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The goal of many universities is to integrate
sustainable development, both as a perspective and
as knowledge context, into all training programmes
and relevant courses, as well as to give students a
chance to supplement their education with elective
courses in sustainable development. At some univer-
sities, work reports fulfil the requirements of the
Global Reporting Initiative. Sometimes a self-assess-
ment tool, the Audit Instrument for Sustainability in
Higher Education, is used.
But despite all the legal wording, special policy
documents, expectations and support on the part of
university management, the decisive factor is the indi-
vidual teacher’s willingness and ability to ensure that
the tuition provided is informed by the ideas underlying
the ESD concept. In practice, responsibility for bringing
these ideas to fruition at higher education institutions,
both in Sweden and elsewhere, lies to far too great an
extent in the hands of individual enthusiasts who seek
to drive matters forward.
In Sweden there are three UNESCO Chairs for ESD,
based at Lund University, Chalmers University of
Technology and the University of Gothenburg. The
latter focuses on promoting ESD in early childhood
education.
In October 2007, the government assigned the
Swedish International Development Agency, Sida,
to set up an institute, SWEDESD, with the primary
aim of promoting ESD in Sweden’s development aid
programme. SWEDESD, which is located on the island
of Gotland in the Baltic, is now nearing the end of
the build-up phase. The Global School/International
Programme Office for Education and Training, which
is also financed by Sida, is closely involved in the
promotion of ESD within the Swedish school system.
It bases its activities on the various school curricula
and syllabuses.
The National Agency for Education encourages
ESD through its triennial accolade, A Sustainable
Development School, established in 2005. To be
awarded this distinction, a school must organize its
work so that all pupils and staff are given the oppor-
tunity to take an active part both in formulating
sustainable education goals and in the planning, imple-
mentation and evaluation processes.
ESD is also an important component in the activities
of the Swedish National Council of Adult Education,
with its study associations and folk high schools. These
institutions operate independently of the government
authorities but receive government grants.
The Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation is the Swedish
branch of the international organization Eco-Schools
and has some 2,000 affiliated schools and preschools.
The Swedish authorities financially support their activi-
ties. The Swedish section of the World Wide Fund for
Nature, which is the country’s largest environment and
nature conservation organization, strongly promotes
ESD as part of its operation, focusing both on schools
and universities.
To strengthen ESD work in the Nordic countries, the Swedish
government decided, as early as April 2002, that while presid-
ing over the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2003 it would host a
conference on ESD in Karlskrona, Sweden in June. The Baltic Rim
countries were well represented at this meeting.
The proposal that emerged from the Johannesburg summit in
September 2002 on the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development (DESD) had a marked impact on ESD efforts in
Sweden, in a variety of ways. At the summit, the Swedish Prime
Minister invited the international community to a conference on
ESD, and this was duly held in 2004.
Later in 2002, Sweden was invited by the UN Economic
Committee for Europe (UNECE), which has 56 member states from
Caucasus to North America, to join Russia in leading the initial work
on developing an ESD action plan on its behalf. Sweden accepted,
and the following year, at a meeting of environment ministers in
Kiev, Ukraine in May, a statement was adopted emphasizing the
importance of ESD. This was followed up at the ministerial meeting
in Vilnius, Lithuania in March 2005 with the adoption of an action
plan for UNECE that has since become one of the foremost drivers
of ESD in these countries.
Learning to Change Our World was the title of the international
conference to which the prime minister had invited all coun-
tries in Johannesburg. It took place in Gothenburg on 4-7 May
2004 and was strongly supported by the two universities there,
both of which had been encouraging the development of ESD
for several years. The meeting attracted 350 participants from 75
countries. Since then, the universities have organized five inter-
national follow-up conferences, resulting in October 2008 in the
Gothenburg Recommendations.
The preparations for the Gothenburg conference were undertaken
by a government committee that was also charged with recommend-
ing ways in which ESD work in Sweden might be strengthened.
One of the proposals involved amending the Higher Education Act
so as to require the country’s universities to promote sustainable
development. Another recommendation was for Sweden to estab-
lish a UNESCO institute for the promotion of ESD in international
development aid activities.
Both these proposals have been implemented. As of 1 February
2006, the law states that: “in their activities, higher education insti-
tutions shall promote sustainable development that ensures present
and future generations a healthy and good environment, economic
and social welfare and justice”. Accordingly, many of these univer-
sities and colleges have developed policy documents of their own
aimed at fulfilling the intentions of this provision. These documents
are viewed as an extension of the institutions’ voluntary commit-
ment to greater environmental awareness in the 1990s, as reflected
in their support for various university declarations at the time. In
April 2010, legislative regulation was strengthened further when
the present government reiterated the formulation cited above in
revising the Higher Education Act.
Swedish universities and colleges have long offered a wide range
of programmes and courses in pursuit of learning for sustainable
development. About a third of all courses discuss sustainable devel-
opment in some form. The Higher Education Act has provided a
basis for the special policy documents adopted by many universities
and colleges in support of ESD. Each department pursues work in
this area in its own way. Often, department heads appoint a special
contact officer to promote development.