Encouraging Rapid Adoption of Education for Sustainability

While some of the leading thinking about sustainable development has been generated by higher education, higher education’s engagement as a whole with sustainable development lags far behind the business sector in the U.S. Higher education’s engagement currently consists of 2 national networks in education for sustainable development (The EFS Network and NCSE’s National Council of Environmental Deans and Directors), 4 national listservs, and perhaps 12 regional/state networks. At this point, there is a small yet growing body of intellectual work and research, and a small number of conferences with any sustainability content.

Yet there are thousands of faculty and administrators at hundreds of colleges and universities who are increasingly committed to the field and in various stages of engagement with the topic of sustainability. And the last few years have also seen tremendous growth in initial commitments to education for sustainable development within mainstream national higher education associations. Over one dozen national associations have committed to partnerships and/or national initiatives to share information about education for sustainable development, and nine of those occurred in the last twenty months. These national organizations include associations of college presidents such as the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) as well as non-curricular organizations such as the facility managers (APPA) and business officials (NACUBO) that can make decisions to demonstrate sustainable development on campus.

While there have been important accomplishments within the field of education for sustainable development to date, all of the efforts noted above are struggling to get off the ground on shoestring budgets, probably none of which exceed $250k (isolated institutions have occasionally received larger private gifts or committed their own funds).

Changing the direction of higher education to embrace sustainability requires strong outside influence: internal decision-makers and other stakeholders (administrators, faculty, operational personnel and students) simply cannot do the job alone. External stakeholders such as funders of education and research, future employers, accreditation organizations, parents, alumni, local and regional communities are critical to creating the demand for education for sustainable development.

One of the largest and most important of these external influences is the availability of federal funding – and currently, no federal funding is specifically available for sustainability education, research, or technology development within higher education. A catalytic federal role is essential to accelerate this transition to a more sustainable society for our children and grandchildren.