Sustainability Learning Toolbox
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Sustainability Learning Toolbox
Our teaching toolbox consists of:
3. Sustainability Competencies (Katja Brundiers 2021)
These approaches and competencies help shape Student Learning Outcomes and provide a framework to assess whether learning has happened.
In addition, we rely on Universal Design for Learning to promote inclusive pedagogies and Backward Course Design to make sure that we meet our learning goals through relevant embodied learning activities and effective modes of assessment.
These always emphasize interdisciplinary approaches and student self-reflection on their own learning.
STREAM
Frameworks and student learning outcomes are like trellises in a garden. They can help you grow ways of knowing, being, and doing sustainability education
For Earthrise Commons, we work with a framework and philosophy called STREAM:
STREAM is a way of teaching and working with communities that builds on familiar education frameworks such as STEM and STEAM by prioritizing Relationships. That’s where the transformative R comes from!
STREAM was created by the Eddy at SUNY New Paltz and the City of Newburgh Health, Wellness, and Environmental Justice Collective to connect learning more directly to real life, community needs, and care for the Earth.
STREAM brings together science, technology, the arts, social justice, mindfulness, wellness, and community action:
S = sustainability, systems thinking, social justice, and science
T = transformative learning, teamwork across disciplines, and technology
R = relationships, real-world relevance, resilience, regeneration, and recreation
E = connection to the Earth, embodied, hands-on learning, engineering, environmental justice, and empowerment
A = awareness and the arts
M = mindfulness and math
What STREAM tries to do:
Let communities lead.
People most affected by problems should help shape the solutions.
Use technology with care and ethics.
Science and technology are powerful tools. STREAM asks how they can support people, communities, and ecosystems rather than cause harm.
Engage the whole person.
Learning should involve emotions, creativity, the body, and lived experience, not just memorizing information.
Support healing and connection.
STREAM uses activities like storytelling, poetry, mapping, and creative projects to help people better understand their communities and imagine healthier futures.
STREAM helps people in learning communities work together to build a more caring, sustainable, and connected world. See STREAM in action!
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Resources:
Sustainability Frameworks - Crash Course 2026.pdf
Sustainability Frameworks - Crash Course 2026.pptx
Sustainability Learning Outcomes
Please feel free to update the above resource with your own learning outcomes!
The learning institutions and people in this learning outcomes resource have well-articulated sustainability learning outcomes that you can adapt and remix
More Information about Sustainability Frameworks
There are many other frameworks from around the world with rich and deep heritages, presented from ancient to recent times:
A Dish with One Spoon Treaty / One Dish One Spoon Treaty (1142 CE)
Arguably, “The oldest sustainability policy on the planet:” a wampum belt treaty agreement between the citizens of the Potawatomi and Haudenosaunee Nations, North America.
Robin Wall Kimmerer on the One Dish One Spoon Treaty
Canadian Encyclopedia Entry for the Dish with One Spoon Treaty
Richard Hill YouTube Video on the One Dish One Spoon Treaty
Basic Call to Consciousness (1977)
Basic Call to Consciousness
This series of position papers by Indigenous writers, including the “Haudenosaunee Address to the Western World,” advocates for recognizing and respecting Indigenous rights and perspectives. The papers highlight the importance of Indigenous knowledge and the need to harmonize human culture with nature while lamenting the destructive tendencies of Western industrial civilization.
Limits to Growth (1972)
Limits to Growth
This influential report by the Club of Rome used computer models to predict the consequences of continued consumptive growth on the planet’s finite resources. It warned that, without significant changes within the century, we would face resource depletion and environmental collapse.
EcoFeminism (1974)
EcoFeminism
Ecofeminists advocate for a more caring, equitable, less hierarchical, and sustainable world, grounded in feminist principles that make unacknowledged labor more visible. Donna Haraway has written on the need for improved relational responsibility and situated knowledge-making. Barbara Smith and the Combahee River Collective Statement (1977) advance an intersectional view of Black feminism that forwards social dimensions of sustainability work. In education, Nel Noddings has articulated principles of care ethics that apply well to sustainability education. Other foundational ecofeminist thinkers in the West include Greta Gaard, Val Plumwood, Barbara Cook, and Sherilyn MacGregor.
Deep Ecology (1984)
The Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer Arne Naess articulated a philosophy he called ecosophy: a living philosophy. Deep Ecology believes that humans are part of a web of life and that nature is immanent. Naess argued that we need to ask deeper why, what if, and how questions to live more harmoniously in concert with the rest of nature. Deep ecology has influenced academics and outdoor enthusiasts; for instance, when camping or rock climbing, people have become more mindful about avoiding defacement of the rock faces they climb.
Eco Criticism
As long as humans have told stories, they have told stories about Earth, animals, and other aspects of nature. Eco criticism is a branch of literary criticism that initially focused on nature themes in the rhetorical analysis of poems, novels, plays, paintings, and essays. This discipline has roots in a deep-ecology-based reverence for nature as an intrinsic good, as exemplified by Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us (1951). With the advent of Poststructuralism in the 1990s, this celebratory approach gave way to a mode of critique based on social ecology’s concern with systems of meaning, power, and social relations. These ecocritics have focused on how meanings and definitions of nature, wilderness, ecology, and the natural are constructed through language systems or cultural discourse. For example, whose voices and perspectives are included, and whose are excluded, when a National Park is created? Notable ecocritics include Laurence Buell, Kate Soper, Cheryl Glotfelty, and Ursula Heise.
The Brundtland Definition of Sustainable Development (1987)
Our Common Future
“Our Common Future,” a seminal definition of sustainable development from the Brundtland Report, broadly describes it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This statement balances economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity.
Principles of Environmental Justice (1991)
Principles of Environmental Justice
Established by a national gathering of environmental justice leaders, including Robert Bullard, these principles outline the need for equitable treatment and involvement of all people in environmental policy. They address the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on historically marginalized communities and call for fair distribution of environmental benefits.
John Elkington's Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, and Profit (1997)
HBS example
Triple Bottom Line video
Elkington’s concept extends the traditional business focus on shareholder profit to include social and environmental considerations that are typically not factored into neoliberal business models. Known as the Triple Bottom Line, it encourages companies to measure their success not only by their financial performance but also by their impact on people and the planet.
The Earth Charter (2000)
The Earth Charter
The Earth Charter is a UNESCO global declaration of ethical principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful world. It emphasizes respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.
Julian Agyeman’s Just Sustainabilities (2003)
Just Sustainabilities (2003) [see Ted Talk]
In his work and TED Talk, Agyeman argues for an integrated approach to sustainability that combines environmental justice with social justice. He argues that achieving true sustainability requires addressing inequality and ensuring that all people have access to the benefits of sustainable development.
Kate Raworth's Doughnut Model of Social and Planetary Boundaries (2012)
Doughnut Model of Social and Planetary Boundaries
Raworth’s clever Doughnut Model visualizes a safe and just space for humanity within a framework that balances social foundations (such as education and health) and ecological ceilings (such as climate change and biodiversity loss). Raworth ensures everyone meets their basic needs in this safe and just space without overshooting planetary limits.
The United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development (2015)
The United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development
The UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), co-created and agreed upon by 193 nations, constitute a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all by 2030. They address social, environmental, and economic issues, including health, education, gender equality, and climate action.
Sustainability Economics
Circular Economy
“The circular economy is a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated. In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes such as maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, recycling, and composting. The circular economy tackles climate change and other global challenges, like biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution, by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources.”
The circular economy is based on three principles, driven by design:
Circulate products and materials (at their highest value)
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview)
ESG Investing considers a publicly traded corporation’s commitment to environmental sustainability, social equity, and corporate governance. (https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/environmental-social-and-governance-esg-investing)
Paul Hawken, Regeneration & Project Drawdown's Climate Change Solutions (2017)
Paul Hawken’s Regeneration & Project Drawdown's Climate Change Solutions
offer comprehensive plans to reverse global warming. They curate practical solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance carbon sinks, and promote regenerative practices that restore ecosystems. Notably, most solutions already exist; they have not yet been popularized or scaled.
Just Transition (1990s, now articulated by Movement Generation and the Climate Justice Alliance)
Just Transition (1990s), now articulated by Movement Generation and the Climate Justice Alliance
Just Transition is a framework for a fair shift to an ecologically sustainable, equitable, and just economy for all its members. It emphasizes protecting workers’ rights and communities during the transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a green economy.
Elizabeth Sawin, Multisolving (2019)
Multisolving
Sawin’s concept of Multisolving refers to finding solutions that address multiple problems at once. It focuses on strategies that deliver co-benefits across sectors, including improved health, reduced emissions, and enhanced community resilience.
MIT En-Roads Climate Change Solutions, v. 21.12
The MIT En-Roads Climate Solutions model is an interactive tool that allows users to explore the impact of various climate policies and actions. It helps visualize how different strategies, such as renewable energy adoption and carbon pricing, can work together to mitigate climate change.
Inner Development Goals
IDGs
The Inner Development Goals (IDGs) framework emphasizes personal and collective inner development to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The IDGs illuminate skills, qualities, and dispositions that support sustainable and inclusive societies, such as empathy, resilience, and mindfulness.
Resources
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Sustainability Frameworks Crash Course
pdf - 2.37 MB
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Sustainability Competencies
External Resource
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Sustainability Learning Outcomes
External Resource