About sustainability
A decade into the twenty-first century, the world faces substantial complex and interlinked development and lifestyle challenges and problems. The challenges arise from values that have created unsustainable societies. We need a shared commitment to education that empowers people for change. Such education should be of a qulality that provides the values, knowledge, skills and competencies for sutainable livng and participation in society.
Bonn Declaration, UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, Bonn, Germany April, 2009
What does sustainability mean?
There are many definitions of sustainability which are influenced by people's values and culture. The best known is the Brudtland definition which says:
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the abililty of future generations to meet their own needs. - Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future
United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development declared from 2005 - 2014
Education has been recognised internationally as fundamentally important to addressing the critical global challenges we face.
Sustainability, in the context of the AuSSI-Tas program, means:
- reaching a whole school agreement about a vision for sustainability
- the need to review and change practices
- creating a school environment management plan
- a focus on building sustainability into and across the school's teaching and learning practices
- ongoing learning by doing
- recongising that sustainability is a journey not a destination
- raising awareness about the pillars of sustainability - not only concerns about ecological issues but issues to do with social, economic and political sustainability for the school and its community
- strongly linked to the values for Australian schooling
- encouraging inquiry learning
Values for Australian Schooling
- care and compassion
- doing your best
- fair go
- freedom
- honesty and trustworthiness
- integrity
- respect
- responsibility
- understanding/tolerance/inclusion
Source: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations - Values for Australian Schooling