Sustainability education in a botanical garden promotes environmental knowledge, attitudes and willingness to act

Abstract

Creating behavior change to mobilize transitions toward sustainability is a significant challenge of our time. Inspired by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Farmer Field School, we developed a novel community-based education program to engage people in local sustainability topics. In the Sustainable Communities Field School (Field School) program, advertised as team building tours, participants from local organizations are guided by instructors through University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, while receiving verbal and experiential education on topics of food systems and choices, biodiversity conservation, water conservation, and waste reduction. We found that after the Field School program, participants were significantly more knowledgeable about environmental issues, more connected to nature, showed greater intentions and willingness to engage in sustainability actions compared to garden visitors from the general public who did not go through the program. The results suggest that interactive sustainability education in a botanical garden setting can be a useful education model to mobilize public engagement on sustainability.

The Interdependences between Sustainability and Their Lifestyle That Pre-Service Teachers Establish When Addressing Socio-Ecological Problems

“…The analysis of their proposals shows that, although there was a progression in their responses, they remained reluctant to assume active changes in their own habits. This conclusion is very relevant, since it confirms the importance of the existing barriers to the generation of commitments and changes towards pro-environmental behaviours, despite the progression they showed in their knowledge of the causes and consequences of different socio-ecological problems [51][52][53].…”

“…These authors highlighted the complexity of explaining pro-environmental behaviour, since it is not possible to explain the direct relationship between knowledge and behaviour or between attitudes and behaviour in a reductionist way [52]. In fact, pro-environmental behaviour, understood as 'any action that enhances the quality of the environment, regardless of intent' [53] (p. 2), is determined by a number of interacting factors which have been grouped as internal and external factors [52].…”

“…The internal factors include knowledge, attitudes, emotions and individual values [53]. Otto and Pensini [55] stated that environmental knowledge is a prerequisite for pro-environmental behaviour, although the relationship between them has been disputed.…”

Knowledge Analysis of the Prospective Secondary School Teacher on a Key Concept in Sustainability: Waste

“…Thus, in recent decades, the promotion of environmentally friendly behaviour has increased through the media and the growing spectrum of formal and informal environmental education programmes [11]. However, the promotion of public participation and individual action remains a challenge for governments, organizations and institutions around the world [12,13]. For this reason, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 57/254 of 20 December 2002 [14] promotes education for sustainable development by indicating that it is a fundamental tool for achieving environmental development goals by enhancing knowledge, values, competencies and skills that contribute to a just, economically viable and ecologically sustainable human future [15].…”

Analysis of Environmental Awareness, Emotions and Level of Self-Efficacy of Teachers in Training within the Framework of Waste for the Achievement of Sustainable Development

“…This belief also leads to the overuse of land, air and water bodies as reservoirs of pollution and waste. Thus, since human action is at the heart of environmental issues, sustainable development ultimately depends on changing human behavior [10]. In the last decade, a new step has been taken in terms of educational goals, as it is considered that, while they should continue to be oriented towards sustainable development, they should focus on individuals and the community rather than on the environment [11].…”