Barriers and pathways to creating sustainability education programs: policy, rhetoric and reality

Abstract

This article outlines an action‐oriented research project regarding the University of British Columbia’s engagement with sustainability. In 1997, the University of British Columbia (UBC) created a sustainability policy that suggests all UBC students should be educated about sustainability. Using data from a series of in‐depth interviews the author outlines a range of institutional barriers that impede the implementation of sustainability education including: the problems of disciplinarity, the competitive environment of the university, misdirected criteria for evaluating students and faculty, and multiple priority‐setting by the administration. The article concludes with recommendations on how to create institutional change and sustainability education programs at the university level.