Action-oriented ESD for community benefit: two sustainability audit case studies

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) often uses ‘action-oriented’ pedagogies, which aim to deliver mutual benefit for learners and community stakeholders. This presentation shares two contrasting approaches to partner students with local businesses to evaluate their sustainability impacts. At University of Leicester (UoL), a Sustainability Audit process originally delivered by staff has been adapted into a credit-bearing ‘work-related learning module’, delivered with undergraduate science students from four programmes. Working with real-world data and interdisciplinary approaches, students produce an evidence-based recommendations report for businesses, developing competencies as ‘change-makers’ in alignment with UoL strategy. The UoL audit process was shared with De Montfort University (DMU) in a joint project where students were trained and paid to deliver sustainability audits. The process was revised into a user-friendly self-completion spreadsheet, designed for use without prior training. This entry-level process enables large-scale reach, potentially within hundreds of employer placements taking place through DMU annually, delivering on DMU’s strategic commitment to ‘partnerships with purpose’. Taken together, the case studies demonstrate cross-fertilisation between local universities and formal/informal curriculum linkages, highlighting diverse strategies for pursuing the ESD agenda in alignment with institutional priorities.