Education for Sustainable Consumption, Behaviour and Lifestyles
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Education for Sustainable Consumption, Behaviour and Lifestyles A COLLECTION OF CASE STUDIES Education for Sustainable Consumption, Behaviour and Lifestyles 1 Publication coordinators and supervisors at UfM Secretariat: Alessandra Sensi (Water, Environment and Blue Economy) and Emmanuelle Gardan (Higher Education and Research) Authors: Elen García García, Celia Murcia Lorenzo and Mariateresa Silvi Text editing and proofreading: John Andrew Carter Design and layout: Mª Carmen García Chicano Photo credits: Images belong to the case study contributors as well as the online repository Shutterstock Acknowledgements: A special acknowledgement is necessary for the contributions by all organizations involved in this publication: the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, the Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production of the United Nations Environment Programme - Mediterranean Action Plan (SCP/RAC), the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE) as well as all case study contributors. Each entity provided valuable inputs, feedback, support and cooperation in the preparation of this document. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations .........................................................................................................4 Foreword .................................................................................................................5 About Education on Sustainable Consumption, Behaviour and Lifestyles .....................................................................................6 Map of Case Studies ........................................................................................... 10 Case 1: The Green Demonstration Room ....................................................... 11 Case 2: Water sustainable production and consumption............................ 14 Case 3: Eco-Ecole ............................................................................................... 17 Case 4: Ocean Literacy ...................................................................................... 20 Case 5: Zero Waste Act ...................................................................................... 23 Case 6: Towards Zero Waste ............................................................................. 26 Case 7: Happy Bus .............................................................................................. 29 Case 8: Cero CO2 ................................................................................................. 32 Case 9: Organic farming for young people with disabilities....................... 35 Case 10: Sustainable Lifestyles in the Workplace ....................................... 38 Case 11: Social gardens at the university ...................................................... 42 Case12: Green Passport .................................................................................... 45 Case 13: Mediterranean identity ...................................................................... 48 Case 14: No more plastic bags! ....................................................................... 51 Case 15: SwitchMed ........................................................................................... 54 Case 16: Close the Loop! ................................................................................... 59 Recommendations & Tools ............................................................................... 62 Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 70 References ........................................................................................................... 73 Education for Sustainable Consumption, Behaviour and Lifestyles 3 ABBREVIATIONS CEDARE Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Regions and Europe CSCP Collaborating Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production ESC Education for Sustainable Consumption ESD Education for Sustainable Development GHG Greenhouse Gas IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations MEdIES Mediterranean Education Initiative for Environment & Sustainability MIO-ECSDE Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development MSSD Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development MSESD Mediterranean Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development SCP/RAC Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production SDG Sustainable Development Goal UfM Union for the Mediterranean UNEA United Nations Environment Assembly UNEP United Nations Environmental Programme UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIMED Unione delle Università del Mediterraneo 4 Union for the Mediterranean Foreword The resolution adopted by the United Nations The publication presents a collection of Environment Assembly (UNEA) on 15 March successful case studies to spark innovative 2019, “invites all Member States and relevant ideas from educational centres, decision stakeholders, as appropriate, to design makers, stakeholders as well as citizens and and implement public policies, plans and to promote the adoption of sustainable actions. programmes that support education and raise In addition, this work intends to inspire the awareness of the importance of sustainable aforementioned groups to take environmental consumption, sustainable lifestyles and action to decrease the impact of their current sustainable consumer behaviour, and those lifestyle. Accordingly, this booklet focuses that develop related skills for academia and the on five main areas: housing, mobility, food private sector, including the financial sector”. (nutrition), leisure and consumer goods. Accordingly, this publication, developed by Sixteen case studies of noteworthy projects the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), in and initiatives were selected from Algeria, collaboration with the Regional Activity Centre Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, for Sustainable Consumption and Production Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Spain (SCP/RAC) and the Mediterranean Information and Tunisia. These cases represent just a Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable small volume of the outstanding work already Development (MIO-ECSDE), aims to: in place at a regional level, and further seeks to encourage other actors to take action in this 1. Contribute to the efforts to implement area throughout the Mediterranean area. the UNEA Resolution, by analysing, linking and increasing the visibility of the work at This publication shows how both formal and a regional level for formal and non-formal non-formal education is equally important Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) when it comes to the transfer of knowledge and and for Sustainable Consumption (SC). ideas more intrinsically linked to consumption choices. To this extent, the authors also include 2. Show how Education for Sustainable a section that details a series of tools and Consumption (ESC) - at the interface of sustainability platforms to further support this both ESD and SC - can contribute to shape notion. and encourage sustainable consumption, behaviour and lifestyles in the Mediterranean Finally, the publication concludes by delivering region and beyond. key messages extracted from concrete cases as well as ongoing projects to inspire policy 3. Serve as a guide to inspire decision makers makers, educational institutions and other and relevant actors and to support citizens relevant stakeholders to adopt and include to identify opportunities that decrease their elements of Education for Sustainable environmental impact through simple, Consumption (ESC) directly into educational everyday actions. curricula and non-formal educational activities. 4. Serve as a concrete contribution to the Mediterranean Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development, as approved, and as an important contribution to the UfM post 2020 agenda in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Education for Sustainable Consumption, Behaviour and Lifestyles 5 EDUCATION ON SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION, BEHAVIOUR AND LIFESTYLES 6 Union for the Mediterranean About Education on Sustainable Consumption, Behaviour and Lifestyles Context and Policy Framework In order to prevent some of the worst Decision makers are thus responsible for consequences of global warming, the Paris architecting the appropriate frameworks Agreement has established that the increase and infrastructure (regulatory instruments, in global temperatures should stay well technological innovations, new public below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and services) to promote, enable and enforce that efforts should pursue to limit it to 1.5 °C sustainable business practices, foster (UNFCC 2015). While the majority of research environmental education, support grassroots has focused on technological solutions such as initiatives, as well as endorse changes in efficiency improvements and negative carbon consumption patterns and lifestyle among technologies, it has recently emerged that a constituents substantial part of the mitigation effort should come from lifestyle changes (van den Bergh, 2013; IPCC, 2015; Alfredsson et al., 2018). Behaviour changes can bring potentially quick greenhouse gas emissions savings, especially EDUCATION for those activities that don’t require major FOR SUSTAINABLE infrastructural change (Lettenmeier, Laakso, DEVELOPMENT (ESD) and Toivio 2017). Individual lifestyles are, therefore, considered