Teaching and learning
Sustainability and Environment Community of Practice
Learn about our supportive network working to integrate sustainability across York St John.
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About the Community of Practice and our aims
The Sustainability and Environment Community of Practice (CoP) is a welcoming and supportive network of staff and students integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into our curricula.
We have established the CoP to bring together colleagues who are committed to enhancing our culture around ESD and to further our understanding of our relationship with the natural environment. Staff and students in the group come together regularly to discuss how we can embed sustainability and environmental issues more deeply within teaching and learning through knowledge sharing and best practice.
We support our whole University community to re-imagine sustainable futures and think about how we can create opportunities for a better future, whilst also enabling the University to become an innovative leader in sustainability and responsibility. We hope to inspire students and staff to become leaders in this area, as well as considering how we might give a voice to non-human communities and build more resilient local ecologies through our teaching and learning practices. By taking an integrated, compassionate approach to our curricula, we seek to create high-quality learning experiences in relation to sustainability and ecological justice throughout the University.
The group does all of this by working closely with all University academic schools, the Students’ Union, central services, the Estates team, the Teaching and Learning Enhancement team, and other services and networks throughout the University, including the Living Lab and Ecological Justice Research Group.
Importantly, we support the University's aim to be 'a sector leader in environmental sustainability with a whole-University approach', as set out in York St John's University for Social Impact strategy.
Sustainability in relation to pedagogy and practice
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Sustainability is a contested term, which can take on different meanings in varying contexts. The United Nations Brundtland Commission (1987) definition is still one of the most widely recognised, stating that sustainability means: 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'.
Critical debates and approaches exist around 'sustainability' and 'environment' within the context of ESD. For example, complex sustainability problems and problem solving; knowledge systems and cultural perspectives (Hutchinson et al., 2023; Sterling, 2004); neoliberalism, growth and ESD ethics (Corcoran & Wals, 2004); training and skills; decolonisation (Hutchinson et al., 2023); innovation and technology; and policy alongside practice. This group is a forum for exploring these debates collectively, and considering how they might yet evolve as the world changes. It is a space for coming together to think about the world differently, creatively and innovatively in the face of local, national and global sustainability challenges. The group aims to be a supportive network because sustainability and environmental challenges can seem impossible and even overwhelming at times, requiring us to build communities based on horizontal, mutually supportive relationships with students, staff and all those working towards sustainable practice and pedagogy within higher education.
One of our sustainability visions is to consider how our University community can implement effective sustainability initiatives and influence others to have positive impacts on the planet, whilst taking collective responsibility for our actions and our relationships with each other and the rest of nature. However, we also think of sustainability as a holistic idea and are exploring the ways in which the term relates to ecological, social and climate justice, and decolonisation.
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Events
The Community of Practice meet quarterly so please come along to one of our hybrid conversations. Please email t.ratcliffe@yorksj.ac.uk or tes@yorksj.ac.uk to be added to the calendar invites.
Going forward, we hope to host both internal and occasional external-facing events to share ideas around pedagogy and practice, and to enable deeper critical exploration of the debates surrounding sustainability and environmental impact in the context of higher education.
If you have any idea for an event or session you would like to co-organise at York St John, please get in touch using the contact details below.
Key resources and references
Expand the drop-down below for a full list of our resources and references.
Higgins, K. and Calvert, A. (2025). Advance HE Education for Sustainable Development Curriculum Design Toolkit. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/education-sustainable-development-curriculum-design-toolkit
Hutchinson, Y., Cortez Ochoa, A.A., Paulson, J., and Tikly, L. (eds.). (2023). Decolonizing Education for Sustainable Futures. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
Murray, J. (2018). ‘Student-led action for sustainability in higher education: a literature review’. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 1095-1110. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-09-2017-0164
Servant-Miklos, G. (2024). Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for The End of The World as We Know It. London: Bloomsbury Academic. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350400528
Sterling, S. (2004). ‘Higher education, sustainability, and the role of systematic learning’. In Corcoran and Wals (eds), Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability: Problematics, Promise, and Practice. (1st ed.). Springer Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48515-X
White, R.M., Kemp, S., Price, E.A.C., and Longhurst, J.W.S. (eds). (2025). Perspectives and Practices of Education for Sustainable Development: A Critical Guide for Higher Education (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003451563
