Gaia Education

As a leading provider of Education for Sustainable Development, Gaia Education empowers participants to see the interconnectedness of life - teaching the knowledge & skills needed to design regenerative communities.

We offer online courses, face-to-face courses, webinars, Masterclasses, and international project-based learning. 

Gaia Education is a Scottish based international NGO that provides participants with the knowledge and skills to design a thriving society. We teach our students how to use energy and resources with greater efficiency, distribute wealth equitably, and make quality of life the focus of future thinking.

We believe that education is the biggest tool in the fight for a more regenerative future and reversing the climate crisis. We welcome students from diverse backgrounds and walks of life.

LOS

The Danish Association of Eco-Communities (LØS) provides a framework for sharing experiences and knowledge, and is politically engaged in promoting the establishment of eco-communities in Denmark and encouraging society at large to become engaged in living more sustainably.

In the Danish Association of Eco-Communities, we are convinced that we must live sustainably in the 21st century. If our footprint on our old Earth is to be lighter, it is imperative that our way of life becomes more sustainable – ecologically, socially and spiritually.

Therefore it is our mission to spread holistic, circular thinking and ecological principles within the technical and physical, the social, and the cultural and spiritual dimensions of our lives.

Our common vision can be formulated as embracing the following tasks:

• Creating ecologically and socially sustainable settlements, in both rural and urban areas.
• Cooperating with communities that have a common ecological, social or spiritual foundation.
• Ethical and ecological use of energy and mineral, biological, human and cultural resources.
• Self-determination, flat structures and accountability in leadership and economy.
• Tolerance in relation to diversity of life views and life forms.
• Promoting consciousness that we are all equal members of a global community.

Our purpose is:

• To promote a way of living that makes it possible to establish a holistic network that embraces people and nature and ensures care and respect for all living creatures and natural resources.
• To represent and work for our members’ interests, both inside and outside the association, as described in our common vision.

Our purpose is effectuated by:

• Representing eco-communities
• Interacting with politicians and public authorities
• Cooperating with other organizations on the basis of our common interests
• Being a common forum for eco-communities’ ideas and experiences
• Supporting the establishment and development of eco-communities
• Promoting research and development that supports the association’s purpose
• Informing and teaching
• Continually developing the vision, for example by arranging vision seminars and workshops.

NOAH Friends of Earth

NOAH is a Denmark based organisation that works for environmental justice through environmental policy programs, campaigns, research and non formal education activities.

Since 2015 NOAH has had a working group for ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) which has gained broad experience in the development of pedagogy, didactics and practice on ESD to a broad audience. Among other things we have developed a recurrent long term folk high school course; a host of methodologies and workshop formats that bring tools from popular education to the formal school system; several educational materials on ej. biodiversity, agriculture, and food sovereignty. We have been working with preschool and secondary school children, high school youth, universities and non formal youth- and adult education.  

With this project NOAH hopes to expand our knowledge on inclusion and creativity in order to better reach out to broader segments of the youth population, and empower youth to make sustainable lifestyle choices and to actively shape their lives, their communities, and society.

Don Bosco 2000

The Association Don Bosco 2000 - Social Enterprise was born on the 30th of November 1998 at Ostello del Borgo in Piazza Armerina (EN), Sicily, a structure that was originally intended for the reception of pilgrims and tourists. The main objective of the association is to promote the integral formation of man by paying particular attention to young people and the emergencies of our time.

The Association is inspired by the preventive and educational system of Don Bosco, a great saint able to anticipate the times with his vision, educational system and effective means for overcoming the injustices and inequalities of the time, also extraordinarily present and effective today in Italy and around the world. Since its creation, the Association Don Bosco 2000 – Social Enterprise has worked and dedicated its resources to the creation of partnership networks and the planning of interventions for the development of the territory and people, with particular reference to the weakest and most disadvantaged sections of society, including children and unaccompanied minors. Since 2016, the Association has placed its efforts into international cooperation, bringing forward a project entitled “circular migration”, aimed at creating development opportunities in villages and countries where the migrants come from. The project, whose objective is the development of African villages through agricultural start-ups thanks to the support of young migrants welcomed in Sicily who return to their villages of origin, is active in African countries (Senegal, Gambia and Mali) with the scope of curbing forced migration and promoting the development of local communities.

The interventions are destined to sustain minors, migrants, the youth, women and families, Italian and foreign, victims of direct and indirect forms of physical and psychological abuse and/or discrimination, and socio-cultural inequalities. The Association Don Bosco 2000, with its work, works to promote activities aimed at favoring the effective integration of foreigners, with particular regard to asylum seekers and refugees. Cooperation and planning are at the heart of the association's activities, together with sports, voluntary work and social enterprise activities in the tourism and social-fashion sector.

Since 2018, the Association Don Bosco 2000 has acquired the qualification of social enterprise, and in 2020 it has obtained the ISO 9001: 2015 certification for the quality management system.

The University College for Agricultural and Environmental Pedagogy is the educational and research centre for teachers and advisors in the professional fields of agriculture, forestry and environment. It is Austrians leading institution in the field of agricultural and environmental education, using innovative educational and advisory concepts to enable people to take on the challenges of the future and actively shape solutions. Our aim is to promote sustainable agriculture and forestry and responsible use of our natural resources.

As a nationally and internationally oriented centre of excellence, we combine research-led education and consulting with agricultural and natural sciences combined with the striving for practical applicability. All persons working at the University College support a theory-practice transfer. 

The concept of Green Pedagogy has been developed at the University College over the last decade. It is our concept for the implementation of education for sustainable development in all our fields of activity, based on modern didactic concepts, especially on constructivist pedagogy. 

• Green pedagogy helps to develop models for sustainable lifestyles. Agricultural and environmental education deals with new ideas and concepts of what a diverse and sustainable agriculture can look like in the future, as well as with models for sustainable lifestyles.
• Green pedagogy also means active learning in a social exchange. In the sense of green pedagogy, learning takes place actively, self-directedly and in exchange with others. Topics are dealt with according to their social relevance.
• Green pedagogy avoids pigeonholing. Linear cause-and-effect principles are no longer sufficient in a complex world. Exemplary problems are to be examined for different impact factors.
• But green pedagogy also irritates and lets you discover new things. Irritation engages, generates curiosity. It asks for a solution. The aim is to exclude unreflective and one-sided observations.

We don't just write concepts. We work with young people on summer camps on environmental issues, we train nature guides for protected areas, we run programmes for refugees - and of course we supervise students on their educational path. All this is done on a scientific basis and close to practice.

Plattform Footprint is an alliance of leading environmental, development aid and social NGOs in Austria which, together with research institutions, wants to promote and anchor the "Ecological Footprint" as a key measure of sustainability in our society. 

The platform wants to create a broad awareness of the fact that a joyful and peaceful life for all people will only be possible in the long term if the natural limits of our earth's biocapacity are not exceeded – “a fair share for all”. 

Applying the Ecological Footprint in education and consulting, Plattform Footprint wants to contribute to the “great transformation” towards sustainable “future-proof” societies.

With diverse educational and awareness raising programmes, the platform contributes to making the necessary changes in lifestyles, in the economy and in politics comprehensible to broad sections of the population. 

Plattform Footprint directly promotes the Ecological Footprint concept with online-tools, educational  materials, applied research, lectures and workshops as well as campaigns to establish the Ecological Footprint as a parameter for sustainability in politics and economics as well as on the very personal lifestyle level. 

With concrete projects and consulting for business and politics, the Platform wants to actively contribute to the realisation of the necessary actions at all levels of society.

The proponents of Plattform Footprint offer a competent mix of social and ecological visions, applied research, extensive networking and inspired teaching to create momentum for change.

Last but not least, the platform wants to generate new synergies within civil society through a topic-centred networking of all member organisations and thus develop a socio-political impact. 

Plattform Footprint is a member of the Global Footprint Network.