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Operationalizing Sustainable Development to Benefit People and the Planet (2022)

Chapter: 2 Education and Capacity Building

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Suggested Citation: "2 Education and Capacity Building." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Operationalizing Sustainable Development to Benefit People and the Planet. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26654.

2

Education and Capacity Building

The goal of a quality education is articulated through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 (“Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”). Education is critical to achieving the other SDGs, and educational institutions at all levels are powerfully positioned to operationalize sustainability across society. In addition, educational institutions have an important role to play in educating about the SDGs themselves.

CHALLENGES

Within the United States—whether within the federal government, media, educational systems, or other domains—public knowledge about the 2030 Agenda is limited, in terms of actions being taken both globally and domestically that align with the SDGs (Mendelson, 2022; World Economic Forum, 2019). Among the 193 United Nations (UN) member states, 187 countries have undertaken Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), which provide an intentional way to identify gaps and chart future action (UN, 2022e). The 6 countries that have not undertaken VNRs are Haiti, Iran, Myanmar, South Sudan, Yemen, and the United States (Sachs et al., 2022).¹ When the SDGs are recognized in the United States, many people assume they are focused on environmental improvement and/or are intended for the Global South (Mendelson, 2022b).

Building sustainable mindsets begins at a young age, but there is little effort at the K-12 and university levels to apply inquiry-based learning to help students

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¹ In 2022, Brookings and the UN Foundation released The State of Sustainable Development Goals in the United States as a shadow VNR, calling for stronger U.S. leadership on the SDGs (Pipa et al., 2022).

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learn about the SDGs and to develop partnerships of stakeholders to understand local needs and develop actionable steps toward progress. As one presenter posed, “What are we doing to educate our students to understand the complex global challenges of our time?” (O’Donnell, 2022). She pointed to SDG Target 4.7, which states that “by 2030, ensure all students acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.” Achievement of this goal requires making complex subjects understandable, building mindsets for long-term engagement, changing abstract SDGs into locally relevant issues, and taking action for change—and engaging children at a young age.

CASE STUDIES AND SYNERGIES

The committee learned of promising initiatives that address these challenges in creative and implementable ways. Presenters described experiential learning and community partnerships that advance all the SDGs, while providing the “quality education” articulated in SDG 4. At the K-12 level, for example, the Smithsonian Science Education Center has created opportunities for students to learn about local issues to build global sustainability mindsets (Box 2-1; Figure 2-1). At the university level, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) launched a campus-wide, multidisciplinary Sustainability Initiative that resulted in, among other things, the first Voluntary University Review (VUR) to assess how education, research, and practice in a postsecondary educational setting align with the SDGs (Box 2-2). CMU has also supported the city of Pittsburgh in conducting a Voluntary Local Review and has involved students in capstone research and action projects in Pittsburgh and other cities.

Other examples discussed include a “Sustainability 101” course that all students at Arizona State University, regardless of major, will take; regional partnerships spearheaded by the University of Texas at Arlington to promote Education for Sustainable Development (Tare, 2022); student-led SDG projects in partnership with the City of Los Angeles (Apolitical, 2022a); and transformation of the university campus as a model for sustainability practices for the surrounding community, as done at Chiang Mai Rajabhat University in Thailand. Drawing on the concept of “glocal” or meso scale of communities, Marc McCaffrey (The Long Game) noted the multiplying impact of the “Powers of 10”: that is, the networks that an individual can tap into to create change over time (McCaffrey, 2022).

A number of studies examine key competencies for sustainability in higher education. Wiek et al. (2011) discuss five core competencies in sustainability education: a systems thinking competence, an anticipatory competence, a normative competence, a strategic competence, and an interpersonal competence. A Delphi study with 14 international experts in sustainability education extends this framework to propose two additional key sustainability competencies: an implementation competency and an intrapersonal competency or mindset (Brundiers et al., 2020).

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BOX 2-1
K-12 Education: Smithsonian Science for Global Goals

Experiential learning in which students undertake local investigations that connect to global issues is an effective way to educate and inspire young people. One example is the work of Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC), through the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project.

Mission and Goals

The mission of SSEC is transforming K-12 Education Through Science™ in collaboration with communities across the globe. SSEC is the only organization within the Smithsonian Institution that focuses specifically on formal K-12 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, according to its director, Carol O’Donnell. To achieve its interlocking goals of innovation, sustainability, and inclusion, SSEC promotes active inquiry-based STEM teaching and learning; advances K-12 STEM education for sustainable development; and ensures diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in K-12 STEM education. SSEC involvement with the InterAcademy Partnership, an umbrella group of more than 140 science and medicine academies, supports global implementation.

Developing Sustainability Mindsets

In 2016, SSEC intentionally aligned its work with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), creating the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project in collaboration with the InterAcademy Partnership to help young people “discover, understand, [and] act.” Locally relevant, locally driven, but globally important experiential learning experiences combine STEM education, social and emotional learning, and civic engagement.

SSEC has developed a set of Community Research Guides on four multifaceted subject areas: sustainable communities, food, mosquitos, and biodiversity, with each curriculum expected to take about 16 weeks to complete. For example, the Biodiversity Guide is a seven-part curriculum that helps students answer a vital question: How can we balance the needs of people with the needs of other living things? By working through research and other activities in the Food Guide, students develop a community action plan to ensure good nutrition for all. The Mosquito Guide helps students in the United States, Africa, and Central America develop different sets of actions based on the problems they identify. Shorter Community Response Guides focus on more specific issues—currently, COVID-19, vaccines in general, and environmental justice. More guides are being developed—focusing on climate change, biotechnology, extreme weather, and more—and will align with the SDGs.

References

IAP (The InterAcademy Partnership) website, https://www.interacademies.org/iap/about.

O’Donnell, C. 2018. Science Education, Identity, and Civic Engagement: Empowering Youth through the UN Sustainable Development Goals. G7 Executive Talk Series.

O’Donnell, C. 2022. Workshop Presentation, April 18, 2022.

Pahnke, J., C. O’Donnell, and M. Bascope. 2019. Using Science to Do Social Good: STEM Education for Sustainable Development. Position paper at the second International Dialogue on STEM Education, Berlin, Germany.

SSEC website, https://ssec.si.edu.

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**FIGURE 2-1** Building sustainability mindsets.
SOURCE: Carol O’Donnell, Workshop Presentation, April 18, 2022.

KEY RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR EDUCATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING

To operationalize sustainable development in areas relating to education and capacity building, the field could prioritize the following research activities:

Conduct research investigations, case studies, and evaluations of effective efforts building partnerships and operationalizing the SDGs at the local and subnational levels that connect to national and global levels with special focus on K-12 and university education, public outreach, and capacity building.
Identify effective ways to support K-12 education initiatives that assist students with defining, developing, and implementing their own frameworks for sustainable actions in their communities and in understanding the impacts beyond.
Examine issues relating to ensuring diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in K-12 STEM education as well as leveling the playing field in access to K-12 education across school districts in the United States.
Examine how sustainability education programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels can prepare all students, regardless of major, to contribute to advancing a post-2030 agenda for sustainable development, as well as identify best practices in field building for sustainable development at the undergraduate and graduate levels that will be important for research and education in moving that agenda forward.

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BOX 2-2
Higher Education: Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) serves as an example of how colleges and universities can operationalize sustainability—internally and externally.

CMU’s Sustainability Initiative

CMU has more than 14,000 students in its seven schools and colleges. The university launched a Sustainability Initiative in 2019, a renewal of sustainability activities in education, research, and practice that began in the 1990s. At that time, a Green Design education and research initiative and a Green Practices Committee were established. CMU has been active with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) since it was founded in the early 2000s. Internal studies in recent years, including the 2017 “Pittsburgh to Paris: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Carnegie Mellon University” and a 2019 Task Force on Campus Climate, prompted the Sustainability Initiative. Established under the leadership of the provost, the initiative made a commitment to “help solve pressing problems brought to light by the SDG framework, by acting boldly, taking risks, and applying creativity.” Another commitment was to complete a Voluntary University Review (VUR) by September 2020.

Voluntary University Reviews: 2020 and 2021

CMU’s VUR is the first university review in the world to map to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to Provost James H. Garrett, in his preface to the 2020 VUR, “Our intention is for CMU’s VUR to be a framework for us to track what we are doing across the 17 Global Goals and where we might find opportunities to do more.” As a baseline, a survey was undertaken in February 2020 to take stock of the CMU community’s understanding of and interest in the SDGs. Most respondents were not aware of them but expressed interest in learning more. Hundreds of students, faculty, and staff engaged in the process. A steering committee appointed by the provost includes senior faculty members (workshop presenter Sarah Mendelson is one), the dean of libraries, a staff director of the initiative, and the assistant vice president for facilities. The VURs, conducted with the aid of data analytics tools, look across CMU’s education, research, and practice missions. Examples of findings are:

Education—Reviewed the 2,938 courses offered in spring 2020 to determine whether/which SDGs were addressed;
Research—Reviewed 995 CMU publications between 2018 and 2020 to identify sustainability-related topics;
Practice—Reviewed reports, support centers, policies, and student organizations; operations, such as facilities management, housing, and transportation services; and human resources.

A 17 Rooms exercise, modeled after the innovative 17 Rooms Initiative of the Brookings Institution and The Rockefeller Foundation, was conducted in May 2020 (by videoconference due to the pandemic) to engage mixed groups of students, faculty, and staff with interests in particular SDGs and how they are or could be addressed at CMU. Through the 17 Rooms Initiative, stakeholders come together virtually to identify actionable steps around each of the SDGs that “are big enough

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to matter and small enough to get done” over the period of 12 to 18 months. During summer 2020, seven students reviewed, synthesized, interpreted, and followed up on the initial set of findings from the CMU 17 Rooms. They mapped each activity to an SDG, recognizing some subjectivity and the relationship of many activities to more than one SDG. These analyses helped support the 2020 VUR. In 2021, the VUR focused on innovations in collection, analysis, and sharing of information. An algorithm (open source for others to use) for analysis of CMU course offerings was developed to enable analysis of many more courses. Similarly, research and practice activities can be more extensively examined through interactive data analytics tools.

Other Efforts

With the release of the VUR, outreach included participation in a side event at the September 2019 United Nations (UN) General Assembly hosted by Brookings and the UN Foundation and engagement with various higher education networks. CMU students have also been involved in creating a Voluntary Local Review for the city of Pittsburgh. Mendelson described a student capstone project to develop case studies in several U.S. and Canadian cities tracking the impact of pandemic relief and recovery funds on issues relating to social justice needs (including SDGs 2, 3, 10, and 16). She is also editing a volume of case studies that examine teaching human rights differently using the SDGs.

References

17 Rooms website, https://www.brookings.edu/project/17-rooms.

CMU (Carnegie Mellon University). 2022. The Sustainability Initiative at CMU: Toward a more sustainable future—for everyone. https://www.cmu.edu/leadership/the-provost/provost-priorities/sustainability-initiative/index.html.

CMU. 2021. CMU Voluntary University Review of the Sustainability Development Goals 2021. https://local2030.org/library/848/Carnegie-Mellon-University-Voluntary-University-Review-2021.pdf.

CMU. 2020. CMU Voluntary University Review of the Sustainability Development Goals 2020. https://www.cmu.edu/leadership/the-provost/provost-priorities/sustainability-initiative/cmu-vur-2020.pdf.

Mendelson, S. 2022a. Heinz in the Hague. https://www.heinz.cmu.edu/media/2022/July/heinz-in-the-hague.

Mendelson, S. 2022b. Workshop Presentation, April 18, 2022.

POSSIBLE ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR EDUCATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING

Possible actionable steps for undertaking inquiry-based education initiatives and capacity-building partnerships essential to making progress on the SDGs at the local, national, and global levels are as follows:

University leaders could undertake initiatives to assist faculty and students in developing VURs to evaluate needs and prioritization among

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SDGs based on an institutional mission, take actionable steps that advance progress on the SDGs at their universities, and ensure that every student regardless of major is exposed to the challenges and opportunities in sustainable development.
University leaders and faculties could develop partnerships with local and national governments, universities, business communities, and civil society organizations to develop VURs to evaluate needs and take actionable steps that can advance progress toward the SDGs by their cities and local communities (Apolitical, 2022b).
University leaders and faculties could elevate a focus on building the field of sustainability science as a discipline to prepare the next generation for a post-2030 agenda for sustainable development.
Cities and school districts could initiate and support programs at the local K-12 level for students to undertake local investigations in their communities on the SDGs across diverse contexts; define and implement frameworks for sustainable development; and connect their local issues to global issues, such as the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals (O’Donnell, 2022).
U.S. government and education leaders could engage the public to raise awareness of the SDGs. Examples include the National Climate Assemblies in many European countries, such as Austria, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Scotland, Spain, and the United Kingdom, that discuss the climate crisis with randomly selected citizens (Bürgerrat, 2022); global campaigns such as the World’s Largest Lesson (2022) and World’s To Do List (2022); São Paulo’s Municipal Agenda 2030 and its public policy councils (Open Government Partnership, 2022); and work with storytellers, such as Sony’s “Picture This” short film competition.
Urban leaders and planners could engage students from universities, community colleges, and Minority-Serving Institutions (NASEM, 2020) to organize student projects in local communities and cities, such as the student-led research to help develop the City of Los Angeles’ Biodiversity Index (City of Los Angeles, 2022).
Education leaders could provide teachers with peer mentor networks and a platform, such as developing and maintaining a website to host downloadable materials relating to sustainability, the SDGs, and climate change education.