12 History of sustainable development

1. SHORT SUMMARY

• Total duration of this lesson: 45 minutes

• What will the students learn:
o Students will learn how to define sustainable development and get a short glimpse
into the history of the subject.
o Students will learn how the principles of sustainable development can be applied
into practice by a business.
• What will the students do during this lesson:
o Watch, understand and discuss the videos given in the lesson.
o Get to know an example of a Norwegian transport company that embraces the
principles of sustainable development.
o Participate in a practical activity with options ranging from competition on sus-
tainable transportation to coming up with a short version of a business plan with
a green profile.
• What skills are the students going to improve?
o Critical thinking
o Research skills
o Digital literacy
o Teamwork
o Analysis and synthesis of information
o Holistic and sustainability thinking – seeing beyond what affects us individually at
this present moment
o Creativity
o Entrepreneurship
• Cross-curricular links:
o Geography
o Philosophy
o Economics / Entrepreneurship
o Foreign languages
o History
• Materials needed:
o Multimedia projector
o Laptop / computer with speakers
o Internet connection in the classroom (if there is no Internet in your classroom,
you can download the online videos in this lesson in advance and bring them on
a flash drive, or alternatively you can ask students to form groups and use their
smartphones/tablets in order to watch the videos)

103
 Lesson 12

CORE 2. INTRO – THE GIST OF IT

Tell the students that today they are starting a new chapter in the GREENT course where they will
(2 min.)

gradually learn a lot about sustainable development as a framework, way of thinking and way of
doing things that can contribute to finding the right balance that can secure a flourishing future
both for the environment and the human societies. In the previous lessons, the focus was more on
the environmental problems the world is currently facing and they might have gotten the feeling
that these challenges are insurmountable and the situation is hopeless. Now they will start seeing
what solutions are already available so that people and businesses can make their activities less
damaging and even constructively contributing to the environment, society and economy. And fi-
nally, in the third and fourth section of the course, they will start thinking about their own business
idea that could change the world.
In today’s lesson the students will learn about the term sustainable development and how it has
developed throughout the years. They will also learn from research and by attaching real life exam-
ples to the term.

CORE 3. THE THEORY

Ask the students the following:
(17 min.)

• What do you already know about sustainable development? (They will inevitably have
heard of it because of its prominence in media in the recent years.)
• What are its defining features in your opinion? What do you think “sustain” means?
Record the answers you receive on the whiteboard and tell the students that they are now going to
watch a short video which explains the concept. Let the students think about the questions below
while watching:
“What Is Sustainable Development?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WODX8fyRHA (2:08 min.)
• How important are future generations in the concept of sustainable development?
• What does sustainable development want to achieve? (Economic growth, but not at the ex-
pense of the environment, access to education and food for everyone, freedom of speech, etc.)
Collect some answers and display the official definition of sustainable development, as adopted in
1987:

Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present generation
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Now let’s find out a little bit more about the history of sustainable development. Play this really
cool video to the students which approaches sustainability from a historical perspective. Before you
play the video, reveal the questions below and ask the students to pay attention while watching:
“Sustainability – A History by: Jeremy L. Caradonna”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hho-
1h7OR6l8 (5:29 min.).
• When and why did European ideas about sustainability originate?
• Were there sustainable societies before the 1700s?
• What was the context in Sachsen (today’s Germany) that urged Hans Carl von Carlowitz to
invent the term “sustainability” in the early 18th century?

104
History of sustainable development

• What did John Stuart Mill and John Muir believe about economic growth? (That it should
not continue indefinitely.)
• Which are the three interconnected domains in the concept of sustainability?
• What is the challenge for the future? (Return to pre-Industrial levels of impact, live within
our limits, and at the same time keep the benefits of industrialization.)
After you play the video, collect some answers to the questions. Then pose two extra questions
that are intended to open up the floor for a more informal, free-flow discussion on which you can
spend 3-4 minutes:
• Do you think it is possible to reduce our impact on the environment but also keep the ben-
efits to our quality of life that came with industrialization?
• Do you agree that today the phrase “sustainable development” is so much overused that it
has already lost its meaning?

4. CASE STUDIES OPTIONAL

In this case study, the students will have the opportunity to be introduced to the 17 Sustainable

(10 min.)
Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as successors of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) that were achieved with varying success (they had been adopted in
2000 with a timeframe until 2015). It was recognized that one of the reasons the MDGs were not all
achieved was the thinking in “silos” – that is, without seeing the connections between the different
sectors (e.g. education, healthcare, agriculture). That is why the SDGs are more interdisciplinary in
nature. The process of creating the SDGs was also much more open to participation from different
organizations and groups of society than the MDGs had been.
Tell the students that you are now going to play a video showing the 17 Sustainable Development
Goals. Their task is to choose one goal that they like best and think is the most meaningful and
can have the greatest impact. Then they need to work individually, reflect and fill in the worksheet
provided (please, print out the worksheet in as many copies as you have students in your class).
“A Look at the Sustainable Development Goals”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G0nd-
S3uRdo (1:00 min.).
• Why do you think achieving this goal can make a difference?
• What can you do in your daily life to contribute to achieving that goal?
• How are you going to know your actions made an impact – how are you going to measure it?

5. ENTREPRENEUR PROFILE CORE

In this section, the students will have the opportunity to get to know a company which comes from
(11 min.)

a very small town in Norway but which is a leading producer of light-weight passenger ferry boats.
They managed to achieve impressive reductions of their CO2 emissions by employing an innovative
construction technology. Familiarize yourself with the text below and present it to the students in
lecture-style format. You can use the photos and table to visualize what you are saying – simply put
them into a PPT presentation that you can project on the multimedia.
The Brødrene AA Company in Hyen, Norway. Production of light weight ferries
The Brødrene AA Company located in Hyen at the west coast of Norway is a world leading company
in the construction of high speed ferries made of carbon fiber composites. In order to get the com-
plete understanding, one needs to know that waterways are as important as roads and railways

105
 Lesson 12

on the coastline of Norway. The country has long traditions using sea, ocean and fjords as a way
to transport both goods and people. This tradition is still very much alive and the waterways are
almost as important as they were 100 years ago. Even in emergency situations there are still people
that depend on ambulance boats produced by the Brødrene AA Company.

Typical ferry built by Brødrene AA

The main problem for transportation at sea is the pollution from the ships and boats due to fuel
consumption and the following CO2 and NOX emissions. Carbon fiber is a very strong and light
weight material and it replaces aluminum which was used in ferry construction earlier. In order to
reduce emissions of CO2 and NOX, the Brødrene AA is a small but important company. Their con-
tribution to the environment and sustainability worldwide is significant. The company is also a role
model for other companies.
Some short facts about the reduction of CO2 and NOX emissions:
The Brødrene AA Company did a comparative case study of two ferries. One was made in alumi-
num, the other in carbon fiber. The results are quite sensational.

“Ladejarl” - the aluminium ferry “Terningen” - the carbon fibre ferry

Both ferries can carry the same number of passengers (275), they travel at the same average speed
(37 knots) and they have about the same length (40 meters).
The sensational fact is that the ferry “Terningen” has 40% less fuel consumption and CO2 / NOX
emissions compared to the ferry “Ladejarl”. The comparison of consumption is shown in the table
below:

106
History of sustainable development

M/S Ladejarl M/S Terningen

Aluminum Carbon Fiber
Power [kW] 3500 2100
Specific consumption engine [g/kwh] 210 210
Weight diesel [g/litre] 850 850
Fuel consumption [l/hours] 864,7 518,8
Fuel consumption [l/nm] 27,0 16,2
Hours of operation per year 4100 4100
Share of hours in service speed (included in calculation) 90 % 90 %
Fuel consumption per year [liter/year] 3 190 765 1 914 459
Fuel price [kr/l] 6,5 6,5
Annual fuel costs [NOK – Norwegian crowns] kr 20 739 970 kr 12 443 982
CO2 emissions pr litre diesel [kg/l] 2,64 2,64
Annual emissions CO2 [tons/year] 8 424 5 054
NOX: [g/kwh] (engine specific parameter) 8,1 6,1
Annual emissions of NOX [kg] 117670 52521

After presenting the case study, open up the classroom for discussion with these reflection questions:
• Imagine that emissions from all forms of transportation in the world are reduced by 40%.
What impact would that have on the environment and sustainability?
• Give some examples of what the most common forms of transportation in the world (cars,
buses, airplanes, trains) can do to reduce the emissions of CO2 and NOX.
• How can we convince politicians and business leaders to be more aware of the problems
regarding emissions and fuel consumption?
After a short discussion, you can present to the students the latest innovative vessel that Brodrene AA
constructed – it is a light-weight tourist ferry which is a hybrid that runs on a combination of electric
batteries and diesel and is called “Vision of the Fjords”. It won the award “Ship of the Year 2016”:
“Carbon fiber electric hybrid ferry to clean up tourism in Norwegian fjords”: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=3AH49g6UICM&list=PLloRj6cd1IKC5_IOigTu5KscZoOcwxvd0&index=6 (3:21 min.).

6. PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES CORE

Here are several ideas for practical activities that you can do with your students in the classroom.
Choose one of them and assign it to the students either individually or for group work:
(10 min.)

1) Option1: Take the energy conservation quiz: http://environment.nationalgeographic.

com/environment/green-guide/quizzes/energy-conservation/. You can also explore the
other quizzes on the National Geographic website.
2) Sustainable transport companies competition
Divide the class into 4-5 teams and give them the following task:

107
 Lesson 12

Based on the entrepreneur example in this lesson about Brødrene AA make an online research on
transportation companies that have integrated environment and sustainability into their business
idea. Example: companies that use more environmentally-friendly fuel or electricity. Companies
that build or buy more environmentally-friendly cars, buses, trains, boats or planes. Have someone
on the team note down on a sheet of paper all the companies your team found. You have 5 minutes
for the research.
After time is up ask each group how many companies they found and why they chose to put them
on the list. Then announce the winner and give out a small prize.
3) Think about your own green business idea!
Imagine that you are about to start your own business. Start by describing your business idea with
simple words. In the process, you have to consider what measures could be taken in your business
in order to make it a green, sustainable business.
− What is your green business going to produce?
− What will be your mission? Why are you a sustainable business?
− What resources are you going to need to create your product (they might be money you
would need in order to buy materials, skills you might need to have or if you don’t have
them, you might have to attract other people to the venture, or maybe access to informa-
tion, patents, etc.)?
− Where is your potential market (is it in your community / city, is it all over the country, or
maybe even abroad)?
− Why would people want to buy your product/service?
− How are you going to sell your product/service to your clients?
− What difficulties do you anticipate you will have to overcome?
− What is the thing you would never agree to compromise on?

CORE 7. REFLECTION
You can ask the following questions to the whole class and collect several answers from volunteers.
(5 min.)

Alternatively you could ask the students to fill in their answers individually in written form in the
worksheet provided:
• If you think critically, what would you consider the weak points of sustainable development?
• The world achieved a remarkable reduction of the percentage of poor people – in the pe-
riod 2000-2015 global poverty dropped from 36% (the level in 1990) to 12%. This is mostly
related to accelerated economic growth in China and India and improving living conditions
for hundreds of millions of people there. But do you think economic growth has an impact
on the state of the environment? Do you think it is possible to grow without compromising
the quality of our environment?
• Based on what you learned from this lesson, how can you as an individual contribute to
more sustainability in the world?
• If you try to think locally, nationally and globally about the challenges regarding sustain-
ability and environmental issues what do you see as the greatest challenges and what do
you see as possible solutions for a better world?

108
History of sustainable development

8. HOMEWORK OPTIONAL
Do a research in your local community and try to find out if there any companies that have sus-
tainability on the agenda. This can be connected to handling of waste, measures that would re-
duce emissions of any kind or questions related to consumption. “Paperless” companies that use
electronic solutions could be a typical example. Find out what they do and how they do it. Make a
presentation of the findings in your class. The activity could be done individually or in groups.

9. A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

Tell the students that in the next lesson they will get to know more about the traditional approach
to sustainable development and will be introduced to an alternative model that is increasingly
challenging the traditional one.

10. ADDITIONAL LINKS

These are additional resources that you as a teacher can use in order to prepare for the lesson
broadening your knowledge. You can also use these resources by assigning them to the students
as out-of-class reading/viewing.
• Sustainability explained with simple natural science (new 2015): https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=eec0UYGIeo4&list=PLEXqjIYY5zi6hWCvm5idXYLH2Qtv7fT-f&index=4 (7:43
min.). What is sustainability from the point of view of scientists. Reinforces concepts like
open and closed systems, biosphere that were studied earlier in the GREENT course. It
also explores the four root causes of unsustainability.
• “Transitioning from the MDGs to the SDGs”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_
hLuEui6ww (3:02 min.). A video explaining the degree to which the Millennium Develop-
ment Goals were achieved and what makes it necessary to define the new Sustainable
Development Goals.
• “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explained”: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=NkAv9L1_r1M. A video that also focuses on the rate of achieving the MDGs and
the prospects for the attainment of the new SDGs.
• “How We Can Make the World a Better Place by 2030 | Michael Green | TED Talks”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o08ykAqLOxk (14:39 min.). Can we end hunger and
poverty, halt climate change and achieve gender equality in the next 15 years? The gov-
ernments of the world think we can. Meeting at the UN in September 2015, they agreed
to a new set of Global Goals for the development of the world to 2030. Social progress
expert Michael Green invites us to imagine how these goals and their vision for a better
world can be achieved. Economic growth comes with costs and benefits and we need to
consider that so far we have used some of the “easy wins” of economic growth and the
tough challenges are yet to be overcome. The question Michael Green poses is if GDP is
the appropriate indicator to measure our progress towards achieving sustainable devel-
opment goals. We cannot rely on economic growth alone to get us to achieving the SDGs.
We need to start doing things differently.
• “Education for sustainable Development (Value Clarification Exercises)”: https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=S0EtiARSOEE (18:15 min.). This video gives teachers a couple of
ideas of activities that can be done in the classroom to teach students some basic princi-
ples of sustainable development, as well as how to take responsibility for their own opin-
ion and discuss peacefully and acknowledge a different opinion.

109
 Worksheet

History of sustainable development Lesson 12

Why do you think achieving this goal can make a difference?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

What can you do in your daily life to contribute to achieving that goal?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

How are you going to know your actions made an impact – how are you going to measure it?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

If you think critically, what would you consider the weak points of sustainable development?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

1
 Worksheet

History of sustainable development Lesson 12

The world achieved a remarkable reduction of the percentage of poor people – in the
period 2000-2015 global poverty dropped from 36% (the level in 1990) to 12%. This is
mostly related to accelerated economic growth in China and India and improving living
conditions for hundreds of millions of people there. But do you think economic growth
has an impact on the state of the environment? Do you think it is possible to grow without
compromising the quality of our environment?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Based on what you learned from this lesson, how can you as an individual
contribute to more sustainability in the world?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

If you try to think locally, nationally and globally about the challenges regarding sustainability
and environmental issues what do you see as the greatest challenges and what do you see as
possible solutions for a better world?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________