Closing the sustainability gap

Hák, Tomáš; Janoušková, Svatava; Moldan, Bedřich; Dahl, Arthur L.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.12.017

Cited by 65 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The SDGs introduced in 2015 as reference and universal guidepost for transitioning to Sustainable Development in the period 2015-2030, are aspirational, and according to the UN 2030 Agenda, are intended to be used as a set of interconnected goals and global targets. They provide a useful normative framework to understand sustainability, encompassing the vision of a Sustainable Society which is inclusive and takes into account social, environmental and economic capital and has the potential to attract public attention and influence public sentiment [33]. In this context, our societies and economies need to transform from the current unsustainable state onto a sustainable and resilient path, through an integrative approach that addresses all 17 SDGs, building on their synergies and benefits while alleviating their trade-offs [8].…”

Section: Sustainability As a Goal For Education: The Need For A Systementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experts, for example, place more emphasis on the sociological role of how sustainability affects human-beings (social impact, unbalances, future uncertainty) and how problems of unsustainability can be solved (values, education and stakeholders), while students often see sustainability more as a scientific-technological subject-down to science to explain and technology to avoid and solve environmental problems [32]. Its complexity can further reduce its appeal to potential stakeholders, including educators and learners, often limiting policy-makers' capacity to include it as the overarching goal of policies [33]. In practice, this raises the need to look at sustainability considering interactions between all its dimensions, its multiple scales and overall complexity [34], a task that most ESD initiatives have struggled or avoided to address in the past.…”

Section: Sustainability As a Goal For Education: The Need For A Systementioning

confidence: 99%

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Education for Sustainable Development: A Systemic Framework for Connecting the SDGs to Educational Outcomes

2019

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The UN 2030 agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envisions a future of inclusive equity, justice and prosperity within environmental limits, and places an important emphasis on education as stated in Goal 4. Education is acknowledged as a means for achieving the remaining Goals, with sustainability as a goal for education in target 4.7. However, the interconnectedness of the SDGs and the complexity of sustainability as a concept make it difficult to relate the SDGs to educational learning outcomes, with what Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims to achieve, left in ambiguity. Using systems thinking, we developed a framework that redefines ESD as a tool that can deliver the transformation required for society to reach a sustainable state. Using the SDGs as end points for this state, and through a participatory approach, education stakeholders and learners work together to construct a common vision of sustainability, identify the competences needed, and develop appropriate pedagogies and learning strategies. The framework allows for the development of evaluation tools that can support educational institutions to monitor and manage their progress in transforming societies towards sustainability.

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Section: Sustainability As a Goal For Education: The Need For A Systementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sustainability As a Goal For Education: The Need For A Systementioning

confidence: 99%

Education for Sustainable Development: A Systemic Framework for Connecting the SDGs to Educational Outcomes

2019

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“…In other words, careful linking and relating a capstone (sustainable development) to all relevant partial solutions and measures allows both complexity and comprehensibility of the whole story on renewable resources.Many very interesting and important messages are missing in this dimension, and without this sustainability context they lose credibility with many stakeholders. Therefore, even after thirty years of sustainable development summits, action plans, and reports, decision-makers and proponents of sustainable development have failed to make the concept appealing to a wide spectrum of potential stakeholders [7,8]. Therefore, insufficiently and very slowly "changing course" have not resulted in the necessary improvements in many aspects of environmental, social, and economic sustainability [9].In this study, we investigate how the news media worldwide (printed newspapers) communicate sustainability issues.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sustainable Development—A Poorly Communicated Concept by Mass Media. Another Challenge for SDGs?

et al. 2019

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Thirty years after "Our Common Future" by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, sustainable development remains the only internationally and consensually recognized global development concept. The last major United Nations event-the Rio+20 Conference in 2012-endorsed it by proposing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their more specific targets and indicators (adopted in 2015). We claim that educators, politicians, and civil society organizations have failed to a large extent in making the sustainable development concept broadly appealing. Among the missing enabling factors are a good narrative (making an extremely complex sustainable development concept comprehensible to all, thereby raising public support), social norms (reflecting commonly held sustainability principles and goals), and sustainability indicators (providing clear information for steering policies as well as for daily decisions). In this paper we focus on the role of mass media (English-written printed newspapers) as an important information channel and agenda-setter, and analyze their modes of sustainability communication. We look into how these media communicate selected key sustainability themes, and how they make connections to the overarching concept of sustainable development. We hypothesize that the media predominantly informs people and sets the agenda by communicating themes of current interest (e.g., gender inequalities), but misses the opportunity of framing them in the broader, overarching concept of sustainable development. This may be a significant sustainability faux (error)-great political intentions need efficient implementation tools, not just political resolutions. To this end, we need well-narrated and framed sustainability themes communicated through mass media to activate the social norms that potentially support societally beneficial conduct. By undertaking an extensive mass media analysis, this paper offers rare empirical evidence on sustainability communication by the global mass media during the last ten years, and identifies the main caveats and challenges for sustainability proponents. As sustainability communication does not yet have its own theoretical framework, SDGs seem to offer a suitable mechanism for this.Earth" of the Stockholm Conference and how to set about achieving this [2]. Second, "The Limits to Growth" [3] which put forth the convincing argument concerning the incompatibility of indefinite economic growth while retaining the integrity of natural resources, an unpolluted environment and a healthy living world. The answer to both questions was found: sustainable development that entails "changing course" [4] in most current economic and overall societal development in a profound way. The essence of the message is that it must be undertaken comprehensively. The development of human civilization is an extremely broad issue and no partial solution can be effective.The problem is that while this idea is evidently right, it is at the same time not very helpful for identifying concrete workable solutions...

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“…Applying an ESI to river hydrographic basins allows us to assess whether a river basin is on a sustainable growth trajectory. It is difficult to evaluate the impact of indexes and indicators on the progress of environmental sustainability in a context of changes in public decisions with regards to sustainable development [70]. Nevertheless, indexes and indicators have a significant effect, because they make general problems and weaknesses visible, and thereby raise awareness to stakeholders and decision makers [71].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Environmental, Geographical and Social Data to Assess Sustainability in Hydrographic Basins: The ESI Approach

et al. 2020

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The elaboration of environmental sustainability indexes (ESI) aims to describe the complexity between social, environmental and ecological health. These indexes play a crucial role by helping stakeholders during the decision-making process and by identifying possible sites that require practical sustainable actions. In this study, we aim to elaborate an ESI for hydrographic basins. We use three factors to build the index: land use; vulnerability to soil degradation and topographic land attributes; and human development. The human development factor includes the dimensions of education, sanitation, longevity and income. These three factors are recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and reflect the pressure–state–impact assessment model. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed ESI, we applied it in a hydrographic basin located in southern Brazil. The sustainability level variation in the basin was classified into five groups: very low (0%), low (17%), intermediate (72%), high (11%) and very high (0%). The predominance of the intermediate sustainability level was found to mainly owe to the extent of agricultural land and the high degree of susceptibility to soil erosion in areas with low environmental conservation. In areas with native vegetation, environmental sustainability was found to be higher than in areas with other land use types. The resulting ESI will help facilitate future studies in environmental, economic or social dimensions in any hydrographic basin.

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Closing the sustainability gap

Cited by 65 publications

References 9 publications

Education for Sustainable Development: A Systemic Framework for Connecting the SDGs to Educational Outcomes

Education for Sustainable Development: A Systemic Framework for Connecting the SDGs to Educational Outcomes

Sustainable Development—A Poorly Communicated Concept by Mass Media. Another Challenge for SDGs?

Integrating Environmental, Geographical and Social Data to Assess Sustainability in Hydrographic Basins: The ESI Approach

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