Sustainability in the curriculum

‘Sustainability’ refers to three interrelated ‘pillars’: environmental, social and economic sustainability. While definitions of ‘sustainability’ can and do vary across disciplines, this document works with the definition provided by the United Nations Brundtland Commission (1987), as: ‘meeting the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. In recent years, a fourth pillar – culture – has been proposed as ‘another fundamental dimension of sustainability’ (Maffi, 2010).

The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developed in 2015, have been set out to address this challenge. At the University of Manchester, programmes (in some cases also modules) as well as research profiles have been ‘tagged’ with SDGs.

The theory of teaching sustainability is often referred to as ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD). Education for Sustainability talks about teaching and learning in relation to the development of key competencies. It ‘develops the skills, values and attitudes that enable citizens to lead healthy and fulfilled lives, make informed decisions, and respond to local and global challenges’ ( UNESCO Report Issues and Trends in Education for Sustainable Development (2018), p. 39). These include, for instance: systemic thinking and handling of complexity; anticipatory thinking; critical thinking; acting fairly and ecologically; cooperation in (heterogeneous) groups; participation, empathy and change of perspective; interdisciplinary work; communication and use of media; planning and realizing innovative projects; ambiguity and frustration tolerance.

The Introduction to the University’s Environmental Strategy (approved 2023), acknowledges that ‘the environmental threats facing humanity and the other species with which we share our planet are greater than ever and the speed at which we need to address them is immense’. In the Strategy, the University commits itself to ensuring that ‘our students and graduates […] will develop not only academic and professional skills, but also a sense of environmental, ethical and social responsibility’. It has also committed itself to reducing the University’s carbon footprint, and to increasing campus biodiversity. (You can learn more about the University of Manchester’s commitment to Teaching and Learning for Sustainability here.)