Nova Scotia
Sustainability Education in Nova Scotia for Everyone (SENSE)
www.nsen.ca/education
Sustainability Education in Nova Scotia for Everyone (SENSE) is a group of individuals and organizations dedicated to the promotion of ideas and practices which will help Nova Scotia become sustainable. SENSE is part of a national network of Provincial and Territorial Working Groups striving to achieve the objectives of the United Nations’ Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) from 2005-2014.
Vision
All Nova Scotians are living sustainably.
Mission
To advance sustainability in Nova Scotia through formal, non-formal and informal education that addresses environmental, social, and economic themes.
Initiatives
Sustainable Development Directory
SENSE has completed the first phase of our online, public Sustainability Resources Directory. The purpose of this project is to: share resources, build capacity, improve efficiency, and identify gaps in the ESD materials while simultaneously strengthening the network of people involved in ESD. The SENSE Directory compiles publicly accessible resources, such as workshops, web sites, books, films etc… The Directory is searchable and self-managed whereby people can add new resources directly. The resources are not peer reviewed. Currently, there are almost 200 resources posted to directory.
School Greening
SENSE has been working in schools in Annapolis Valley and in Halifax to help green their facilities management and operations. We are working toward developing a standardized process for responsible facilities management.
The Ecological Footprint
SENSE is participating in a project to engage educational institutions in the use of the Ecological Footprint tool. SENSE partners have been going into classrooms and communities to educate for climate change and sustainability.
The Natural Step (TNS)
SENSE helped launch the Atlantic Canada Sustainability Initiative (ASCI). ASCI is using The Natural Step framework to help community groups, businesses and municipalities with their sustainable planning. By providing a systemic and practical approach to sustainability, this initiative can help communities, governments, businesses, educational institutions and other organizations to become more environmentally and socially responsible. Training workshops are provided to early adopters of the program.
Annual Sustainability Education Symposium & Professional Development
Every year, SENSE organizes an Annual Sustainability Education Symposium promoting the UNESCO ESD themes. Our first SENSE symposium was held in March 2008 in Halifax and was entitled Earthkeeping & Peacebuilding: Creating a Culture of Respect for People & the Planet. This symposium is organized by SENSE, Peaceful Schools International, and the Nova Scotia Environmental Network. Our key note speaker was Gerald Farthing, Deputy Minister of Education in Manitoba and a passionate champion of sustainability education. Our second SENSE symposium entitled Celebrating the Past, Recognizing the Present, Envisioning the Future will be in May 2009 in Antigonish, NS. We are partnering with Nova Scotia Outdoor Leadership Program and the Nova Scotia Department of Health Promotion & Recreation. In June 2008, we held our first professional development workshop on environmental & sustainability education for key education leaders and will be organizing another workshop in 2009.