Securing a Sustainable Future Through SEEd and the Cloud Institute’s New Partnership
By: George Edwards, Programmes and Communications Officer, SEEd, and Ann Finlayson, SEEd CEO and Founder
The future of education is shifting, and we are thrilled to announce that Sustainability and Environmental Education (SEEd) is officially partnering with the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education!
By bridging the gap between SEEd’s UK-based initiatives and the Cloud Institute’s extensive work in the US and beyond, we are uniting over two decades of shared passion, research and practice. Together, we will scale our collective impact to ensure that students don’t just learn about sustainability, but that they learn for it.
Learning at the Heart of Sustainability
At SEEd, our mission has always been clear: to put learning at the heart of sustainability and sustainability at the heart of learning. We operate as a small nonprofit with a big reach, promoting action learning, systems thinking and futures thinking through every program we run. Our work in the UK mirrors the Cloud Institute’s dedication to leveraging school systems to prepare youth for a sustainable future. Both SEEd CEO and Founder Ann Finlayson, and Cloud Institute President and Founder Jaimie Cloud have a shared mindset: education is the most fertile ground for preparing the next generation to achieve responsible citizenship, develop sustainable competencies and the key life skills needed for a green economy, and maintain mental and physical wellbeing.
Our work is deeply rooted in providing a platform for youth voice, hope and positivity. We know through our Youth Listening Project research with the University of Essex, that young people today feel a sense of eco-anxiety when looking at the climate crisis and to their future. SEEd works to turn this anxiety into agency and hope-based action. Whether we are advising government panels on sustainability, supporting schools on our Young Changemakers program or equipping educators with the tools needed to facilitate, not teach, sustainability, our goal is to empower individuals to become changemakers for a better world.
Through our new partnership with the Cloud Institute, we are excited to share, and build upon, our Evidence Hub, and explore how our evaluation-led programs resonate with an American audience. We see a wonderful alignment between our Action Competencies work and the Cloud Institute’s EfS framework, and both organisations recognize that for sustainability to be meaningful, it needs to be participatory, relevant and grounded in the wellbeing of the environment, society and economy.
How to Get Involved
As we embark on this transatlantic journey, there are several ways that you can get involved with the work we are doing at SEEd and start making a difference in your own learning community:
SEEd Educator Changemakers CPD Webinars: Our newest training program is seeing a surge of popularity among leaders and educators in the UK and internationally. The course, formed of 7 hour-long interactive webinars, blends facilitation techniques with learning theory and social practice, helping you to build the skills needed to guide your students through their own sustainability journeys. It’s perfect for educators looking for an experiential way to bring sustainability into their professional development.
SEEd Attitudes to Sustainability Survey: We’ve been tracking how young people and adults view the future for over 8 years through our Youth Listening Project. With over 6,000 responses to date, the Attitudes Survey (our mechanism for data collection) is a perfect baseline for any school or institution wanting to understand their students’ perspectives on climate, the future and sustainability action before building out their sustainability strategy.
SEEd Young Changemakers: Our flagship program for young people is where the magic happens most. It links youth with local businesses and organizations, helping them to develop critical thinking, oracy and systems thinking skills by tackling real-world challenges through their own inquiry-led action learning projects.
We are excited to stand beside the Cloud Institute as we work toward the realization of SDG 4.7 with the Our Shared World coalition. By joining forces, we aren’t just sharing resources, but are building a global network of changemakers. We invite you to explore our work, join the conversation and help us ensure that sustainability remains at the heart of our lives, and our education, now and in the future.