Sustainability in the curriculum – Resources for educators

Sustainability in teaching

Every graduate will face sustainability-related challenges and opportunities throughout their career. By embedding sustainability into teaching, educators can help students develop the knowledge, skills and perspectives needed to contribute to a more sustainable future. This page provides resources, tools and examples to support staff in integrating sustainability concepts and competencies into their teaching practice. The list is not exhaustive but can be used as a starting point.

If you are new to sustainability, we recommend doing the staff training that is available via the Staff Learning Portal (access via your Okta dashboard). It includes several examples, tips and tricks about sustainability in teaching and learning. If you are looking for a resource to add to your teaching, look at the list of resources for activities related to sustainability.

1.    Preparing to teach about sustainability

For teaching staff who want to build their own sustainability knowledge and confidence before embedding sustainability into teaching, check out these options:

• Do the staff training on sustainability that is available via the Staff Learning Portal (access via your Okta dashboard). The training includes multiple examples for sustainability in teaching. (NB the training will be available as of end of 2026)
• Check out the free online courses from the SDG Academy covering a wide range of topics including sustainable cities, human rights, climate action, economics and much more. Duration varies between 1-2 hours to up to 50 hours to complete. Over 50 short courses.
• Check the online short course (3 weeks, 3 hours per week) from Future Learn UCL for teachers who want to include sustainability in their teaching. The free version gives 3 weeks access to the course.

Embedding sustainability does not mean adding a lecture about climate change to every topic. It means helping students understand how their discipline contributes to environmental, social and economic sustainability and equipping them with the knowledge, skills and values needed to address complex future challenges.

Below is a list of ready-to-use modules, activities, case studies and learning resources that can be adapted for use in topics across a range of disciplines.

• Sustainability games. Two games, developed in house by a Flinders team, with instructions on how to play and support the game provided on the site:
  • Sustainability game covering basic principles of sustainability through an urban development challenge. Game can be played individually. Introduces basic concepts.
  • SDG game, a role-playing game where students with different roles (economy, environment, social) need to work together to meet their goal of a future within sustainable parameters. Focuses on systems thinking and problem solving.
• Prof Corey Bradshaw has offered to provide guest lectures on environmental sustainability, including climate change, for any topic or course. Please contact Corey to discuss options.
• Calculate your footprint for an understanding of basic principles of planetary boundaries.
• Modern slavery and ethical sustainability, this training is designed to support students and professionals across a range of disciplines and sectors, including business, procurement, environmental studies, engineering and construction. It is co-developed by Prof Marinella Marmo. The training can be accessed as a SCORM file, and can be embedded into any professional development or teaching module
• Comprehensive list with teaching resources per discipline compiled by the University of British Columbia.
• Planetary Health Toolkit: set of learning activities and assessment items for healthcare students.
• Talking Change: How Climate Conversations can shift public attitudes and help build movements. At the bottom there’s a list with resources for climate conversations.

3.    Competencies

Students should develop capabilities such as:

• Systems thinking: Understanding how environmental, social and economic systems interact, and recognising the connections, relationships and potential impacts of decisions within complex systems.
• Critical thinking: Evaluating information, assumptions and evidence from multiple perspectives to make informed and balanced judgements about sustainability challenges.
• Futures thinking: Exploring possible future scenarios and considering the long-term consequences of actions to support sustainable and resilient outcomes.
• Problem solving: Identifying and addressing complex sustainability challenges through creative, practical and evidence-based solutions.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration: Working effectively with people from diverse disciplines, backgrounds and perspectives to address sustainability issues that extend beyond a single field of expertise.
• Ethical reasoning: Considering values, responsibilities, equity and social justice when making decisions that affect people, communities and the environment.
• Self-awareness and reflection: Reflecting on personal values, assumptions and behaviours, and recognising how individual actions can contribute to sustainable change.

4.    Suggestions year by year

Year 1 (Introductory)

• Activity: Ask students to identify how their discipline connects to one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For example: In a business subject – how does responsible consumption (SDG 12) manifest in your sector?
• Activity: A short case-study on a local sustainability challenge. There are multiple options to use Flinders’ own campus as “living lab” (e.g. waste management, energy systems, biodiversity, transport – see Flinders’ sustainability pages for examples).
• Reflection: At end of semester, ask students to write a short piece: “What is one sustainability issue in my discipline and what could I, as a practitioner/researcher, do about it?”

Year 2 (Intermediate)

• Embed a mini-project where students in discipline X review a process/ system and propose a sustainability improvement (e.g., engineering students analysing a building energy use, arts students exploring sustainable materials in production, health students exploring sustainable healthcare delivery).
• Provide students with a scaffolding worksheet: “Systems thinking & sustainability” (define systems, identify inputs/outputs, feedback loops, unintended consequences) and apply it to a discipline example.

Year 3 (Advanced)

• Capstone or major project: Students work on “wicked problems” of sustainability in their discipline (e.g., interdisciplinary teams including humanities + science + business tackling a real community/industry issue).
• Encourage students to link their findings to at least one SDG and identify measurable indicators of change. Use the SDSN guide for mapping interlinkages.
• Encourage research-style output: e.g., students present their work as a mini white-paper or public poster

5. Toolkits & frameworks (for all disciplines)

At the moment, Flinders University does not yet have its own framework or toolkit for embedding sustainability in the curriculum, following a systematic approach. Other universities do, with some good examples below.

• Getting Started with SDGs in Universities - SDSN Australia, New Zealand and Pacific edition  - https://ap-unsdsn.org/wp-content/uploads/University-SDG-Guide_web.pdf
• SDG resources for regional educators https://ap-unsdsn.org/esd-sdg-resources-for-regional-educators/ webpage
• Educators Guide for Sustainability Teaching and Learning https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/1996922/Educators_Guide_for_Sustainability_Final.pdf (Western Sydney) - A practical teaching/learning framework
• Framework and toolkit: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/publications/2025/sep/embedding-sustainability-your-teaching-and-learning including five-step instructions on how to embed sustainability in your teaching
• Framework and toolkit: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/education-sustainable-development-curriculum-design-toolkit document with a five step plan to review and revise your course/topic, including tools like active learning planner template, module planner template.
• Competencies and pedagogy: https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/humteachlearn/curriculum-design/curriculum-enhancement/sustainability/ Provides definitions of competencies (systems thinking, anticipatory thinking, critical thinking, etc.) that apply across modules. This provides some guidance about what skills students should develop, beyond content.

6.    Further reading and evidence

• “Beyond the right thing to do” Comprehensive, evidenced, and up to date report from AASHE about the value of sustainability in higher education. It highlights the critical role that universities and colleges play and the progress made so far.
• Easy to read article from Times Higher Education for all disciplines, explaining the benefits of adding sustainability to our teaching.
• SDG Accord progress report 2025 from EAUC, reporting on progress towards SDG targets, with separate section on the role of Universities.
• Interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainability in higher education describing research on how lecturers across disciplines work with sustainability, and what supports are needed.
• Book The Sustainability of Science : How Science Impacts the Environment, and What Can Be Done, edited by Martin Farley, Royal Society of Chemistry, The, 2026. ProQuest Ebook, Available online via the library. Recommend Chapter 10. Education for sustainability and equity in research. For researchers and/or for educating future researchers (from undergrad to postdoc) on how to reduce the impact of doing science.