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Sustainability
Sustainability
There are many definitions of sustainability and approaches to achieving it. Broadly, sustainability can be considered as:
The balance between environmental, social, and economic systems so that we can meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future while improving well-being for individuals and communities.
Sustainability Models
Sustainability Models
Sustainability can be represented in many ways that depict the interconnected nature of these different systems. Some examples of different models of sustainability are shown below.
Nested Systems
Nested Systems
The Nested System model displays environmental, social, and economic dimensions represented in concentric circles
(See Mebratu, 1998)
Three Pillars
Three Pillars
The Three Pillars model shows how the social, environmental, and economic pillars are all equally vital in sustainability
(See Giddings et al., 2002)
Overlapping Spheres
Overlapping Spheres
The Overlapping Sphere model demonstrates the intersection of the environment, society, and the economy in sustainability
(See Purvis et al., 2019)
Making progress towards sustainability requires both individual and societal change in order to address issues such as climate change, social injustice, biodiversity loss, and a host of other complex challenges.
The United Nations has outlined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that can help guide action to create a more sustainable future. There are also educational resources for teaching at all levels that can help to link learning and action to the SDGs.
The United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)
Applied Learning Projects
Applied Learning Projects
Developing behavior change interventions to promote campus sustainability involves blending education with action. Having background knowledge of approaches that link these two areas can support collaborations among different stakeholders in processes that lead to both learning and impact. One strategy is applied learning projects, which are collaborative educational efforts that seek to promote action and learning through engaged, real-world problem-solving (see Beaudion & Brundiers, 2017).
These learning experiences engage students’ heads, hands, and hearts to combine cognitive, tactile, and socio-emotional learning (Sipos et al., 2008). Through intentional and interactive designs, these real-world learning experiences help students to bring in, visit, simulate, and engage with the world (learn more on this model here).
Diverse Learning Approaches
Diverse Learning Approaches
To achieve the types of learning experiences described above, many different approaches can be used, such as:
Inquiry-Based Learning: Students learn through investigation of a research problem and scholarly discussions related to the investigation (Kalsoom & Khanam, 2017)
Service Learning: Students learn through meeting the needs of a specific community or setting, supplemented by reflexive exercises (Hernández-Barco et al., 2020)
Experiential Learning: Students learn through translating knowledge into action by working to engage with real-world situations (Savage et al., 2015)
Project-Based Learning: Students learn through self-directed, collaborative learning that focuses on addressing place-based issues, often through stakeholder engagement (Wiek et al., 2014)
Transdisciplinary Learning: Students learn through generating knowledge in the form of novel solution options to sustainability problems in collaboration with stakeholders within and beyond higher education settings (Brundiers & Wiek, 2013)
Campus as a Living Lab
Campus as a Living Lab
Beyond taking different teaching and learning approaches, applied learning projects utilize the campus as a living laboratory for learning action. This means that applied learning projects provide opportunities for students, in collaboration with faculty and staff, to test solutions to sustainability challenges that can later be implemented in the community and beyond. In the context of driving sustainability on campuses and in communities, applied sustainability learning projects can bring together a variety of stakeholders, engage them in addressing a place-based issue, and facilitate the co-creation of knowledge and solutions through collaboration.
This "campus as a living lab" approach has become popular across universities, producing research insights (see Crosby et al., 2018), reports, international networks, and recognition of the importance of these efforts by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. These resources offer examples of a variety of applied learning projects and their impacts to promote campus and community sustainability, such as at The California State University and the University of British Columbia.
Theories of Change
Theories of Change
The curriculum draws on psychological theories and practices to explain how behavior change happens and how it can be encouraged through intervention techniques. While a full exploration of this topic is beyond the scope of this curriculum, a few notes and resources are provided here as a foundation for the discussions throughout the curriculum.
As you develop an intervention that promotes sustainability, or teach about this process, you will need to consider a context-specific theory of change, which outlines how you believe change will happen and which factors will support it. Theories of change inform your intervention design by describing how your intervention will achieve its goals and justifying the rationale for why this will happen. Each theory of change is unique to the specific intervention and is informed by the objectives, values, and perspectives of the stakeholders involved in the project.
Crafting your Theory of Change
Crafting your Theory of Change
In developing your theory of change, consider the following questions:
What about the behavior of your target group do you want to change?
What are your change goals for a new behavior for your target group?
Why are your change goals relevant and realistic?
What is your hypothesis about how and why behavior change will occur?
What insights or evidence can support your hypothesis?
How will your theory of change inform your intervention design?
When considering your own theory of change, you might find the following collection of resources interesting to explore further to help understand the science behind change, how it can be supported through interventions, and the ways that it can contribute to sustainability.
Sustainability-related Resources
Sustainability-related Resources
SHIFT Framework: An approach that highlights the factors that can lead to sustainable consumer behavior change (Social influence, Habit formation, Individual self, Feelings and cognition, Tangibility)
Community-Based Social Marketing: A systematic strategy to promoting sustainable, healthy, and safe behaviors
Psychology for a Better World: A video describing the role that psychology can play in promoting behavior change for a sustainable future (see also the accompanying book)
Theories of Change in Sustainability: An article that describes the many different ways that theories of change can support the development and application of solutions to complex sustainability problems
General Resources
General Resources
The Behavior Change Wheel: A guide to selecting behavior change techniques when designing interventions
The COM-B Model for Behavior Change: A framework that suggests capability, opportunity, and motivation are the key factors to changing behavior
Switch: A book that considers how the process of change occurs
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