expenditure + Growth in capital + nonmoney contributions to welfare
minus
Defensive private expenditure – cost for
environmental degradation – depreciation of
environmental capital
Ecological footprinting

Put simply, the amount of the
environment necessary to produce the
goods and services necessary to
support a particular lifestyle.

The first Footprint study of
Wales showed that the average
Welsh person uses 5.25 global
hectares of resources
– if present global trends go
unchecked, the human
population would need three
Earth-sized planets to sustain
our current consumption
patterns.

USA average is around 8ghapp
Measure your ecological
footprint


www.globalfootprint.org (accessed
February 2011)
Carbon Footprint at
http://www.carbonfootprint.com
/calculator.aspx (accessed February
2011)
Actions for change

Discuss possible actions and those
which you have seen happening
Action for sustainable change






strong leadership;
goal setting;
co-ordinated policy approach which
addresses all different aspects of
development;
legislation and taxes - international,
national and local levels;
collaboration;
making sufficient funding available
Actions for SD continued


education at all levels
Opportunities for grass roots organisations
and co-operatives

lobbying for change

individual action

systems analysis and life cycle analysis


life cycle analysis of a product (also known
as cradle to grave analysis)
precautionary principle
INTERNATIONAL DRIVERS - examples

1992 – Rio Earth Summit and Agenda 21

1997 – The Kyoto Protocol


2002 - World Summit on Sustainable
Development
2004 – Bonn political declaration of renewable
energies
– Millenium Development Goals


2010 5th Sustainability Summit: Asia 2010 –
Remodelling Growth
2011
The First Sustainable Infrastructure
Financing Summit
Science and technology
debate
Appropriate technology
 Practical Action website
 http://www.practicalaction.org.u
k/education/resources-watersanitation (accessed February 2011
Different views of
technology

Read the views on P.46 of the
Sustainable Change Module Reader
What will you do?
This slide set has been released as part of the OSIER project, which is promoting the use of resources to support
the training of practitioners in Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship within the curricula
of all of the home nations of the United Kingdom. You can find out more about the project on the ‘About’ page of
the project repository site.
OSIER is part of the second round of the UK OER (Open Educational Resources) programme, funded by HEFCE and
administered by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
The slide set was prepared by Sheila Bennell and copyright resides with the author. Any images or other materials
are original unless stated otherwise. Copyright images may be excluded from the Creative Commons licence
described below.
The resource is made freely available under Creative Commons licence BY-NC-SA which allows you to use this
material for any purpose as long as you:
• acknowledge the original author
• do not use it for commercial purposes
• publish any derived materials under the same licence conditions
You can find out more about this licence at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
June 1st, 2011