Abstract
This chapter delves into the use of sustainability audits as a disruptive methodology through participatory action research to analyze the starting situation of educational centers in environmental matters. The use of these methodologies is sought to involve the entire educational community in order to carry out an analysis as global as possible. In this way, the needs and consequent environmental priorities are detected for the subsequent elaboration and determination of the different action plans. The main principles of the sustainability audits, ecoschool programs, and eco-participatory processes are presented together with the analysis of common issues when performing the audits and the selection of real experiences in different educational centers where how the implication of the community, and especially students, in the sustainability audits contributes to the generation of participatory attitudes and behaviors which improve the commitment of the centers towards sustainability, spanning from early childhood to higher education.
TopIntroduction
The environmental issues that we currently face demand a change in the educational paradigm that uses Education for Sustainability (ES) as a base. It is not sufficient to carry out small sporadic actions which have little significancy for the educational community. Instead, transversal initiatives and activities entrenched in the core of the identity of the schools, and with which the community feels identified should be organized and executed. Extensive research and multiple experiences involving ES are being put in practice in an effort to incorporate sustainability in the core of education (Ranney et al., 2021; Leal Filho et al., 2021; Bright, 2020; Reid, 2019; Kunkle et al. 2019).
ES comes as a powerful solution to develop action competencies that derive in real commitment of the educational community to accomplish the change that must be produced at a social level so that individuals feel identified with the environmental cause through the development of pro-environmental skills, such as coping with uncertainty, working creatively and innovatively, thinking critically, self-motivation, planning and implementation, responsibility, systemic thinking, and active citizenship.
According to authors like Benayas et al. (2000) education achieves a higher degree of quality when it helps to develop educated citizens that are willing to make a responsible use of the resources at their disposal, and when it empowers them to adopt commitments and responsibilities in the protection of the environment at a local and global level. For this, it is indispensable to incorporate ES in the curricula of schools from an early age.
Universities and other educational institutions have been mirroring social models that promote economic development without any regard for the health and well-being of the people and the planet (Tilbury, 2013). Educational centers are a key motor for fostering sustainable development in the society as they can organize and perform initiatives at a local level that suppose a true change to the community. Many educational institutions are working in this direction, especially those known as Eco-centers. Their leaders get involved and engaged to improve responsibility, commitments and actions in sustainability education.
Leading change for sustainability requires more than simple knowledge of sustainability or a commitment to transforming institutions. It requires a facility for navigating organizations through a change journey that is complex, uncertain, slow and political; building leadership capability is key to systemic and deep change across institutions (Tilbury, 2013). The processes of environmental assessment and sustainable auditing contribute effectively to the management of change, awareness of strengths and weaknesses.
These auditing institutions are committed to analyze and reduce their footprint in their environment and involve all the educational community in their actions and programs to decrease the environmental degradation. One of the fundamental actions in the process to become an Eco-center is to organize a Sustainability Audit or Eco-Audit (sometimes also referred to as Environmental Audit). This type of audit is oriented to allow institutions to gradually include improvements in their organizational models, resources and educational programs pivoting around the respect for the environment and always in the pursuit of quality.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Action: Fact, act or operation that implies activity, movement, or change. It usually involves an agent acting voluntarily. The concept of action refers to stopping having a passive role to go on to do something or to the consequence of that activity.
Attitudes: Relatively stable set of beliefs and values over time in the disposition or tendency to act in a certain way or undertake some type of action. It is a determining aspect when carrying out an action and the type of emotion that this activity generates or the way of interacting with a specific situation or stimulus.
Sustainability Audit: Audit in which are the effectiveness of the organization's environmental management system is evaluated. In the case of educational centers, it also entails the analysis of the entrenchment of the principles of Education for Sustainability in the curricula.
Education for Sustainability Development: Education that empowers learners with knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to make informed decisions and perform responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society. Is a lifelong learning process and an integral part of quality education. It enhances the cognitive, social, and emotional and behavioral dimensions of learning. It is holistic and transformational, and encompasses learning content and outcomes, pedagogy, and the learning environment itself.
Participation Process: The action of getting involved in any type of activity in an intuitive or cognitive way. An intuitive participation is impulsive, immediate, and emotional, whereas a cognitive participation is premeditated and the result of a process of knowledge.
Priorities: Refers to the prior of something with respect to something else, whether in time or in order. That or that which has priority is first compared to other people or things.
Educational Centers: Space where human beings attend to learn. The concept can make mention of the building itself, the learning that takes place in it, the methodology used by the teacher, or the group of teachers in an institution. Primary schools, High Schools and Universities are examples of educational centers.
Pro-Environmental Skills: Skills that allow individuals to develop behaviors that are directly or indirectly aligned with the respect for the environment. These skills are typically in the core of every ESD program. Examples of these skills are coping with uncertainty, working creatively and innovatively, thinking critically, being able to self-motivate and engage community members, planning and implementation, responsibility, systemic thinking, and active citizenship.
Environmental Behaviors: Actions that contribute to developing a respectful relationship between humans and their environment.
Community: Set of people who live together under certain rules or who have the same interests who share elements, characteristics, properties, or objectives in common.
Environmental Awareness: Being aware of the issues that are currently faced by the environment, their root causes, as well as their externalities and the actions that contribute to further worsen them or, on the other hand, palliate them.
Needs: A lack or scarcity of something that is considered essential.