Education for sustainable development for employees—A route to behavioural change

Abstract

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) has undoubtedly raised the discourse on the principles of ESD and provided a platform for healthy debates on infusing ESD in curricula and ways to overcome the barriers that exist to implementation programmes. Furthermore, the decade has also strengthened community based ESD activities and initiatives. This paper addresses a gap in research within the field of ESD by exploring the potential of ESD for employees at their workplace through a research study carried out with a set of employees in a UK higher education institution. The findings suggests that a design process for employee programmes on ESD should be needs based and context specific. Whilst it is acknowledged that employees have an important role to play in driving the organisation’s sustainability strategy forward, the study has found that not only are ESD training programmes for employees non-existent, but neither are employees effectively invited to participate and engage in shaping the sustainability strategy of the organisation. The paper will present the potential of infusing thinking skills into ESD training programmes to assist employees feel adequately empowered to engage in needs based ESD training programmes relevant to their role at work and to their life beyond the workplace. The study highlights the role thinking has in cultivating a thinking culture within an organisation as part of its response to the challenges of sustainable development today. Results from the study indicate that employees are of the opinion that bespoke ESD training for employees would most likely lead to behavioural change.