3rd European Fair on Education for Sustainable Development.

We are now half way into 'The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development', the goal of which is “to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning” to encourage changes in behaviour that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations. The first five years of this educational effort has seen a vast amount of research and analysis into what needs to be done and possible methods of creating a sustainable education but as yet, little of this has been translated into concrete action - YET. What we need to see now in the second half of this decade is ACTION!

Last week between 28-29th October, AZB-Hamburg welcomed over 250 visitors from 18 different Countries to take part in the 3rd European Fair on Education for Sustainable Development. The atmosphere was buzzing with anticipation and urging for action.

The fair was organised by the Research and Transfer centre “Applications of Life Sciences” of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) and the Centre for Sustainable Construction (ZzB), Hamburg. The event acted as a platform from which the participants were able to exchange information, ideas and experiences, whilst also providing the opportunity to link and network people and organisations working in the field. Alongside the presentations, exhibitors were able to display their work/ projects, providing an opportunity for close contact and a more in-depth explanation of some of the projects introduced through the presentations.
With a focus on “Renewable Energy and Climate change: Thematic Challenges to European Schools and Universities”, the fair saw presentations from speakers who were able to offer a range of perspectives - from statistics and strategies outlining the challenges we now face to those with ‘hands-on experience’ of communicating the idea of sustainability to school children.

The presentations highlighted the need for the nature of education to change if it is to become education for sustainable development. – It needs to be restructured to take a ‘systems thinking’ approach, providing opportunity for more participation, feedback and encouraging critical thinking. In terms of a sustainable education, linear models of are now of limited value and capacity building is therefore necessary – a re-education of teachers so that they teach in a new way. Recruiting trainers from various backgrounds also echoes the systems thinking approach. - Our teachers should be businesses, politicians and members of our local community to name a few.

Alongside the presentaions and exhibition, pupils from Hamburg schools took part in practical workshops related to the theme of renewable energy and climate change. One group built solar powered toy cars!

RCE-Hamburg and Region presented a game “That’s a Good Idea!” The game (developed by one of the two English women who are at the AZB for work experience) aimed to make the RCE-Hamburg display interactive for visitors, providing an opportunity for them to share ideas on how to live in a more sustainable way. The game was colour coded into three categories – ‘At home and at play, ‘At work/school/college’, and ‘In the environment’. The ideas for sustainable living at home and in the environment filled up the biggest share of the board with ideas such as “before a shower collect the water until it becomes hot” and “no paper hand towels”, while ideas for sustainable practice at work and school were somewhat lacking! What was encouraging however were the projects presented over the event which aim to change this.

Powerado is just such a project. Powerado explores ways of communicating renewable energy concepts to children at school as well as people in professional and tertiary education. We were presented with a range of ‘material boxes’ each addressing a different age group. The boxes contain materials for practical experiments which demonstrate the use of renewable energies. Another method was ‘energy tales’ – these are stories about different energy themes and aim to bring the field of renewable energies to non-technical subjects like German, Ethics, Religion and Arts. To see the presentation (in English) from Powerado click the following link http://www.haw-hamburg.de/uploads/media/Draeger.pdf


Friday saw the introduction of various RCEs, including RCE-Hamburg and Region. These presentations provided a useful comparison between the work and logistics of the different RCEs, and ended with a powerful suggestion from RCE-Rhine – Meuse, and their project OPEDUCA concerning a rethinking from schooling to a new education route – life long learning.

You can see all of the presentations from the fair at http://www.haw-hamburg.de/esd2009.html#c43555