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Policies and sustainability leaders at many universities guide teachers to understand why sustainability is taught and what to teach regarding sustainability. However, knowing how to conduct sustainability education faces challenges. Firstly, the transformation of the teacher's role to become a facilitator and co-creator in the learning experience involves new practices in higher education. Secondly, restraints from disciplinary norms deprive lecturers of the support they need to facilitate sustainability education. Instead, teachers need collaborative transdisciplinary inspiration and creative support to transform sustainability education. The purpose of this chapter is to conceptualise how to support student-centred learning to build capacity in sustainability competence through a co-created transdisciplinary approach. Drawing data from an action research project involving students and teachers, the chapter shows that partners can collaborate to inspire, and learning can be enhanced by partnership with organisations that can provide real-life sustainability challenges.

Sustainability capacity building challenges educators to develop diverse sustainability competences by working on an interdisciplinary scale. Frustrations and possibilities can both be experienced when applying sustainability education across disciplines in higher education. A sustainability didactic approach can be effective in providing much needed support for educators to reflect on what, how and why they teach through a sustainability mindset. In this chapter, we set out to ask how educators experience sustainability competence capacity building within an interdisciplinary environment? Using the Galtung double-variable method of futuring, this participatory research project, provided such an experience for educators, coming from nine disciplines across sixteen different European universities. Educators reflected on how sustainability education needs to transform in order to provide sustainability competence capacity building in students. Participants reflected on their own sustainability competency capacity building being activated throughout the event and how they can effectively implement their learning initiatives created through this interdisciplinary collaborative environment. The study finds that academic training through immersive experiential learning and the futuring method creates space for imaging a sustainability education students need for interdisciplinary thinking. Creating space for immersive activities can help educators to positively unpack frustrations experienced in higher education and activate the skills required to experiment and innovate in sustainability education.

This book aims to provide a comprehensive guide to understanding and implementing the competencies required for sustainable development. In recent years, the need for sustainable development has become increasingly evident across various sectors globally. Climate change, resource depletion, and social inequalities pose significant challenges that demand urgent and comprehensive action. The concept of sustainable development is not merely an environmental concern; it encompasses economic, social, and governance dimensions, necessitating a holistic approach to address these interlinked issues effectively. It seeks to bridge the gap between theoretical frameworks and practical applications, offering insights that are relevant to policymakers, educators, business leaders, and individuals committed to sustainability. The genesis of this book lies in the recognition that achieving sustainable development is contingent upon building and enhancing competencies at multiple levels—individual, organizational, and societal. Competence in sustainable development involves a combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that empower individuals and organizations to contribute effectively to sustainable goals. One of the key strengths of this book is its multidisciplinary approach. Sustainable development is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring insights from environmental science, economics, social sciences, and management studies. The contributors to this book bring diverse perspectives and expertise, ensuring a rich and nuanced exploration of the subject matter. Furthermore, this book emphasizes the importance of education and training in building competencies for sustainable development. It discusses innovative educational approaches, curricula development, and the role of institutions in fostering a culture of sustainability. The role of technology and digital tools in enhancing sustainable practices is also highlighted, recognizing their potential to drive significant positive change.

Business education has been criticised for overlooking social values despite the critical role that social values play in promoting sustainable development (SD) and equipping future business leaders to tackle global challenges. Against this background, this paper examines the incorporation of social values and SD into business education. The study employs a mixed-methods approach including a bibliometric analysis of 637 publications and an analysis of 15 international case studies. The findings indicate significant progress in incorporating social values such as fairness, justice, accountability, and responsibility into business education. Nevertheless, there is still a significant amount of uncertainty regarding the integration of these values across institutions. The case studies, in particular, elucidate prevalent challenges, providing educators and policymakers with actionable insights. Ultimately, this study contributes to the development of business leaders who can promote positive social and environmental change by emphasizing the critical role of social values and SD in business education and providing evidence-based recommendations to improve their integration.

After several decades of work toward elevating sustainability education, many have called for a transformation of the education system to create timely action. Teachers, students, organizational leaders, and many other stakeholders have voiced their dissatisfaction with their experience of sustainability education. Some say we can do more to create real action for sustainable futures. We investigate what, how and why lectures across disciplines at universities in different countries work with sustainability education. We conduct interviews and dialogs with teachers across disciplines to uncover interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainability education and how to move forward. The emerging reflections provide insights about transformations in the strategies and systems, and how to implement sustainability education. There is also a call for reuniting diverse intrapersonal and values thinking between stakeholders to support transformations in sustainability education. Furthermore, participants imagined the future as a creative space where collaboration across disciplines facilitates a student-centred transdisciplinary experience with real-world practice. This study provides insights into the mindset of teachers across disciplines and countries. A sustainability competence-based support model about the current sustainability education discourse is developed.

Education for sustainability (EfS) is recognised by institutions such as UNESCO, national education acts and higher education as of key importance. Business schools have been implementing the UN’s sustainable development goals, creating organisations such as the PRME. Support for implementing an advanced EfS is on demand. To plan education for sustainability, teachers need to know the students’ level of competencies for sustainability before they come to class to incorporate a learning progression approach. Thus, a formative assessment about student competence for sustainability is needed. This study provides a validation of a Sustainability Competence Assessment tool.

Questionnaire scales that measure sustainability competence have been tested in prior research, but much work is required to validate the scales. We have designed an assessment tool that includes all eight key sustainability competencies (KSC). Several statistical tests (Hair et al. 2019; Lans, Blok, and Wesselink 2014) have been conducted to validate the sustainability competencies scales with participants at a university business school, comparing results across modules and programs. Results show there is some validity in using all eight KSC, but more investigation is needed to improve the tool’s validity. 

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and provide propositions about survey assessment tools of the key sustainability competencies (KSCs) of education for sustainability. UNESCO points out how education plays an important role in transforming societies towards a sustainable future and achieving the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. To plan education for sustainability, teachers need to know the students’ competencies for sustainability before they come to class. Thus, a formative assessment about student competence for sustainability is needed.

Design/methodology/approach: Firstly, a structured literature review of assessment tools used to measure sustainability competencies by questionnaire survey is presented. Secondly, the authors’ conceptualise how the competencies influence each other and provide propositions for future research.

Findings: The literature demonstrates that there is much ambiguity between prior research about the scales used and what they represent. A lack of validation across disciplines is apparent and an assessment tool that includes all eight KSCs could benefit education for sustainability. Future research could investigate how the competencies influence each other and which drivers are stronger for each discipline across different countries. A formative assessment tool can address this need.

Originality/value: The findings provide a new analysis about questionnaire assessment tools used in prior research to measure sustainability competence. The authors’ offer a discussion about the strengths and weaknesses found in prior research and propose suggestions for future research. Their conceptualisation also provides propositions for validating the KSCs presented in a recent framework.

This chapter takes its point of departure in the complexity of education for sustainable development (ESD) and the potential in regarding the surrounding environment as a resource and complement to the classroom and curricular activities. This inherent complexity demands different approaches to teaching and in this chapter the value of extra-curricular activities (ECAs) is elaborated upon. Two examples of ECAs conducted at Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics in Sweden are presented, discussed and analyzed. The chapter brings together a series of linked concepts, namely ESD, ECAs and experiential learning theory (ELT). The described activities provided experiences not possible to embrace within regular course syllabi and have the potential to benefit both students and teachers. A transdisciplinary context, where university and society meet in order to visualize the complexity of sustainability, can encourage dialogue and lifelong learning. A challenging dimension of sustainability is its dynamics, as development is continuous and therefore not always possible to frame in traditional university teaching. A transformative and transdisciplinary learning can take place when guest lecturers, researchers and students meet in a contemporary discourse about sustainability. There is a need for complex learning environments in order to support learning about SDGs and learning for sustainability.

A large number of stakeholders are demanding more education for sustainable devel- opment (ESD) at Swedish universities, among them students who are expecting to find ESD in their courses. The aim of the article is to present a model for how to develop a course to include ESD when no updated textbooks are yet available and Bloom’s taxonomy is used for demonstrat- ing the high level of learning that can be achieved without any syllabus changes. The setting for the case study and model development was a course in service marketing with a diverse group of students in terms of their background and education, at Umeå School of Business, Economics, and Statistics at Umeå University in Sweden. The course took place in the middle of the education program. Techniques such as lectures, guest lectures, assignments based on the theoretical text- book content, and a term paper were used to incorporate ESD into the course in order to accom- plish possibilities for generic use. A challenge in designing ESD was the lack of knowledge about the students’ initial understanding of sustainability. The model was designed to take this into ac- count. The design of assignments showed clear possibilities of achieving high levels of learning in terms of Bloom’s taxonomy, including analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The model is also an endeavor to encourage university teachers to introduce elements of ESD in their usual courses.