Sustainability is the core part of any successful environmental or social project. To incorporate sustainability as a fundamental part of education and curriculum is now seriously considered by the social scientists. The concept is still fresh and many new ideas are being put forward. Most, however, have agreed that the best way of doing this is through practical examples rather than boring textbook chapters.

The practical examples of sustainable education should be started from primary education. In the case of developing countries, primary education has to coincide with the local environmental issues. If I elaborate further, students can be taught about deforestation and its impacts on their local environment. Next comes the contribution towards the solution. These students can be encouraged to not just plant trees but also to care for them and nurture them. In this way, a practical and sustainable approach towards the environment will be developed among the children.

It’s interesting to note that these little sustainability practices are not limited to children. Brad Allenby of GreenBiz thinks that unless and until the older generation, baby boomers to be more precise, are not taught about sustainability, we would not be able to bring the ‘change’.

Moving towards university education, social scientists in developing countries face a whole plethora of issues if they wish to introduce sustainability concepts. The first and foremost issue is the limited number of students who ultimately make it to the higher education institutions. Even those who get enrolled in social sciences programs are reluctant to go for sustainability issues. Maybe because these countries don’t provide them with sufficient research and job opportunities in this field. The third and another big issue is the non-availability of sustainability experts in the third world countries.

A viable and ’sustainable’ solution to that problem would be to start some pilot projects where sustainability experts (of course volunteers from the West) can impart some skills to those interested. This batch of students can later on work as the pioneers in educating and promoting the actual and not ’superficial’ sustainable practices in their countries.

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