Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is anchored in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG 4.7) and the UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development, issued on November 20, 2023. Due to its transformative and empowering nature, ESD is regarded as a key driver of the overall sustainability transformation.
As an educational concept, ESD imparts sustainability knowledge that enables individuals to adopt a value-based approach to sustainability. ESD lays the foundation for acquiring the skills necessary to take action and shape a liveable future. The goal of ESD is to encourage learners to think ahead, reflecting on how their actions impact future generations and the environment. This fosters responsible, socially just decision-making that respects planetary boundaries. In higher education, ESD also ensures that these decisions are grounded in scientific knowledge.
Teaching and learning methods in ESD emphasize participatory, multi-perspective, and action-oriented approaches, as well as explorative learning. Given the complexity of global crises and challenges, interdisciplinarity, internationality, and interculturality are also critical components.
The HRK (German Rectors' Conference) is actively engaged in embedding ESD within the higher education landscape. Alongside its involvement in the National Platform for ESD with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the HRK regularly organizes events, participates in stakeholder processes, facilitates networking among actors, and runs ESD projects.
Projects
In the project "EmpowerESD: Education and sustainability coaching for university transformation", the HRK and its cooperation partner netzwerk n are working towards embedding ESD throughout the entire higher education landscape. The project "traNHSform: Transformation paths of sustainable universities" aims to achieve an overall institutional sustainability transformation.
