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Sustainable Development Education Panel

First Annual Report 1998

Our Goals for 2010

  1. Our vision is a world in which there are many opportunities to learn about sustainable development. A world where a skilled population make informed decisions in their home, community and working lives and in their leisure activities. A world where people understand and take responsibility for the impact they have on the quality of life of other people, locally and globally.

  2. We need to set out what this world will look like in reality, what our vision means in practice and what its building blocks will be. To do this we have set a series of goals for 2010. We have done so because education for sustainable development is a long term programme, and that programme needs to be sustained with determination and with clear and consistent goals. In the very short term, perhaps, little can, or will, change. Over a ten year period very substantial change and achievements are possible. Moreover, such ten year goals provide a framework within which the efforts of many people and organisations can work together in coherent and consistent ways which reinforce each other. That is a vital necessity - at present there are many initiatives, many organisations, working in a committed fashion, but sometimes in ignorance of each other's existence, plans and programmes. This leads to waste of effort and duplication. A framework with a ten year time horizon takes this set of objectives, which are fundamental to our future, beyond immediate and narrow concerns.

  3. These are our Goals for 2010. We invite everyone to share the challenge of meeting them.

    Central Government

  4. Central Government is enormously influential, not only in what it can do to promote education for sustainable development, but also in the example that it can set itself. It is a major employer, manages huge resources, including buildings and grant programmes; and has influence over all sectors of our society. Our goal is that by 2005 Government, its agencies and funded bodies should have a strategy for education for sustainable development that is reflected in all that it does, from resource deployment, to policy development, to bringing forward legislation; and that Government and those bodies it funds should be required to report annually on progress in delivering that strategy.

    Local Government

  5. Local Government is, like Central Government, enormously influential - particularly in the way we live our lives in our communities. For this reason, we would like to see Local Government establish and deliver a strategy for education for sustainable development in the same terms as Central Government and its agencies. Local Government has huge potential to promote the economic, social and environmental quality of life of communities, and to provide learning opportunities within those communities.

    1. All Local Authorities will have as part of their strategic plan for sustainable development in their area, a sustainable development education strategy based on local sustainability; reporting and linked to local information, aspirations and targets; and aimed at increasing participation in the delivery of sustainable development objectives.

    2. All strategic lifelong learning partnerships to have education for sustainable development as a priority and reflected fully in their plans.

    Schools

  6. The schools sector provides the opportunity to reach our children and to ensure that they are fully-equipped to be active citizens in the new millennium.

    1. All schools, and providers of education for under 5s, should provide education for sustainable development as part of a pupil's education; should have a policy on becoming a sustainable institution and be making progress towards its implementation; and should have ` sufficient teaching staff competent in education for sustainable development for all pupils to receive an entitlement in this area.

    2. All pupils should have acquired knowledge and understanding to enable them to participate in the achievement of sustainable development by the end of their period of compulsory education; and schools should be supported in delivering this by the local education authorities.

    3. All initial teacher training; training of nursery staff and child minders; and continuing professional development and governor training (where appropriate) should have education for sustainable development integrated throughout.

    Youth Services

  7. Young people will inherit the planet that we leave. They will be the future decision-makers, consumers, business leaders and parents. But they are also citizens and decision-makers now. Youth groups are enormously influential in helping young people learn a wide range of skills outside the formal education sector.

    1. All Local Authority Youth Services and National Voluntary Youth Organisations should provide education for sustainable development as part of their core offering to young people

    2. All Local Authority Youth Services and National Voluntary Youth Organisations should have a policy on sustainable development youth work and be making progress towards its implementation.

    3. All Local Authority Youth Services and National Voluntary Youth Organisations should offer initial and in-service training for full-time and part-time and voluntary youth workers in sustainable development youth work

    Further and Higher Education

  8. Even more people are going into further and higher education. We have a responsibility to ensure that all of them, whatever profession or subject they are studying, are fully equipped with the skills, knowledge and understanding that will be necessary for a new millennium.

    1. All further and higher education institutions to be accredited to an internationally or nationally recognised sustainable development systems standard; to have staff fully trained and competent in sustainable development; and to be providing all students with relevant sustainable development learning opportunities.

    2. The Further and Higher Education Funding Councils to have made a defined level of sustainable development performance relating to house-keeping, curriculum and community responsibilities a condition of grant to institutions.

    3. All professional bodies and industry lead bodies to have sustainable development education criteria included within their course accreditation requirements.

    Employers and Employment

  9. Employers are enormously influential, not just in providing learning opportunities for their employees, but also in educating their customers, their suppliers and the world at large. We believe that all businesses should be actively addressing the challenges of sustainable development.

    1. An 'Investors in Sustainable Development' (IiSD) award to be well-established, widely recognised and available to all employers; and all publicly funded education and training organisations to be recognised as 'IiSD'.

    2. All management training courses to include an element of sustainable development education; all trade unions to include sustainable development education in their training.

    3. All large companies to include explicit statements throughout their Annual Report about their progress towards sustainable development including what they are doing to motivate their suppliers, customers and employees to participate in education for sustainable development.

    Other Key Bodies

  10. Many agencies have crucial roles to play in education and training, and in influencing the economic, social and environmental integrity of significant parts of the country.

    1. The Regional Development Agencies and Training and Enterprise Councils to have as part of their strategic plan for sustainable development in their area, a sustainable development education strategy based on local sustainability reporting and linked to local information, aspirations and targets.

    2. The Health Authority's programmes to contain education for sustainable development.

    The Public and Households

  11. The term 'general public and households' includes the entire population and therefore embraces all the groups mentioned above. We have used the term not so much to define them as a group, as to help to focus our thoughts on ways of educating people who are outside the more formal structure above, and of reinforcing any education people receive in those more formal ways. This means considering how we reach them in their homes, at leisure, as consumers and in other informal settings - for example through the mass media and advertising, and through communities and voluntary groups to which they belong. Because we are not sure what the current baseline level is, our true goal is a year on year improvement in understanding of sustainable development and action that reflects that understanding. However, we are keen to set ourselves a challenge and have therefore set the targets below:

    1. 80% adults to understand the need to live sustainably; 75% of adults to understand how individual behaviour impacts on sustainable development; and 60% of adults to have been able to change their behaviour to live more sustainably.

    2. All major public and private sector goods and service providers to be a channel for 'Are You Doing Your Bit?' information on sustainable development.

    3. All adult education providers and large voluntary sector bodies to have learning for sustainable development as part of their core offering; to have a policy on education for sustainable development and to be making progress towards its implementation.

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Page published 28 April 1999;
Page last modified 20 August, 2002

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs