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During a two-day long meeting hosted at the University of Athens, 38 experts from 9 countries debated on the role of universities as incubators of sustainability, and in supporting Designated Sites in promoting Sustainable Development and Education for Sustainable Development within recent global and regional frameworks.
The intensive workshop, which was jointly organized by by the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice (Italy), MIO-ECSDE/MEdIES, the Greek National MAB Committee and the UNITWIN MedUnNET, brought together a selected number of professors, researchers and administrators, as well as managers from UNESCO Designated Sites hosting or being closely related to universities.
The meeting clearly pointed out that Sustainable Development is a core issue that universities need to urgently and in-depth incorporate in all their functions in order to promote more responsible behaviours and ethical choices of citizens all around the world. Such a mission should first of all target their primary functions: teaching and research, but be seeded also in all their operations.
All stakeholders -professors, students, researchers, suppliers, administration, managers and the general public- need to be engaged in actions aiming at putting sustainable development into practice, within the Universities themselves, as well as in the surrounding communities and territories.
The various designated sites (UNESCO WH sites, MAN BRs, Parks, etc.), both rural, and especially the urban ones, can certainly support universities in their sustainability agenda. Such sites through their operation and provided services can be exemplary tools for raising awareness and educating people on many sustainable development issues.
Read more here: http://www.medies.net/articles.asp?cID=8&aID=1040