Sustainable Education

1. Sustainable Education
"Perhaps never before have the needs of human society and the objectives of
education been so closely linked, nor has education ever had so compelling a
rationale and so urgent a responsibility to contribute to the societal change
needed to ensure the survival of the planet and a sustainable future"
(Jean Perrar, Learning for a Sustainable Future, Canadian Schoolnet, 1998.)
Trevor Tanaka

2. The Importance of Sustainable Education
• Today’s youth (as part of the “energy generation”) should be
better educated on the importance of sustainability and clean
energy and how sustainable/clean energy practices will lead
to future job opportunities and ultimately to an improved
quality of life today and into the future.
• The ability to support and sustain ourselves in today’s world
depends on our ability to adapt to the global changes going
on around us.
• The ability of regions to sustain themselves will be dependent
on the cooperation and shared knowledge and visions among
the regions.

3. Sustainable Education in Our Community
The Kohala Center
Kamuela, Hawaii
• Independent, nonprofit, community-based center for research,
conservation, and education.
• Vision: a state of pono, in which individuals realize their potential,
contributing their very best to one another, to the community, and to the
‘aina (the land) itself, in exchange for a meaningful and happy life.
• Educational programs include Kahalu`u Bay Education Center (ReefTeach
and Citizen Science) and Hawaii Island School Garden Network.

4. Sustainable Education in Our Local Schools
West Hawaii Explorations Academy (Public Charter School)
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
• Mission: To provide learning opportunities through
integrative, hands-on, self-selected projects related to
authentic, real world problems.
• Campus is mostly outdoors and is part of the Natural Energy
Lab of Hawaii Authority complex, which is a research park
• WHEA student, Wainani Traub, was first youth delegate from
Hawaii to attend Annual Youth Leadership Summit for
Sustainable Development at Martha’s Vineyard and was a
speaker at the APEC Voices Summit in Honolulu in November
2011
• First school to participate in the State of Hawaii Sustainable
Agriculture Skill Panel Forum

5. Hawaii Preparatory Academy (Private School)
Kamuela, Hawaii
• Go Green Initiative: help the school and community create a
healthy and sustainable future for generations to come
through education
• Adopted five-year sustainability action plan that included
sponsoring an island-wide Global Network and Student
Congress for Sustainability for high school students and
teachers in June 2008 and becoming a net zero energy
consumer by 2012
• Courses Offered: AP Environmental Science, Advanced
Environmental Science, Agro-Ecology and Sustainable Food
Systems, and Energy

6. Hawaii Preparatory Academy
Energy Lab
• First building in Hawaii to achieve LEED
Platinum Certification
• Living Building Challenge Participant
• Uses only 30 percent of the energy it
captures enabling it to provide energy for
the rest of the school’s 220-acre campus
• 480 sensors that measure and control
energy and water use, amount of CO2 in
each room, artificial lighting and natural air
flow, making the Lab “a living building”
• A 24-kilowatt array of roof-mounted
photovoltaic solar panels produces 100
percent on-site renewable energy for the
Lab on a net annual basis
• A radiant cooling system that uses colder
nighttime air to chill water and to cool
warm areas during the daytime

7. Incorporating Sustainability into Curriculums
 Teachers need to be trained and
supported
 Schools need support from government
 Sustainability should not be limited as
isolated topics or as an extra club or
event
• New Jersey Sustainable
Schools Network
 Goal is to promote education for a
sustainable future in all schools in New
Jersey
Unity Charter School: One of the New Jersey Sustainable Schools that
creates curriculum by incorporating sustainability into the New Jersey Core
Curriculum Standards (NJCCCS).

8. Sustainable Education For All Public
High School Students in Hawaii
• Resolution 25, which is pending before the Hawaii Board of Education,
proposes to incorporate sustainability and clean energy units and related
technologies as a part of the public high school Science Curriculum.
• Resolution 25 is important because:
 Our ability to compete in the global marketplace is related to the ability of
our educational system to prepare students in science, technology,
engineering, and math.
 The U.S. is falling behind in rapidly growing clean energy industry and our
educational system and workforce are not prepared to compete.

9. Sustainable Higher Education
Many colleges offer sustainability programs and
degrees.
Arizona State University School of Yale University, Connecticut
Sustainability  Yale Sustainable Food Project manages an
Doctors of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in organic farm on campus and runs diverse
Sustainability programs that support exploration and
Master of Arts (M.A.) in Sustainability academic inquiry related to food and
Master of Science (M.S.) in agriculture.
Sustainability Offers Green Event, Green Workplace, Green
Labs, and Green Athletic Teams Certificates.
Lane Community College, Oregon
 Offers degree programs in energy
management, Renewable Energy
Technology, and Water Conservation with
a sustainable focus.
Arizona State Global Institute of Sustainability

10. Sustainable Education Worldwide
ESD (Education for Sustainable Development)
• The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development (DESD) 2005-2014 is a global initiative led by
UNESCO
 Goal is to reorient education worldwide.
 China has designated 1,000 schools as experimental schools for ESD.
 Japan has included ESD into its national curriculum guidelines and
promotes ESD through more than 300 UNESCO Associated Schools.
 Every university in Sweden is required by law to teach sustainable
development.
• The Baltic Sea Project of the Associated Schools
 seeks to increase student awareness in the nine countries of the Baltic
region on the different environmental and sustainability problems facing
communities.
• Moncton High School, New Brunswick
 Implemented ESD initiative that adopted UNESCO’s principles and ideas