This paper argues that the need for a core “fourth pillar” of sustainability/sustainable development, as demanded in multiple arenas, can no longer be ignored on the grounds of intangibility. Different approaches to this vital but missing pillar (cultural-aesthetic, religious-spiritual, and political-institutional) find common ground in the area of ethical values. While values and aspects based on them are widely assumed to be intangible and immeasurable, we illustrate that it is possible to operationalize them in terms of measurable indicators when they are intersubjectively conceptualized within clearly defined practical contexts. The processes require contextual localization of items, which can nonetheless fit into a generalizable framework. This allows useful measurements to be made, and removes barriers to studying, tracking, comparing, evaluating and correlating values-related dimensions of sustainability. It is advocated that those involved in operationalizing sustainability (especially in the context of creating post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals), should explore the potential for developing indicators to capture some of its less tangible aspects, especially those concerned with ethical values.

This descriptive report outlines an innovative project in which Earth Charter International is actively involved. The project aims to develop approaches, indicators and tools for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to be able to measure values-based aspects and impacts of their work at the project level. Many CSOs have an intuitive feeling that their projects are more successful when there is a resonance of values with those involved; this project aims to make such aspects tangible, measurable and transferable to other CSOs. The two year, EU-funded project called ESDinds is characterised by a collaborative partnership between a geographically and culturally diverse consortium consisting of four CSOs (including the Earth Charter International Secretariat) and two universities. The research design takes an iterative, grounded research approach to indicator development.

After the Costa Rican government signed a commitment to implement the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), the challenge was how to put the commitment into action. Fortunately, an opportunity presented itself with an initiative called Peace with Nature (Iniciativa Paz con la Naturaleza–IPN), under which a teacher training course called Education for Sustainable Development Regional Course (CREADS) was implemented. A ‘coalition’ of governmental and nongovernmental organisations, coordinated by the Ministry of Education and IPN, was put in place to deliver the course and it was decided to use the Earth Charter as the course framework. This article describes the process of creating this course, its content and methodology, and analyses the course impact, lessons learned and challenges ahead.

In the face of escalating sustainability challenges globally, such as climate change, poverty, inequality, and injustices, the need for a systematic approach to tackle them through the infusion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in higher education has become increasingly critical. This article explores the crucial issue of professionalizing academic teaching, emphasizing the readiness of academic teachers to cope with sustainability and SDGs in higher education. Using the Stages of Concern Theory and the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to professionalize academic teaching to address SDGs in teaching, learning, and the curriculum, a sample of 1566 academic teachers in nine Latin American universities responded to the survey. This study aimed to answer two key questions, as follows: (1) How do the years of teaching experience affect academic staff’s stages of concern? (2) How do different academic teaching areas influence the academic staff’s stages of concern? The trend reveals that faculty members with fewer than four years of service scored higher than those with twenty or more years. Similarly, academic teaching staff from the Education Sciences have a significantly higher mean score and effect size than faculty members from the Humanities, Engineering, Social Sciences, Sciences, and Health Sciences across all stages of concern. However, despite these differences, professional development initiatives should be designed to match all teaching staff regardless of years of service and subject area by encouraging teamwork and increasing understanding of the critical importance of transformative teaching and learning.

La Carta de la Tierra es una declaración de principios universales para la construcción de un mundo cada vez más justo, sostenible y pacífico, cuyo origen está en la sociedad civil y en una amplia consulta internacional a lo largo de todos los pueblos del mundo. Este documento ha sido reconocido por la UNESCO como una de las principales herramientas de la educación ambiental para inspirar a la sociedad a transformar sus estilos de vida para estar en armonía con nuestra Madre Tierra. Desde el nivel educativo básico hasta el superior, sea formal y no, la Carta de la Tierra coadyuva en la formación ética y ambiental de los estudiantes, al tiempo de inspirar reflexiones y propuestas que inciden en una mejor calidad de vida de las comunidades. En esta obra se aborda el trabajo de distintas instituciones nacionales e internacionales con esta declaración universal desde tres perspectivas: propuestas teórico-metodológicas; sistematización de experiencias a nivel curricular universitario, y el trabajo en comunidades indígenas.