Developing action strategies for sustainable living amongst employees

Abstract

Employees are frequently not considered as a specific target group in education for sustainable development campaigns. Adults at their place of work are the decision makers and problem solvers of the present generation. It is these decisions and actions that will impact the quality of life of present and future generations as well as the sustainability of our planet. This paper presents the work in progress of research taking place with members of staff at a University in the UK. It aims to provide a valid contribution to education for sustainable development in organisations by exploring routes to a needs-based training programme for employees that would bring about (i) behavioural change; (ii) improved sustainability performance and (iii) financial savings across the organisation. The paper will put forward an example of the ‘how’ element, or rather the process required by practitioners to design education for sustainable training programmes that are relevant to different audiences. The emphasis in the process will therefore need to be its adaptability in that it possesses elements that would render it possible to be used for employee training in other work contexts and flexibility to make it work and fit around the day to day demands and challenges of any given organisation. Finally the paper will demonstrate that such action strategies need to be attractive and user-friendly for practitioners to believe that they can adopt the model and make it their own (or rather make it that of their target groups).