Sustainability in capability development
THINKPIECE | Patrick Longfield for NSW TAFE ICVET
Patrick Longfield is a social ecologist, with more than 37 years experience in the educational sector. He works with groups and individuals on sustainability, values systems and ethics. He is a team member of EcoSTEPS, a leading global sustainability consultancy specialising in sustainability issues. Patrick also lectures part-time on sustainability at the University of New South Wales and the Sydney Institute of TAFE NSW.
This is the first of two articles by Patrick which explore the notion of sustainability and education. This thinkpiece introduces some facts, aspects, thoughts and challenges around sustainability, along with offering some principles. In part II, which will be published in our next eZine, Patrick will explore some key drivers and connect Capability Development with Education for Sustainability.
Introduction
The principles and practices of sustainability are fast becoming key elements in the development of our future.
Our awareness of sustainability is being raised through a wide range of daily occurrences and events, not the least of which being the consequences and implications of global warming as the science of climate change becomes more accurate, more fully understood and accepted.
Increasing numbers of books and papers are being published and websites created. Many outlining educational policies and strategies designed to aid the implementation of sustainability principles and practices in schools and post-secondary education establishments, such as universities and TAFEs.1
Critical conversations and actions are developing around the beginnings of a deeper understanding of what sustainability means.2 It is clear an appreciation of the environmental and social costs is evolving in parallel with that of the economic consequences we are facing as a result of the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the resultant effects we are observing.
Irrespective of the above and its implications, and without detracting from the many positive developments occurring around sustainability, it is generally understood there is as yet no country or business operating sustainably, nor few even coming close to doing so. Neither is there much evidence of the understanding nor acceptance of the sheer complexity and depth of the issues being debated. With much talking taking place it is sad to note most of what is being said and done is still fairly superficial.
For vocational education, drivers such as globalisation and the knowledge era have demanded new ways of thinking about teaching and learning.
In May 2006 ICVET published a key paper examining capability development3. Looking to the future of Vocational Education, the paper presents a model and framework for developing capable staff and organisations to meet emerging needs. While it clearly deals effectively with the key issues around capability development, it includes neither references to Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD), nor sustainability in any accepted environmental form.
As a contribution towards world class practice in teaching and learning, this paper aims to provide a platform to enable you to explore how to build upon your existing knowledge base, and develop your own learning enquiry around sustainability. It is to inform you about sustainability principles, practices, and challenges and in so doing aid your own enquiry. It should assist you in committing to apply and integrate sustainability principles into the design of capability development as an element of life based learning.
It is important to state that neither global warming, nor the resulting climate change, is occurring in a vacuum. They are symptoms and outcomes of the totality of human actions and activities – our practices and behaviours - and exist because of our lifestyles and patterns of consumption.
The thinking, the practices, the narratives and the values that have brought us to this stage in our evolution, we can now see as flawed.
The Context
Sustainability then is a word of considerable significance for our future. However, while there are many definitions, they neither satisfy all our needs, nor can we agree on what it is.
The problem seems to be that while we are able to identify things we do on a day-to-day basis that are unsustainable4, we find it hard to comes to grips with what is sustainable or what a sustainable future might look like, let alone comprehend how to get there. And, it may follow that we ask the question, “What are we asking to be sustained?”
We know that people with differing world-views, or from dissimilar cultures will understand and describe sustainability differently. We hear about it being associated with the environment, society and the economy. Governments and corporations offer us ‘technological fixes’ to climate change, such as nuclear power, clean coal and desalination, where we need not be directly involved. While these may be elements of a solution, they fail to address the core issue, let alone acknowledge it.
We hear of activities, processes or businesses being described as sustainable, when what they actually mean is that the business has an economic life into the future. There is no overt connection to environmental or ecological sustainability - it is being absorbed into the world of the business buzz‑word, a place that devalues it considerably.
Sustainability is both a concept and ideal. While some use it as a buzz-word or see it as a destination, others use it appropriately as a means of explaining a journey we are just beginning. You will probably have picked up on much of this when hearing politicians, corporates and your family and friends talking. Maybe you can identify the existence of a tension between environmental and economic sustainability, one that still barely engages with social sustainability. How should we respond to these seemingly contradictory and conflicting ‘mixed messages’?
This journey, as I prefer to describe it, is one where we know neither the route nor the shape of the future it offers. As Philip Sutton says5, “sustainability is like being pregnant or alive or dead. You either are or you are not. So, relative sustainability is not a valid concept. Something is either sustained or sustainable or it’s not”. If something is deemed to be unsustainable, then at some point in the future it will cease to exist as an entity or a process.
The core dilemma is that global warming and climate change are symptoms of a much deeper problem.
Dealing with climate change using a series of isolated ‘technological fixes’ demonstrates a failure to realise that the problem is a systemic one - one embedded into our whole society and the way we live. These solutions are external to our personal sphere of influence and allow us to largely continue living the way we are, and thus fail to engage us on a daily basis. We might even observe that we are encouraged to continue as we are going! All we are being asked to do is to observe two measures of economic health – the numbers of car sold and houses built. While technology will definitely be part of the solution, it is not the most important. The most important is about how we think and do.
It is perhaps worth reminding ourselves of the relationship between our economy and our society along with the natural environment that supports us for free. Neither society nor the economy can exist without a healthy natural environment. Without it we have no future. We need to agree on our priorities.
It seems somewhat of concern that our governments and businesses, while offering technological solutions, are not addressing the constant flow of warnings from experts globally from many disciplines. Warnings about the impending shortage of oil and the subsequent consequences to world transport and trade, rising sea levels and the associated potential for mass migrations, local and global water shortages that may lead to conflict are there for all to see.
Sustainability is a concept requiring an holistic approach in the search for solutions. It is about the totality of how we wish to live our lives, and the sort of world we wish to hand on to our children.
It is about understanding the consequences of each and every one of our behaviours and actions. It is about questioning ourselves about everything we do, and how it can be done differently. It is about how we choose to live, how we interact with our family, our neighbours and the world at large. It is about inter- and intra-generational equity.
It is about responsibility - responsibility for ourselves, our children and our fellow travellers on this planet, travellers of all species. It is about the values by which we live our lives
We have arrived at this present point in human evolution by ‘accident’. No-one stood back in 1707, looked at the world and said, “This is what I would like the world to look like in 200 years.” We did not go out of our way to create an unsustainable society, so we must not blame anyone for it.
Over the passage of time, we learned to farm, to build cities, to weave and to use wood, coal, and then oil to satisfy an increasing demand for energy by machines. We invented ships, trains, cars and aircraft to move goods and us around the world - each requiring more and more energy. Until recently we have been doing this without considering the consequences of these actions. With the machines and processes, and activities associated with them we created the present unsustainable culture.
We are the first generation to have a truly ‘global view’. For the first time in our history, we have the knowledge to understand these consequences. We now know we are compromising the capability of the planet to supply our needs - a capability we have been taking for granted. We know that nearly everything we do to a greater or lesser extent, damages the planet. To move on we require tools, both physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional ones. We need leadership to start the journey, a compass to give us direction, and ways of knowing that what we do change will be more sustainable than before. These will extend our capability to envision and create a new future.
Given the above then, can we understand that sustainability is not so much about technical solutions, as about values. We know we can build things differently, and create physical systems that will enable us to reduce our negative impact on the environment. But we are not doing so. “Why not?” “Why are we not doing so when we have the understanding to start taking us where we need to go?” As I have often heard said, “This is not rocket science!”
Our systems, social, institutional, corporate, economic and political have brought us to this position, resulting in a crisis of culture. Our children are being taught that to consume is a liberating experience essential to the economy and the creation of their persona. As adults we are being encouraged to continue along this path through a set of misguided social and commercial imperatives.
When we come to understand this, and begin to use this knowledge constructively, we may be able to move away from past thinking to create the new ways of thinking and doing required. The really tough issue to understand is the magnitude of the challenge, its complexity and the importance of the task we are setting ourselves.
“What are we asking to be sustained?” The answers lies in each of us. We can create a list, but it will be too short for some, too long for others, yet never actually deal with everything. Sustainability begins with the individual. Its great strength resides in how we each develop processes and actions appropriate for our needs. As our level of understanding develops and grows, we will each come to know and accept what it is we can, or choose to do.
The search for sustainability will take us along many paths, many of which will become dead-ends, while others will be more fruitful. For example, wind-powered generators, which are being installed in many countries may, as our understanding deepens and we develop alternate energy generating systems, become an obsolete technology. This will occur again and again as we go forward. The most important thing to do is to do something. Trial and success, along with trial and failure, are both good teachers.
We will be better placed for success if we hold to the tenet that we are looking at how all stakeholders in this journey, parents and children, teachers, employers and employees can make a difference.
We must understand our responsibility to our children. The responsibility to develop in them the authority to challenge the core values of the society that spawned them, and in us the ability to respect their developing understanding and commitment.
We need to come to grips with the notion that global warming and climate change are not the real problem. They are symptoms of a society driven by outdated sets of values. Sustainability principles demand we focus upon each and every aspect of the lives we are currently leading. As a matter of urgency we must start this work. As stated earlier, but it bears repeating and expanding, “Given our current level of knowledge and understanding, the thinking, the practices and the values that have brought us to this stage in our evolution, we can now see as flawed.”
Part II of this thinkpiece will be published in our next eZine. In that article, Patrick will explore some key drivers and connect Capability Development with Education for Sustainability.
A comprehensive list of references will be sourced at the end of the second article.
Footnotes
- http://www.aries.mq.edu.au/portal/index.htm associated with Macquarie University. Accessed 7/11/2007
- The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Education - http://www.gdrc.org/sustdev/un-desd/index.html. Accessed 7/11/2007
- Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Victoria http://www.ces.vic.gov.au/ces/wcmn301.nsf/childdocs/-4BD9C91448AE81E2CA256F2500290428?open. Accessed17/11/2007
- URBIS - http://www.urbisjhd.com/index.cfm?contentid=524.. Accessed 1/11/2007
- Australian Government, Sustainability Education: http://www.environment.gov.au/education/index.html. Accessed 7/11/2007
2 See the Ethos Foundation at http://www.ethosfoundation.org/index.php. Accessed 25/10/2007
4 e.g. We use too much energy from unsustainable sources; we use too much water; we use our cars too much rather than public transport; we consume too many resources. We have a very large ecological footprint. Further, I recommend you examine The Natural Step at either http://64.207.158.76/au.naturalstep.org/framework/framform.html or http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/our-approach/tools-and-methodologies/TNS. Accessed 7/11/2007
5 See: http://www.green-innovations.asn.au/sustblty.htm. Accessed 7/11/2007