ESD was first brought to the forefront during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. ESD was seen as a response to the rising global development challenges and a tool to promote sustainable development at the time. According to Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, ESD aims to ‘promote and improve the quality of education, reorient the curricula [towards sustainability], raise public awareness of the concept of sustainable development, [and] train the workforce[2].’

After years of development, the United Nations Johannesburg Earth Summit (2002)Link opens in a new windowannounced the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014)Link opens in a new windowand further established ESD as one of the tools in response to sustainable development challenges. ESD was accounted to address all three pillars of sustainable development — society, environment, and economy — with culture as an essential underlying dimension[3].

In 2015, UNESCO updated ESD again along with the creation of the 17 Sustainable Development GoalsLink opens in a new window(SDGs). ESD is integrated as part of theGoal 4 Quality Educationand considered as a main driver for all other SDGs. Programmes such as the Global Action ProgrammeLink opens in a new window(GAP) were established to endorse ESD and the 17 SDGs in different countries.

In 2020, UNESCO further catalysed ESD through the agenda: ESD for 2030Link opens in a new window. The new agenda ‘sets out the urgent challenges facing the planet and underlines the implementation of the newEducation for Sustainable Development: Towards achieving the SDGs (ESD for 2030)framework, which aims to increase the contribution of education to building a more just and sustainable world[4].’

ESD entered UK's higher education in the early 2010s. In 2014, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher EducationLink opens in a new window(QAA) and the Higher Education AcademyLink opens in a new window(HEA) issued the first ESD document for universities in the UK - Education for Sustainable Development: Guidance for UK Higher Education ProvidersLink opens in a new window. The proposed ESD framework encourages learners to:

1. Consider what the concept of global citizenship means in the context of their own discipline and in their future professional and personal lives;
2. Consider what the concept of environmental stewardship means in the context of their own discipline and in their future professional and personal lives;
3. Think about issues of social justice, ethics and wellbeing, and how these relate to ecological and economic factors;
4. Develop a future-facing outlook; learning to think about the consequences of actions, and how systems and societies can be adapted to ensure sustainable futures[5].

In 2021, the QAA updated the ESD guidelines for UK higher education institutions. The new ESD guideline provides a definition for sustainable development and ESD:

‘Sustainable Development:an aspirational ongoing process of addressing social, environmental and economic concerns to create a better world.’

‘Education for Sustainable Development:the process of creating curriculum structures and subject-relevant content to support and enact sustainable development[6].’

According to QAA (2021), ESD now has three main missions in UK higher education institutions:

1. "Supporting students and staff to develop the knowledge, competencies and ability to pursue sustainable visions of the future;
2. Supporting students and staff to appreciate the complexity of our world, the ‘wicked problems’ that continuously emerge, and how they can personally and professionally contribute to positive change;
3. Challenging, supporting and enabling students and staff to co-design solutions and drive change for sustainability[6]."

Following the establishment of the ESD guidelines in 2014, many universities in the UK initiated institutional ESD framework. The University of Warwick was one of UK's leading universities that recognised the importance of sustainability and started the journey to engage ESD in education practices. With years of development, ESD is fully integrated in the University of Warwick's education approaches and embedded in the education values we uphold at Warwick today.