ALBERT

Notes: Purpose - In 1997, the University of British Columbia (UBC) adopted a sustainable development policy stating that the campus should adhere to sustainable practices in all of its actions and mandates and that all students who attend UBC will be educated about sustainability. The purpose of the paper is to consider how far UBC has moved in the last six years in the direction of sustainability education, what has been accomplished, what lessons have been learned and what challenges lie ahead. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is a collaborative inquiry created by a number of faculty, staff and one doctoral student working on sustainability education issues at UBC. Findings - The shift to sustainability involves: a fundamental thinking-through of basic issues about the role of the university in society, creating a strong relationship between sustainability principles and the core goals of the university. It also will require a reworking of the design and operation of institutional reward systems, creating an appropriate linkage between the operational and academic functions of the university, and finding an appropriate mix of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. The collaborative writing process helped to bring people together to reflect on the projects of the past and consider the plans for the future. Originality/value - The intention of the paper is to summarize the sustainability education initiatives at UBC, and address barriers and pathways to creating sustainability education programs at the university level. The collaborative stories aim to help other individuals and groups implement sustainability in higher education and contribute to a process of institutional learning for sustainability.

Notes: Purpose - To apply the concepts of lean and sustainability to higher education. Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire was developed, administered to 18 public and private universities and analyzed. Findings - The focus in higher education is now on cost reduction or budget containment initiatives. Although these initiatives were not implemented with the knowledge that they were implementing "lean" practices, their application has often reduced waste, improved operational efficiency, and contributed to sustainability. Research limitations/implications - This is a preliminary study with a sample size of 18 universities in the northeastern United States. Future research should include more universities in the United States as well as in other countries. Practical implications - The participating universities in this study shared their beliefs about how "lean" thinking can contribute to the sustainability of higher education. Other universities can "learn from their lessons". Originality/value - Very little past research, except in the area of green marketing, has focused on lean sustainability concepts in higher education.

Notes: Purpose - To present the challenge of sustainable development, the way in which technology can address that challenge and the task of engineering education to train engineers for it. Design/methodology/approach - The paper describes briefly the history of the environmental and sustainability discourse in The Netherlands, as a densely populated country. It argues that technology should play a major role in SD, but that technological innovation is not enough. Technological systems renewal is a transdisciplinary activity involving relevant stakeholders and disciplines. "Needs" is the basic starting-point to innovate new systems of provision. The paper reviews relevant literature regarding future orientation of technology development. Based on it, goals for training of engineers are developed. Findings - The engineer has to meet a threefold challenge: providing new creative approaches on the one hand, and setting up and executing R&D programs that produce results, on the other; cooperating with other disciplines and lay stakeholders, on the one hand, and guarding disciplinary quality, on the other; bridging moralism and strategic pragmatism. Research limitations/implications - The paper is an introduction, i.e. it sketches the issues without dealing with them in detail. Practical implications - The paper draws in broad lines a road-map for the future of engineering education and sustainable development. The paper is a useful source for those engineering institutions that are formulating a strategy to introduce sustainable development. Originality/value - The paper goes beyond environmental engineering, not by just adding social and economic issues, but by developing an integrated framework for academic training of engineers.

Notes: Purpose - Owing to its complexity, sustainable development cannot be simply integrated as a supplementary course within the engineers' curricula. The first point of this paper aims to focalise on how to reflect pedagogically. After dealing with these questions, a tool that can evaluate the student's understanding of sustainable development concepts will be presented. Design/methodology/approach - The analysis of a student's sustainability comprehension, based on cognitive maps, has been developed. The students are asked to write and connect by arrows all the terms that they associate with the concept of sustainable development. The assessment of the aforementioned cognitive maps is based on an approach via semantic category. Findings - This study shows that the students' perception of sustainable development before the training seems mainly focalised on environmental and economical aspects. After the SD course, an increase in the number of words quoted is noted for each category (social and cultural aspects; the stakeholders, the principles of sustainable development and the allusions to complexity, temporal and spatial dimensions). Their vision seems richer and wider. The training seemed useful to help the students who did not associate sustainable development with diverse dimension to improve this perception. Research limitations/implications - To reduce the length of the elaboration of the maps, there is no preliminary training for the construction of maps. To simplify this elaboration, only one type of arrows is used to connect words. To minimise the time of analysis of the maps, the relevance of the relations made between the words is not verified. Besides, the classification of words within the semantic categories implies a certain level of subjectivity. Practical implications - This cognitive map method can be a useful tool to improve learning in quantitative terms but also in qualitative terms. Identifying knowledge gaps and misunderstood ideas allows the improvement in the training. Originality/value - This study presents a new method that can be used to evaluate the impact of training sessions on students. Another advantage is to analyse how the students' knowledge is interconnected. This seems particularly interesting because the study of this transdisciplinary concept also necessitates an integrated vision.

Notes: Purpose - To show the key points of a development education program for engineering studies fitted within the framework of the human development paradigm. Design/methodology/approach - The bases of the concept of technology for human development are presented, and the relationship with development education analysed. Special attention is dedicated to the role of case studies in engineering courses. After that, the development education program pushed by the Civil Engineering School of Barcelona and Engineering without Borders is explained, focusing on two major contributions: two optional courses about international aid and development and nine classroom case studies about different technologies used in real co-operation projects. Findings - This work provides a conceptual basis for incorporating development education into engineering studies, a general overview of different activities promoted in Spanish technical universities and practical information about optional courses and classroom case studies. Research limitations/implications - The proposal is based on the experience in Spanish engineering curricula (mostly in five-year degrees). Some of the topics covered by the courses and the case studies can be better adapted at postgraduate level in three- or four-year degrees. Practical implications - It is shown that development education can be incorporated into engineering studies through different specific non-expensive activities. Originality/value - This work presents and puts in context the development education activities pushed coordinately between a non-governmental organization and an engineering school. Thus, it can be of major interest for both teachers and workers of the international development field.

Notes: Purpose - Environmental assessment (EA) is a proactive planning tool designed to consider the ecological, cultural, socio-political and economic impacts of potential projects, making it a major tool for achieving sustainable development. Meaningful EA requires a bridging of the natural sciences with the social sciences to broaden understanding of the overall environmental impacts of development projects on humans, the natural environment and other organisms. As a result of this complexity, education and training needs are great. The purpose of this paper was to consider EA educational opportunities at Canadian universities and to test a model for the analysis of the state of such education. Design/methodology/approach - The research design used a qualitative interactive approach, including a survey of 2001 university course calendars, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings - Results indicate that the number of universities offering EA courses has tripled to 40 since the mid-1980?s. While this is a positive finding, data illustrate that the bulk of the courses offered are survey-oriented and introductory in nature, with little opportunity to specialize. This cursory approach is exacerbated by a lack of teaching resources and instructor development. Despite the nature of the courses offered, many professors encourage critical thinking and use innovative teaching techniques, including role-playing, to promote self-reflection. In fact, the interdisciplinary approach to the curricula and the promotion of critical thinking outside disciplinary boundaries are two strengths of current EA programming. Originality/value - In light of this state of formal EA education in Canada, more research and international level dialogue are warranted.

Notes: Purpose - Greek pedagogical students' attitudes towards environmental education in Greece are very important as these students represent future teachers who will affect the success of environmental education in schools. Therefore, the identification of their views will give us the potentiality to modify the curricula of pedagogical departments accordingly. Design/methodology/approach - The use of a questionnaire was chosen as the most suitable method to review and record pedagogical students' attitudes towards environmental education. Findings - The results of this study show that pedagogical students have not only realized the importance of environmental education in primary education but have also been sensitized to the environment and the issues involved in this. Attending practical courses on the environment seems to help towards this sensitivity. Originality/value - Results of this research show that an attempt should be made to develop education for sustainability in universities through an interdisciplinary approach, as universities bear a great responsibility in developing people's interest in the environment by training them to assess the impact of, and find solutions to, environmental problems and by producing well-trained professionals who will promote and support sustainable development.

Notes: Purpose - To describe how the teaching and learning approach of a new MBA distance learning program helps to produce promoters and ecopreneurs of sustainable development and entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach - The chosen MBA program is analyzed based on the principles of time flexibility, promotion of initiative, team capability, staff development and transfer to practice. Findings - Provides information about how a study program can bring the team capability and initiative of future ecopreneurs as well as staff learning forward. Recognises the need to consider using links to industry and government to transfer sustainable ideas to practice. Research limitations/implications - The article illustrates concentrated knowledge on a case study and does not compare different distance-learning programs or other educational programs in these areas. Practical implications - A very useful source of information for target groups of MBA studies, like graduate students or employed people, as well as designers of courses of study implying sustainability management and entrepreneurship. This teaching and learning approach can be adapted to other educational settings at a postgraduate level to train sustainable leaders for the future. Originality/value - This paper fills the gap to survey further education programs which generate and transmit knowledge to future ecopreneurs.

Notes: Purpose - To present results from a research project on postgraduate and undergraduate students' learning about environmental issues in education. Design/methodology/approach - Three cases were carried out with civil engineering students, biology students and postgraduate students. Discussions in classroom were tape-recorded, as well as discussions while working with assignments, and interviews were carried out. Findings - Shows how differently environmental issues can be interpreted, i.e. scientifically, existentially and politically, and the way values and emotions become an aspect of the learning process and reveal the students' difficulties in differentiating between values and descriptions of phenomena. This is analysed and explained in relation to the students' various projects that come into conflict in the educational setting. Practical implications - The paper can be of use to those who are engaged in environmental education and raises questions regarding the content of today's environmental education. Originality/value - Gives an insight into students' learning processes and experiences in environmental education and the difficulties they can experience when studying such a subject.

Notes: Purpose - This paper describes a set of recommendations that will aid universities planning to create sustainability education programs. These recommendations are not specific to curriculum or programs but are instead recommendations for academic institutions considering a shift towards "sustainability education" in the broadest sense. The purpose of this research was to consider the possible directions for the future of sustainability education at the university level. Design/methodology/approach - Through a series of workshops using a "value focused thinking" framework, a small team of researchers engaged a large number of stakeholders in a dialogue about sustainability education at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. Recommendations were compiled from workshop data as well as data from 30 interviews of participants connected with decision-making and sustainability at UBC. Findings - The recommendations include infusing sustainability into all university decisions, promoting and practicing collaboration and transdisciplinarity and focusing on personal and social sustainability. Other recommendations included an integration of university plans, decision-making structures and evaluative measures and the integration of the research, service and teaching components of the university. There is a need for members of the university community to create space for reflection and pedagogical transformation. Originality/value - The intention of the paper is to outline the details of a participatory workshop that uses value-focused thinking in order to engage university faculty and administration in a dialogue about sustainability education. Students, faculty and staff working towards sustainability education will be able to adapt the workshop to their own institutions.