Sustainable Well-being for People & Planet / Caring Communities

This CC aims to develop learning and teaching formats that address personal well-being and planetary sustainability as interconnected concepts that so far are often dealt with in separate approaches. Learning for sustainability is vital for fostering sustainable societal transformation. Yet, there is a lack of research on the relationship between sustainability competencies, happiness, and inner capacities for driving societal change. Understanding this intersection is particularly significant due to the global crises and mental health challenges, as low levels of well-being hinder individuals' ability to actively pursue change. This CC invites also collaboration with external stakeholders, namely primary and secondary schools as well as local municipalities, building on existing relationship that exist 

The key societal challenges driving the activities within this CC are climate change,biodiversity loss, quality education and (mental) health. By crossing and combining questions of inner and outer sustainability, this CC contributes to the development of more caring communities in the respective institutional and local contexts.  Courses like General Ecology, Climate and Climate Change, Soil and Soil Pollution and the research on nature-based solutions alongside the activities of the CareLab for People & Planet are combined with the latest concepts and competence frameworks related to Education for Sustainable Development (e.g. ESD for 2030, the GreenComp) and perspectives of well-being and inner sustainability.

Expected Outcomes of the Connected Community:

• Added value for the participants in providing more holistic learning experiences for learners and staff by including sustainable well-being in research and teaching activities;
• Development of challenge-driven assignments between partners of the CC and their local stakeholders that aim for crossing various disciplinary perspectives and which allow to develop new learning and teaching formats that address personal and planetary well-being.
• Development of complementary skills of learners and staff aligned with the GreenComp framework.
• Added value in knowledge creation on how to address and include well-being in academia and its possible monitoring, e.g. by developing guidelines / draft of a happiness report to complement existing sustainability reporting in higher education institutions.
• Added value on knowledge creation on (eco-)anxiety.
• Expected impact on building up more caring communities that care for people and planet.
• At least one publication as a result of the research activities in this CC.
• International exposure and attention to sustainable well-being and care, which are topics yet underrepresented in learning and teaching for sustainability.

Connected Community Members

Lead Teresa Calvão (NOVA) mtr@fct.unl.pt

Teresa Calvão, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and integrated member at CENSE (Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research)

Supporting Lead Antje Disterheft (NOVA) a.disterheft@fct.unl.pt

Antje Disterheft, assistant researcher and integrated member at CENSE, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

Partner Eddi Omrcen (University of Gothenburg) eddi.omrcen@gu.se

Sustainability manager

Partner Tom Kuppens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Tom.Emile.Kuppens@vub.be

Assistant Professor, head of the Brussels Institute for Teacher Education (BRITE), linked to Multidisciplinary Institute for Teacher Education (MILO)

Partner Baerbel Fuerstenau (Technische Universität Dresden) baerbel.fuerstenau@tu-dresden.de

Decan, Chair in Business Economics education

Partner Ianina Scheuch (Technische Universität Dresden) Ianina.Scheuch@tu-dresden.de

Researcher at the Chair of Business Economics education