Responsible Futures shortlisted for prestigious ESD award

Responsible Futures has been shortlisted out of 267 submissions for the ESD Okayama Award 2024.  
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The ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) Okayama Award began in 2015 and has since been a prestigious achievement in ESD. The award is a part of the Okayama ESD Project which aims to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) in Japan and Internationally. The annual award showcases outstanding ESD practices to highlight the critical importance ESD plays in achieving the SDG’s.  
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The Responsible Futures programme demonstrates a commitment to ESD through supporting education institutions to embed sustainability in all learning. The program offers a flexible framework for universities and students to develop or enhance ESD initiatives based on local priorities. Over 10 years, around 700 participants have completed 3,000+ actions such as volunteer opportunities, climate-focused events and changes to the formal curriculum. A student-led audit, facilitated by SOS, evaluates an institutions ESD efforts, providing feedback and fostering transparent student-university relationships. Subsequently, this helps students engage more deeply with sustainability within their academic and local communities.
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The Responsible Futures application highlighted inspiring examples of participating institutions using the programme to integrate economic, environmental and social sustainability in a range of different local and institutional contexts in the UK and globally. This includes the achievements of participating intuitions in areas such as student leadership, collaboration and innovation for ESD.  
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We are very proud to be recognized as facilitators ofESD and grateful to participating institutions who have helped us to shape and design the programme over the past decade, ensuring it is fit for purpose and beneficial to universities, colleges and students from a wide range of regional and local contexts. We look forward to continuing to work with staff, students and senior leaders on Responsible Futures.  

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