Sustainability as a key priority
The European Union and the United Nations Development Programme in Kazakhstan launched in 2021 a new knowledge-sharing platform on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Central Asian countries.
The SDGs Platform works with governments and civil society in the 5 Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan – to achieve SDGs, by helping them track and adjust their key socio-economic policies by monitoring SDG attainment and financing.
The Russian Federation is also committed to achieve the goals defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This work has been done as a direct continuation of the activities in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals achievement. While the concept of sustainable development was formulated and has become an integral part of the national development concept of Russia in 1996.
In June 2020, the UN website published the first Voluntary National Review of the Russian Federation's achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The review reflects the achievements of the Russian Federation in all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and contains the results of a comprehensive monitoring of socio-economic development and the development of the strategic planning system since 2015. In particular, the state programme to improve energy efficiency by 2030 envisages training and retraining of 450,000 professionals in the field of energy conservation and energy efficiency. Moreover, the current national educational standards for vocational education in all areas of learning include such discipline as "Ecological Fundamentals of Nature Use."
Despite some progress in promoting the green agenda in education, we cannot say exactly that vocational education makes a significant contribution to the achievement of the SDGs, since these actions are fragmented and not clearly targeted. Luckily for us, the EU published European Sustainability Competence Framework, GreenComp, in 2022, which is a systematic goal-setting benchmark for transforming education be part of a green society.
Why do we need sustainability skills?
We see that nowadays, virtually no curriculum can be considered promising and meaningful unless it reflects the European Sustainability Competence Framework, GreenComp. The idea behind this new competence framework (connected with the European Commission’s Green Deal) is that green thinking became so significant that a new Sustainability Competence Framework should be applied by all vocational education institutions not only in the EU but also in partner countries. The text below draws heavily on a recent 2022 document, which describes this Framework.
Clearly, GreenComp responds to the growing need for people to improve and develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to live, work and act in a sustainable manner. It provides a common ground to learners and guidance to educators, providing a consensual definition of what sustainability as a competence entails. It can be used for LLL purposes and to support all learners, irrespective of their age and their education level, in formal, non-formal and informal learning environment. The European Commission has developed GreenComp as a reference framework on sustainability competences at EU level.
A competence-based education that helps learners develop sustainability skills based on knowledge and attitudes can help promote responsible action and stimulate willingness to take or demand action at local, national and global level. Becoming competent in sustainability issues will enable learners to overcome the cognitive dissonance that comes from knowing about an issue but lacking the agency to act.
What is sustainability?
We so often use this word or sustainable development that sometimes it seems that everything is clear to everyone. However, this is not the case, because sustainability means different things to different groups of people at different times. As claimed by UNESCO, sustainability is best described as a long-term goal, such as attaining a more sustainable world, while sustainable development, like the word suggests, refers to the many processes and pathways used to stimulate development, or achieve progress, in sustainable ways.
GreenComp defines the term Sustainability by “prioritising the needs of all life forms and of the planet by ensuring that human activity does not exceed planetary boundaries”.
What is sustainability competence?
GreenComp maps sustainability as a competence relevant to all ages. The sustainability competence defined by GreenComp unfolds into a set of sub-elements that we refer to as competences for sustainability.
GreenComp has adopted the following statement to define a sustainability competence: "A sustainability competence empowers learners to embody sustainability values, and embrace complex systems, in order to take or request action that restores and maintains ecosystem health and enhances justice, generating visions for sustainable futures."
This definition focuses on developing sustainability knowledge, skills and attitudes for learners so they can think, plan and act with sustainability in mind, to live in tune with the planet.
GreenComp consists of four competence ‘areas’ and implies that sustainability as a competence is made of 12 building blocks.
|
Area |
Competence |
Descriptor |
|
1. Embodying sustainability values
|
1.1 Valuing sustainability
|
To reflect on personal values; identify and explain how values vary among people and over time, while critically evaluating how they align with sustainability values. |
| 1.2 Supporting fairness |
To support equity and justice for current and future generations and learn from previous generations for sustainability. |
|
| 1.3 Promoting nature | To acknowledge that humans are part of nature; and to respect the needs and rights of other species and of nature itself in order to restore and regenerate healthy and resilient ecosystems. | |
|
2. Embracing complexity in sustainability
|
2.1 Systems thinking
|
To approach a sustainability problem from all sides; to consider time, space and context in order to understand how elements interact within and between systems. |
| 2.2 Critical thinking |
To assess information and arguments, identify assumptions, challenge the status quo, and reflect on how personal, social and cultural backgrounds influence thinking and conclusions. |
|
| 2.3 Problem framing |
To formulate current or potential challenges as a sustainability problem in terms of difficulty, people involved, time and geographical scope, in order to identify suitable approaches to anticipating and preventing problems, and to mitigating and adapting to already existing problems. |
|
| 3. Envisioning sustainable futures | 3.1 Futures literacy |
To envision alternative sustainable futures by imagining and developing alternative scenarios and identifying the steps needed to achieve a preferred sustainable future. |
| 3.2 Adaptability |
To manage transitions and challenges in complex sustainability situations and make decisions related to the future in the face of uncertainty, ambiguity and risk. |
|
| 3.3 Exploratory thinking |
To adopt a relational way of thinking by exploring and linking different disciplines, using creativity and experimentation with novel ideas or methods. |
|
|
4. Acting for sustainability
|
4.1 Political agency
|
To navigate the political system, identify political responsibility and accountability for unsustainable behaviour, and demand effective policies for sustainability. |
| 4.2 Collective action | To act for change in collaboration with others. | |
| 4.3 Individual initiative | To identify own potential for sustainability and to actively contribute to improving prospects for the community and the planet. |
GreenComp offers also examples how to perform each descriptor in a coherent set of Knowledge, Skills and Attitude.
For example, Descriptor (1.3) for Promoting nature may be described as a set of
- Knowledge: knows that our wellbeing, health and security depend on the wellbeing of nature;
- Skills: can assess own impact on nature and consider the protection of nature an essential task for every individual;
- Attitude: cares about a harmonious relationship existing between nature and humans.
Like the other EU competence frameworks, GreenComp is non-prescriptive. It provides a conceptual reference model that everyone involved in lifelong learning can use with various objectives in mind.
Dear colleagues, what is your experience with using Sustainability competences in Curricula and courses?
Do you have your examples of training sustainability and green competences in your classes?
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