The Environmental Sustainability Education Initiative (ESEI)
ESEI recognizes the power of teaching in driving increased awareness, public understanding, and knowledge sharing. We are committed to developing programs that focus on sustainability, renewable energy, water conservation, and climate change.
ESEI aims to engage students, faculty, and staff in reducing and eventually eliminating schools’ contribution to climate change. Our environmental education aims to re-design curricular and institutional reform in the spirit of integral ecology that fosters ecological awareness by touching hearts and minds.
Overview
The Environmental Sustainability Education Initiative (ESEI) is focused on leading the education efforts for sustainable development by connecting programs around the Lasallian schools in the Région Lasallien de l’Amérique du Nord (RELAN). This initiative builds on the Lasallian tradition, established by Saint John Baptist de La Salle and it promotes an innovative sustainable relationship with our environment to address issues that can impact our communities and our interdependence with nature.
The word sustainability is derived from the Latin sustinere (tenere, to hold; sub, under, support). Since the 1980s sustainability has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on planet Earth and this has resulted in the definition of sustainability as: "sustainable development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own.”
The simple definition that sustainability is something that improves "the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting Eco-Systems", conveys the idea of sustainability having quantifiable limits. But sustainability is also a call to action, a call for a society founded on respect for nature, social justice and a culture of peace. This call suggest a more complex figure of sustainability, which includes the importance of the domain of 'politics'.
Sustainability implies proactive decision-making and innovation that minimizes negative impact and maintains balance between ecological resilience, economic prosperity, and political justice to ensure a desirable planet for all species now and in the future.
Sustainable development: at the confluence of three constituent parts: People, Planet & Profit
Will you stand with us to fight for a more just socio-environmental solution?
In the present environmental climate situation, society needs to focus on sustainable solutions more than ever before. Socio-Environmental movements should bring these solutions to the mainstream. But there is a better way to make these solutions materialized faster - teaching our students the common care of our home.
Climate Change and the United Nations
While the United Nations Millennium Declaration identifies principles and treaties on sustainable development, economic development, social development and environmental protection it continues to use three domains: economics, environment, and social sustainability. More recently, using a systematic domain model that responds to the debates over the last decade, the Circles of Sustainability approach distinguishes four domains:
economic, ecological, political, and cultural sustainability.
This approach is in accord with the United Nations, UNESCO, Agenda 21, and in particular the Agenda 21 for culture which specifies culture as the fourth domain of sustainable development. The model is now being used by organizations such as the United Nations Cities Program and Metropolis.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the current harmonized set of seventeen future international development targets.
The Environmental Sustainability Education Initiative (ESEI) is also in line with the seven goals of Laudato Si.
The seven goals at the core of Laudato Si's notion of integral ecology, are:
1. Response to the cry of the earth; 2. Response to the cry of the poor; 3. Ecological economics; 4. Adoption of simple lifestyles; 5. Ecological education; 6. Ecological spirituality; 7. Emphasis on community involvement and participatory action.
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VISION
Fostering a culture of sustainability and environmental stewardship on the “Care of our Common Home” by integrating social justice, economic, and ecological values into our institutional policies, programs and practices throughout our schools.
Creating a sustainable campus holistic program that serves as a living model of sustainability, providing learning experiences that students, faculty, and staff may develop, apply, and practice. -
MISSION
The Environmental Sustainability Education Initiative (ESEI) is to serve as a promotional and coordination center for teachers, administrators, and supporters of sustainability initiatives and developmental concerns in the Lasallian schools network in the Région Lasallien de l’Amérique du Nord (RELAN)
Educating the school community on issues related to social and environmental responsibility. We need to integrate sustainability literacy models across the curriculum, school functioning and operations, and leadership intended to implement these practices.
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.” Jane Goodall
Keys to Success.
We have an ethical and moral obligation to our students and future generations to sustain our environment. When we don’t act responsibly we are exacerbating the problems for future generations. We have the responsibility and need to inspire our schools to act upon the right choices that will have a direct impact on the future.
Long term sustainability business models, succession planning, and leadership development are vital to long term existence. Our interactions with the “care of our common home” are equally vital to long term existence. We need to plan our sustainable school programs accordingly.
There is no waste in nature. It is an unending cycle of birth, life, and death. Nature has been very successful at transforming and evolving. Zero waste even though very difficult to achieve is the sustainability gold standard. We should inspire our schools to strive for the gold standard. Biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes, used to solve complex human problems. ESEI should promote nature-inspired solutions to school problems that improve the school environment.
What do we build right now to prepare for future disasters? ESEI commitment is to build resilience to solve future problems and create the space for a sustainability discussion in our schools for the purpose of creating awareness. (Pandemic, flooding, rising sea, water pollution, air quality, and so on.)
Objectives of ESEI.
Objective 1
Students actively participate in a formation program with an understanding of the complexity of integral ecology challenges to become leaders who will use their knowledge to create sustainable impact in their communities.
Objective 2
The Environmental Sustainability Education Initiative recognizes that creating a sustainable campus reinforces our core teaching mission and it acknowledges that the challenges ahead of us are complex and interconnected, demanding a constant developing approach to sustainability.
Objective 3
Creating awareness for every member of our community to reflect on what role they can play in enhancing our collective well-being for a more sustainable future.
Objective 4
Establish communications protocols that facilitate sharing of best practices, ideas, and data among our schools.
Objective 5
Embrace health, diversity, environmental justice, and human rights as principles by which policies and processes are designed.
ESEI focuses on sustainable development practices and networking across the Lasallian schools of the Région Lasallien de l’Amérique du Nord (RELAN). It is starting with three pilot schools (one per district) of the RELAN.
ESEI serves as a promotional and coordinating entity for teachers, staff, administrators, and supporters of sustainability initiatives. The goal is to give students the educational programing and organizational culture needed to promote the development of environmentally conscious citizens. During their crucial developmental years, students spend a great amount of time in a school building. This is the time when schools must create spaces for creative thinking and develop a sense of awareness and responsibility in their students. The journey starts by educating students in favor of a healthy and sustainable environment.
