The Sustainable Development agenda calls on humanity to face the challenges of the Climate and Ecological Emergencies in a way which respects the needs and aspirations of those who are most marginalised – particularly, but not exclusively, those in Global South nations. The University of Bristol is committed to educate our students to understand, critically engage with and help shape the transformations to society that this demands. This is embodied in two of our strategic objectives:

• Integrate discipline-relevant sustainability education into the learning outcomes and experience of every University of Bristol student through the Curriculum Enhancement Programme.
• Introduce further interdisciplinary sustainability pathways and programmes by reviewing our academic programme portfolio.

Current Activities 

To support schools, students and staff in engaging with Education for Sustainable Development, BILT and the ESD staff network are: 

• Developing a community of practice through regular ESD seminars and discussion groups.
• Supporting programmes to assess existing provision of discipline-appropriate ESD, and identify new opportunities.
• Creating a set of case studies of best practice from across the university, shared through the BILT blog.
• Delivering a training module on Education for Sustainable Development, as part of the PGCAP programme.
• Developing resources on Education for Sustainable Development to support curriculum design activities.
• Running the Sustainable Futures online course three times a year.
• Supporting a BILT student fellow working on Sustainability.
• In collaboration with the Student Union, supporting subject-specific Student Sustainability Champions to work with schools on education initiatives.

Information on current activities can be found on the Education for Sustainable Development at Bristol webpage.

Resources and guidance

• The ESD Network sharepoint contains links to resources from within and beyond the university, and recordings of prior events.
• The Green Apple Scheme offers pump-priming funding for ESD activities. Green Apple Guidance Notes 2022 (Office document, 40kB) funding and Green Apple Funding Application Form (Office document, 56kB). 
• BILT Blog Case Studies on Sustainability
• Sustainable Futures Futurelearn course
• Decolonisation and ESD Newsletter (November 2023)

Join the ESD Staff Network for updates and invites to events by emailing Chris Preist