UN Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development
2005-2014 was the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), a time for educators around the world to learn and pass on the history, definition, goals, "story," principles, processes, success stories and
promise of sustainable development.
"Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a vision of education that seeks to balance human and economic well-being with cultural traditions and respect for the Earth’s natural resources. ESD applies interdisciplinary educational methods and approaches to develop an ethic for lifelong learning; fosters respect for human needs that are compatible with sustainable use of natural resources and the needs of the planet; and nurtures a sense of global solidarity."
– United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
As formulated by the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, proposed by the Brundtland Commission (Our Common Future, 1987) and then presented to the world at the UN’s 1992 Rio Earth Summit, sustainable development is ethics in action — development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs — through integration of environmental, social equity, and economic considerations.
"The UN’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is an initiative rich with potential for creative and meaningful work. In addition to building global sustainability, it opens the door to a regeneration of education to lift it out of the increasingly narrow, functional role accorded it by a career-driven society, and return it to the central role it has played in the health of earlier cultures when it occupied itself with the central questions of who we are in the world and how we are to live."
– Pamela Mang
What better time for you to green your teaching
than following the DESD?
Return from Decade of Education for Sustainable Development to
Reasons for Greening Your Teaching
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