HE Academy Sustainability literacy book launched

An important new educational resource was launched on September 18th, 2009. The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy takes a sharp look at the skills, attributes and competencies that learners will need for surviving and thriving in the 21st century. It is a free multimedia resource with interviews and chapters by more than forty educators (see www.sustainability-literacy.org) as well as a paperback book. The handbook is critical of some mainstream skills agendas which focus narrowly on skills for industrialisation and economic expansion at all costs, and instead promotes a more open-ended approach including abilities such as values reflection, ecological intelligence, and critical awareness of the social structures that underpin unsustainable societies. The authors include leading sustainability educators as well as specialists from a wide range of disciplines from engineering to art, and the resource will be useful for lecturers, teachers and students across all study areas. The project was funded by the Higher Education Academy Education for Sustainable Development Project and conducted by the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges in partnership with the University of Gloucestershire Centre for Active Learning, the University of Brighton and the UNU RCE (Severn). The paperback book is edited by Arran Stibbe from the University of Gloucestershire and the multimedia version by Poppy Villiers-Stuart and Arran Stibbe.

Contact: Arran Stibbe (astibbe@glos.ac.uk), University of Gloucestershire, FCH Campus, Swindon Road, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ, UK

Arran Stibbe (ed) (2009) The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: skills for a changing world. Dartington: Green Books (£14.95, 224 pages, ISBN 978-1-900322-60-7, www.greenbooks.co.uk)