October 2014

I had an email recently from Tom Franklin, Think Global’s CEO.  Maybe you did too.  He invited me for lunch (and an AGM).  Sadly, I was busy.  I was struck that his very short message included all the following phrases: global learning...

I wrote yesterday about the problems of identifying 'sustainability skills'.  I noted that the world is full of people with so-called sustainability skills such as 'critical thinking' but that many such skills are purpose and value-neutral.  It all depends on how they are used in the...

At a summer meeting with a university's ESD team, we heard that its students have described the skills they see relating to sustainability.  The ESD team noted that these could be applicable to just about any subject area, echoing the idea of sustainability...

There's a new book around: ‘Schooling for Sustainable Development in Europe’ .  This "... examines the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programs in schools across Europe. It describes and analyses how individual countries and the region as a...

If you are reading this, you probably missed the coming together of the world's leading miserabilists in New York at the weekend.  Never, mind, think of all the carbon the world saved by your not going, and the tedium you were spared....

The Economist's Schumpeter blog recently carried an article "A new green wave" which suggests that "a few pioneering businesses are developing sustainability policies worthy of the name."   Really?, you might think.  Is that news?  Surely this has been going on...

Professor Madeleine Atkins Chief Executive Officer Higher Education Funding Council for England Northavon House Coldharbour Lane Bristol BS16 1QD Dear Professor Atkins In 2009, Hefce published an updated strategic statement and action plan on sustainable development in the higher education sector...

This was to be the Sun's front page headline today, until a dead donkey story came up. It seems that no member of the UK government is going to the End-of-Days conference on ESD in Japan in November.  Not even the...

There was evidence for this aplenty in Oxford the other day as the idea and practice of capitalism came in for another routine bashing. That's a great thing about capitalism, of course, it affords niches not just for business and social...

You might be wondering what has happened to HEFCE's new Sustainable Development Framework – after all, the national consultation was many months ago.  Well, there is the inevitable passage through the Council's committees – not to mention their having to get a...