/prod01/channel_3/media/tcd/academic-practice/images/34.ESD-Competencies-1150X450.jpg)
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher education helps students build the knowledge and skills to engage with the global challenges outlined in UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At Trinity, rather than addressing content relating to each SDGs we focus on relevant areas, or themes, within the disciplines that naturally connect to education for sustainable development (Tilbury & Wortman, 2004). This approach allows teaching staff to draw on their own expertise while contributing to broader goals.
In this section, we introduce these ESD themes and share practical toolkits to help you explore how they may already feature in your teaching, and how they might be developed further.
The Sustainable Development Goals
In order to explore what is meant by ESD Themes it is important to first understand the rationale behind, and extent of, each of the SDGs.
The United Nations has developed a website with flip cards, selection shown below, to explore the facts and figures behind each SDG and the specific associated targets.
The full set is available at https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
If you would like to further explore key SDGs including peace, healthcare, sustainable cities, and water and sanitation, join the Trinity Future Learn MOOC: Achieving Sustainable Development.
SDG 4 (Quality Education - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all), aims to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to promote sustainable development. Thus, ESD connects SDG 4 with all other SDGs. It is important to note that while we aim to support SDG 4 within the curriculum, it is also important to address a variety of SDGs within our modules and programmes as appropriate.
The following resources can be used to find out more about how the goals are being put into action and how we are progressing towards achieving them:
- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have developed a resource that examines the SDGs in action.
- Follow Ireland’s progress towards the goals here:
The SDGs Wedding Cake
In 2016, Rockström and Sukhdev introduced the SDGs Wedding Cake as a way to show how the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the SDGs are interconnected and interdependent. Trinity uses this model to think about how ESD themes are built into the curriculum.
The model groups 16 of the SDGs into three layers of a cake: Biosphere, Society, and Economy. The 17th goal, Partnerships, cuts across all three.
CC BY-ND 3.0.
In Trinity’s ESD Curriculum Design Framework, the three ESD Themes are shown through the three tiers of the wedding cake: Biosphere, society, and economy. When considering ESD in your discipline, the focus is on how and where these themes appear in the curriculum. A single concept can often connect across all three layers, helping to crosscut the cake.
How can I find out if my module or programme already addresses the ESD themes?
You may already be familiar with how and to what extent your module or programme addresses the ESD Themes. However, it can be useful to document this formally, particularly at a module level. Gaps can then be identified across a programme when all modules are mapped. It is not intended that the content in modules and programmes focus solely on ESD themes, but that, where appropriate, content relevant to an ESD Theme is foregrounded within the context of the curriculum.
The following toolkits can be used to help identify ESD Themes within the curriculum:
- Refer to the Steps in Trinity ESD Curriculum Design Framework for the adapted CRAFTS model.
- You may wish to use a table such as the one available to download here. Template ESD Themes and SDGs.docx.
- (Trinity tool currently under development).
For some disciplines it can be difficult to readily pinpoint relevant Themes. However, you may find that topics in your discipline intersect with some of the goals. See examples below.
|
EXAMPLE 1 – SDGs in Mathematics Mathematics programmes and modules in and of themselves may not directly address an SDG, but the development of mathematical models that support sustainable environments crosscut many SDGs (as explored in this opinion piece from Notices of AMS). |
|
EXAMPLE 2 – SDGs in Medieval History A Humanities programme, such as Medieval History, may encompass a number of SDGs. Through exploring medieval culture, societies, and politics, learners could be introduced to SDG 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 16, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, covering elements of the ESD theme, Society. Any one of the SDGs in the ESD theme Economy could also be introduced in this context. Students could critically discuss the differences between our understanding of these themes today, those from the historical period in question, and how the future is envisaged in terms of these ESD themes. |
|
Example 3 – Computer Science All three ESD Themes are readily evident within the discipline of Computer Science. For example, the following SDGs could be incorporated as shown below.
Students could be asked to critically examine how industry have incorporated health informatics into products in an ethical and energy efficient way, or how they might envisage doing so. |
If you find that no ESD Themes or SDGs are addressed within your module, or that you are not addressing all the tiers of the SDGs Wedding Cake within your programme, first consider the following questions.
- What are the core values and goals of your discipline? How do these align with the ESD Themes/SDGs?
- What challenges does your field directly or indirectly address and are they in any way related to the SDGs?
- How does your discipline contribute to human well-being, environmental stewardship, or economic development?
Or consider these questions:
|
ESD Theme |
Probing Questions |
|
Biosphere (SDGs 6, 13, 14, 15) |
Does your discipline engage with natural systems, climate, or biodiversity? How might your research or teaching impact environmental sustainability or resilience? |
|
Society (SDGs 1–5, 10, 16) |
How does your field address issues of equity, justice, or inclusion? Can your discipline help reduce poverty, improve health, or promote peace? |
|
Economy (SDGs 7–9, 11–12) |
What role does your discipline play in shaping sustainable industry, innovation, or infrastructure? How can your field support responsible consumption and production? |
The answers to these questions may help you find a connection to the ESD Themes/SDGs and incorporate new ESD Theme related content into your module or programme.
If you still cannot identify content, consider how the ESD Themes could be incorporated into existing or revised Learning Outcomes. See the following section on the webpage for help on how to rewrite your learning outcomes to include ESD competencies in the context of ESD themes: ESD Competencies and this page for a Quick Start Guide to changing just one thing.
Key Takeaways
• Rather than addressing content relating to the UNESCO defined SDGs, the Trinity ESD Curriculum Design framework focuses on ESD themes, defined as the per the tiers of the SDG wedding cake, Biosphere, Society, and the Economy.
• It is important to have an awareness of the 17 SDGs, the SDG wedding cake, and the ESD themes, prior to embarking on embedding ESD into your curricula.
• It can be useful to document whether your current module address any of the ESD themes and to what extent.
-The webpage has links to resources and toolkits to support you in developing the knowledge required to explore your module or programme for ESD themes.
• For curricula that appear to have no connection to an SDG, consider how some integration can be developed through review and revision of Learning Outcomes.
- Central Statistics Office (n.d.) UN Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved July 28, 2025, from https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/unsustainabledevelopmentgoals.
- Rialtas na hÉireann (n.d.) 17 Goals to Transform our World. Retrieved July 28, 2025, from https://irelandsdg.geohive.ie/.
- Rockström, J. & Sukhdev, P. (2016). The SDGs Wedding Cake. Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2016-06-14-the-sdgs-wedding-cake.html.
- Tilbury, D., & Wortman, D. (2004). Engaging people in sustainability. IUCN Publication Services.
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (n.d). Take Action for the Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved July 28, 2025, from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/.
- United Nations Development Programme (n.d.) The SDGs in Action. Retrieved July 28, 2025, from https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals.
- A representation related to the wedding cake is Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics, according to which, economies should inhabit the ecologically safe and socially just space in which humanity can thrive.
- Inspired by Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics, the academic doughnut is proposed to help us rethink academia so that it works better for people and the planet (Urai & Kelly, 2023).
- In this understanding, a healthy, stable, and resilient biosphere is the foundation on which just and equal societies and economic models that respect planetary boundaries can be built.
- Stockholm Resilience Centre (n.d.) Planetary Boundaries. Retrieved July 28, 2025, from https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html.
- Urai, A.E., & Kelly, C. (2023). Rethinking academia in a time of climate crisis. eLife 12. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.84991.