News and Updates

  • The Rio+20 Education text

    I have finally gotten hold of the Rio+20 final text via the UN.  Whilst there are numerous references to education / training / capacity building in a wide range of contexts, there's also a section on Education as one of an...

  • Is Tom Lehrer advising Gloucestershire?

    The University of Gloucestershire has adopted an innovative approach to reorienting its senior management team, grounding this more firmly on a consideration of systems and cycles in the biosphere.  Currently it is advertising for an Associate Director of Sustainability (Carbon)....

  • Not rocking down to Rio

    I guess if you're going to be at Rio, you've already arrived and are enjoying the sunshine, beach, traffic – and that frisson of excitement of being there when history is made – and, of course, the sheer fun of...

  • Charters, charters, everywhere, ...

    Whilst I was away recently, I missed a strongly worded exchange on SHED-SHARE about the latest wheeze from the increasingly febrile Copernicus Alliance.  This is yet another document that universities are expected to sign up to, and is more evidence...

  • Equal opportunities in Argyll and Bute

    As Andy Stables has noted, the political slogan, equal opportunities – rather like the idea of sustainable development – is something of a contradiction, but that doesn't stop its being put into practice in some odd contexts.  A recent egregious example...

  • The moral case for renewable energy

    At the end of May, the Guardian reported that, over two days, Germany's installed solar capacity produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity, and on one of the days met nearly 50% of power demand.  Impressive, or watt?  Needless to...

  • Wildlife on the streets

    I spent this morning standing on a street corner in one of our most prosperous local towns, collecting money for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust as part of its 50th year celebrations.  It was instructive to see who were the more...

  • Oh for a coherent conceptual frame

    Researchers from universities in Belgium, Mexico, Slovenia, the UK and the USA are setting out to look at the implementation of sustainable development principles, “as set up by the different declarations, partnerships, and initiatives into higher education institutions worldwide and...

  • Guardian green

    It is notoriously difficult to capture education activities focused on sustainability in a picture – quite often they look like a bunch of people sitting around talking – an accurate reflection of reality in many ways.  So well done to...

  • Pre-Rio perspiration

    Last week, the 5th International Conference of the Living Knowledge Network issued a Communiqué on Sustainability, Knowledge and Democracy – an initiative of the 'Big Tent' Group of international networks.  Some have lauded this, but I fear it's not for me....