Last month, around fifty educators gathered at the Botanical Garden of the University of Valencia (UV), Spain, to discuss how to effectively integrate sustainability and social responsibility into education across different levels. Specifically in economics that go beyond productivity and business profit, working towards the common good.
This meeting represented the closing of the sixth edition of the educational programme Futur Sostenible, organised by the Novessendes Foundation, with the collaboration of ECOnGOOD Spain and financed by the Generalitat Valenciana. Through the Economy for the Common Good (ECG) model, ECOnGOOD proposes integrated management tools to measure economic activity not only on the basis of profitability, but also on the basis of values such as human dignity and sustainability.
Teachers from across the region expressed concern about the current policrisis and some of their students’ denial about these issues. There is a pressing need to challenge the “purely materialistic” approach prevalent in the education system. It is evident in most students’ mindset: “They believe a company’s sole purpose is to make money,” several participants lamented. Another added: “Economics” means ‘household management’, but a house is not only managed with money. Many other factors contribute to sustainability, such as quality of human relationships, equity, and respect.”
Participants view Futur Sostenible as an opportunity to gradually nurture a vision that an alternative economy and a different world are possible. They agreed that education’s purpose extends beyond merely teaching how to generate profit. Especially considering the policies that are to introduce sustainability as a compulsory subject in the EU. “…sustainability is a value that permeates the entire activity of a company, an organisation, a family, a society; not as an isolated area that applies only to one action and is used for marketing”, clarified an economics teacher.
The conference was attended by Esther Paulo Fuertes, director of the Novessendes Civic Foundation; Jaime Güemes Heras, director of both the Chair of Economy for the Common Good and the Botanical Garden at the University of Valencia; Francisco Álvarez Molina, President of ECOnGOOD Spain; Inma Cardona González, President of the Association of Teachers of Administration, Commerce and Economics of the Valencian Country (APACEPV); along with various teachers and management teams from public schools in the Valencian Community.
Discover ECOnGOOD Spain’s projects and impact and visit futursostenible.org to explore student projects and access educational resources.
