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Strategic asset management (SAM) provides guiding principles for strategic planning, procurement, use and disposal of public sector buildings. It is proposed that the whole SAM process must incorporate the principles and practices of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) founded upon intra‐generational equity, intergenerational equity, biodiversity, precaution, true cost assessment and continuous improvement principles. The paper presents observations and interim conclusions from a research project to develop a methodology of SAM incorporating the principles and practices of ESD. The paper describes the principles of SAM and ESD, makes observations about actual and potential connections and puts forward a matrix which correlates steps in SAM processes with desired outcomes of ESD. This matrix exploits a life‐cycle assessment approach used to develop planning frameworks, useful for developing macro‐level concepts such as ecological footprints and micro‐level building performance benchmarks. It is postulated that the goal of ‘sustainable building’ must become embedded in existing processes of SAM and in any improvements to those processes. It is understood that any integrated system of SAM and ESD will use, conserve and enhance the community’s resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased.

Since 1992, all levels of government in Australia have pursued a policy of ecologically sustainable development (ESD). Crafted in response to the World Commission on Environment and Development 1987 report Our Common Future (the Brundtland Report), the principles contained in the Australian Government’s National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development have been progressively implemented at the national, state and local levels of government. The purpose of this paper is not only to track the implementation of these principles, through both policy and law in Australia, but also to highlight recent challenges to the concept of ESD using the state of New South Wales (NSW) as a case study.

Beginning with a description of the Australian concept of ESD, this paper first examines the implementation of ESD through both policy and legislation at the national level. The state of NSW is then selected for more detailed assessment, with examples of key State government legislation and court decisions considered. Equal emphasis is placed on both the achievements in ESD policy development and implementation through legislation, statutory planning procedures and litigation, as well as the challenges that have confronted the pursuit of ESD in NSW.

Since its introduction in 1992, the concept of ESD has matured into a key guiding principle for development and environmental decision-making in Australia. However, in recent years, ESD has been the target of significant challenge by some areas of government. Noteworthy among these challenges has been a failed attempt by the NSW Government to introduce new planning legislation which sought to replace ESD with the arguably weaker concept of “sustainable development”. Apparent from this episode is strong community and institutional support for robust sustainability provisions “manifested through ESD” within that State’s statutory planning system.

This paper provides an overview of the implementation of ESD in Australia within both a broader international context of sustainable development and specific instances of domestic interpretation and application. It extends this analysis by examining recent public policy attempts to reposition sustainability in the context of statutory planning system reform in NSW.

The purpose of this paper is to present a professional development experience for higher education academic staff within the framework of an international Tempus project focused on reorienting university curricula to address sustainability. The project included revising curricula to phase sustainable development principles into university courses.

A qualitative approach was used to examine perceived professional development. Focus groups have been conducted with the academic staff who participated in the project.

The results provided evidence that revising their curricula offered the participants an opportunity to discuss different principles, teaching methods, didactic processes and practices in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Several strategies emerged during curricula revision such as a positive attitude towards meta-cognitive strategies and a goal-oriented approach to curriculum planning. Moreover, the project induced the academic staff to reconsider their teaching methods.

The main limitation is the restricted generalisability of the findings, because of the small number of participants. Further research is needed to confirm the theoretical model that emerged. Implications of the results for professional development and the induction of change in academic staff are also discussed.

There is little information about training experiences for enhancing professional development in academic staff using ESD principles, and this study provides a starting point. According to the results, the project had an impact on the participants’ attitudes, teaching principles and methods, course design skills and assessment approaches.

This paper aims to reflect education for sustainable development (ESD) principles and their manifestation in higher education (HE) in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries which share a similar policy situation owing to post-socialist transition processes.

Observations from comprehensive mapping of ESD in professional development of university educators in CEE within the University Educators for Sustainable Development project provided the initial input for this research. To justify the findings, a questionnaire was distributed among informed respondents and assessed qualitatively. ESD success factors were identified to support the interpretation of the results within the overall HE policy context.

Opportunities for educators’ competence development are lower and less diverse in the CEE region than in other parts of Europe. Historical reasons and the policy context may contribute to this situation; the most important factor being the underfinanced HE sector which is currently undergoing profound structural transformation.

The sample of respondents is not representative; they are informed experts in ESD. The results are of an illustrative nature; different sources of information are combined to draw a broad picture.

University educators in CEE have considerable know-how and experience in ESD and thus represent significant potential for the development of this field under more favourable conditions.

This research is based on more than two years of cooperation within a broad partnership of European universities; it represents a contribution to the debate from a specific regional perspective. It shows opportunities for critical, creative and participatory approaches in HE, analyses current trends in historical and policy contexts and provides impulses for theoretically and practically oriented efforts.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is one of the challenges engineering education currently faces. Engineering education needs to revise and change its curriculum to integrate ESD principles and knowledge. Problem based learning (PBL) has been one of the main learning pedagogies used to integrate sustainability in engineering education. However, there is a lack of understanding of the relation between ESD and PBL principles and the ways in which they can be integrated and practised in the engineering curricula. This paper aims to investigate the relation between PBL and ESD and the ways in which they are integrated and practised in the engineering curricula.

The study starts with a review of the literature concerning ESD and PBL theories where relations between both are defined. The literature review is followed by an empirical work in which the PBL and ESD relations are investigated in relation to the PBL engineering curricula. The empirical work involves two engineering master programmes from Aalborg University, Denmark, while documentary analysis and interviews are used as methods for data collection.

The results show that even though PBL and ESD share common learning principles, their practice presents limitations that challenge the full integration of sustainability, namely, the crowded, strict and academic-centred curriculum, the struggle to balance different contexts with professional, interdisciplinary and collaborative knowledge and the tacit presence of sustainability.

The existence of a PBL curriculum at institutional level, such as at Aalborg University, enables investigation of how the PBL and ESD principles are practised, highlighting the limitations and potentials of integrating sustainability in the engineering curriculum.

Physical education (PE) and PE teacher education have great potential to target goals that are important from an education for sustainable development (ESD) perspective. However, ESD has not been studied extensively in the PE context. The purpose of this paper is to explore subjective theories of PE teacher educators about the concepts of sustainability and ESD because they are important precursors of implementing ESD in PE teacher education.

This study was conducted using a qualitative cross-sectional design. Subjective theories about sustainability and ESD from N = 9 PE teacher educators from a university in Germany were assessed in a multistage process, including semistructured interviews and the structure-formation technique. Subsequently, subjective theories were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

The results reveal a wide range of subjective theories about the concept of sustainability. PE teacher educators described the dimensions of the sustainability concept (ecological, economic, social and political) to different depths and placed different emphases in terms of the levels of action needed to reach sustainable development. The subjective theories regarding the concept of ESD mostly include instrumental and emancipatory aspects of ESD. These subjective theories differ in that they emphasize different forms of ESD.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to examine subjective theories regarding the concepts of sustainability and ESD in the context of PE teacher education. This study is one of only a few studies to provide detailed insights into the subjective theories of teacher educators in the area of sustainability and ESD.

The society faces growing global challenges in terms of sustainable development. A key factor in preparing society for these challenges is education for sustainable development (ESD). This study aims to discuss how the combination of research-based learning (RBL) and digitalization can be used for successful ESD in higher education. The paper introduces the conceptual development of technical and didactical implications for an online learning format, which combines the opportunities of RBL and digitalization to facilitate the distribution of ESD. Furthermore, corresponding evaluation results are presented.

A framework, based on key dimensions described by the relevant literature, was applied for the empirical approach to evaluate students’ learning experiences. On this basis, the differences in the students’ learning experiences between the RBL-format and conventional digital learning format (self-directed studies, learning videos and electronic examination) were measured.

The performed two-sample t-test indicates statistical significant differences in all dimensions. On average, students (N = 226) using the RBL-based format report higher ratings for each examined dimension than students who experienced a conventional format. In summary, this indicates an overall corresponding tendency in students’ learning experience between the examined learning formats.

The presented examination offers empirically based insights on how a digital format can combine RBL and ESD to enhance students’ learning experiences. Moreover, theoretical contributions are provided regarding the future development of digital learning formats to further integrate ESD in higher education.

This study aims to investigate specific professional competencies of teachers to implement education for sustainable development (ESD) in the contexts of Vietnam.

The authors carried out a Delphi study with eight ESD experts in Vietnam to collect their expertise viewpoints regarding teachers’ ESD professional competencies.

In total, 13 competencies related to three dimensions (content knowledge/cognitive, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge, motivation and volition) were highlighted by ESD experts.

The proposed teachers’ competencies were based on the ideas of a small group of experts, and the results need to be tested, refined and confirmed by further work. Besides, in this study, we have not defined the levels of achievement for each competency as well as developed assessment tools.

The specific professional competencies for teachers can be considered as a foundation for developing educational offers focusing on promoting the specific teachers’ professional competencies in basic ESD training.

Studies on educators’ professional competencies for ESD mostly were conducted in western countries. However, competencies do not exist independently; instead, they should be considered in specific contexts of teaching, school, culture and society. This research is among one of the first studies that contextualizes teachers’ competencies in a non-western context.

This paper tries to propose a pedagogical training program starting from the Romanian mandatory curriculum for higher education (HE) teachers, integrating education for sustainable development (ESD) competencies (UNECE, 2012) through infusion as a technique of curricular design dealing with cross-curricular subject integration. The purpose of this paper is to show how new ESD competencies can be implemented and integrated into the existent curricular formulations and how the current state of affairs can be improved and set toward sustainability.

A qualitative research design is utilized, using desk research, content analysis, case study and, as validation for the new curriculum, structured interviews with key experts. First, an assessment of the quality of the Romanian HE pedagogical training program will be presented based on teaching quality assessments from international rankings. Second, integration of ESD competencies into the existing pedagogical professional development program, through a curriculum design, will be proposed.

The present Romanian teacher training curriculum does not nurture ESD competencies, and it does not have this purpose at all. However, it can be affirmed that this curriculum is in accordance with the newest pedagogical theories. It will be shown (through curriculum design) that it is possible to infuse ESD competencies into the present curriculum without many costs. The present architecture of the teacher training system can be described as a good practice example concerning HE professional development or as an alternative that is worthy to be taken into consideration for other countries with similar educational systems or by countries/universities that believe that pedagogical training addressing ESD should be completed early in one’s teaching career.

As a general rule, many generalizations cannot be made based on qualitative research. Case studies have their limitations: they provide in-depth research on particular situations, and only some of their findings can be extrapolated. All HE curricula represent a particular vision and are all perfectible and subject to debate. The author hopes to have provided sufficient cause for the proposed curriculum.

The new curriculum has clear and practical implications, providing the answer to the question “how can we make pedagogical training better?”. Infusing ESD into the present teacher training program constitutes a practical solution, which carries great social impact.

A new curricular architecture is proposed, a new perspective on the efficiency of pedagogical training, in general, is taken into account and, as a good practical example, the present research is a token of inspiration.

This paper aims to present a collaborative action research project conducted at the University of Southampton with the aim to promote curriculum and professional development in education for sustainable development (ESD) and learn from everyday practices of academics.

An action research approach guided by participatory and emancipatory approaches was used. An interdisciplinary group of five academic staff members from different subject areas (education; archaeology; electronics and computer sciences; biology; and health sciences) was created with the aim to support the group’s critical reflection and action towards embedding ESD in their teaching practice.

The main outcomes of delivery of sustainability teaching achieved through the project and evidences of the impact of the facilitator role are outlined. The facilitator role has enabled reflection and action, together with the identification of specific needs of academics and the factors influencing their engagement and action.

This research demonstrates the potential of using action research to rethink current practice in embedding ESD and to lead to new practices and actions of communities of practice. The facilitator role and second-order action research can contribute to better decision-making of sustainability as it questions practice, current assumptions and worldviews.