Global Sustainable Development Goals in Education

Join a personal and professional global learning journey towards a sustainable future. What on Earth could be more important? From the University of Edinburgh.

California Global Education Project

Biodegradable plastic bags, cutlery, and coffee cup lids may seem like a win for the environment, but they often introduce more problems than solutions. But now a research team from the US may be able to change that.

The urgent action needed to prepare communities for climate change impacts on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is well documented within international policy. Several high-level strategies devote special priority to Education for Sustainable

Coming into the world of design and innovation, the Design Council’s double diamond diagram really helped me to make sense of what everyone was talking about. In a simple picture, it linked a conceptual approach to problem-solving (with a focus on empathy, rapid ideation and iterative prototyping) to a really practical process that I could … Continue reading "The Doughnut of Social and Planetary Boundaries"

Successfully interfacing enzymes and biomachinery with polymers affords on-demand modification and/or programmable degradation during the manufacture, utilization and disposal of plastics, but requires controlled biocatalysis in solid matrices with macromolecular substrates1–7. Embedding enzyme microparticles speeds up polyester degradation, but compromises host properties and unintentionally accelerates the formation of microplastics with partial polymer degradation6,8,9. Here we show that by nanoscopically dispersing enzymes with deep active sites, semi-crystalline polyesters can be degraded primarily via chain-end-mediated processive depolymerization with programmable latency and material integrity, akin to polyadenylation-induced messenger RNA decay10. It is also feasible to achieve processivity with enzymes that have surface-exposed active sites by engineering enzyme–protectant–polymer complexes. Poly(caprolactone) and poly(lactic acid) containing less than 2 weight per cent enzymes are depolymerized in days, with up to 98 per cent polymer-to-small-molecule conversion in standard soil composts and household tap water, completely eliminating current needs to separate and landfill their products in compost facilities. Furthermore, oxidases embedded in polyolefins retain their activities. However, hydrocarbon polymers do not closely associate with enzymes, as their polyester counterparts do, and the reactive radicals that are generated cannot chemically modify the macromolecular host. This study provides molecular guidance towards enzyme–polymer pairing and the selection of enzyme protectants to modulate substrate selectivity and optimize biocatalytic pathways. The results also highlight the need for in-depth research in solid-state enzymology, especially in multi-step enzymatic cascades, to tackle chemically dormant substrates without creating secondary environmental contamination and/or biosafety concerns. Nanoscopic dispersion of enzymes with deep active sites enables chain-end-mediated processive biodegradation of semi-crystalline polyesters with programmable latency and material integrity.

Read UNEP's first fully interactive e-publication, GEO-6 for Youth, written by youth for youth to inform, engage, educate, and lead youth towards environmental action.

Simbi gets people to love to read through an innovative reading-while-listening and reading-out-loud platform for readers and educators.

Several dozen of the world’s top universities have teamed up to press for action on climate change, saying the coronavirus pandemic should not erase attention on the dangers of a warming world.

The International Universities Climate Alliance (IUCA), unveiled on 2 April, showcases climate change research from 40 universities in 18 countries across six continents.

The group includes institutions with global strengths in key disciplines for both analysing and resolving climate change, such as engineering, economics, law, social science and planning as well as climate science.