Sustainability educator perspectives of impacts, potential and barriers of sustainability education

BACKGROUND Sustainability education has been identified as a way of providing people with the knowledge, skills, motivation and attitudes to live more sustainably, improve wellbeing and help reverse global trends of climate change and biodiversity decline. Despite sustainability being part of the Australian curriculum for over 20 years, many metrics of sustainability are not improving in Australia. For example, Australia still has the worst rate of mammalian extinction in the world and scores poorly for biodiversity conservation. Sustainability education is recognised as a lever that can lead to improved environmental outcomes and there are calls for education to be recognised as a pillar of sustainability. However, the impact of sustainability education programs is understudied and there is little evidence base for how to create programs that support students to translate knowledge into action. In the study we are presenting, we consulted with sustainability education practitioners to understand their perspectives on current impacts of sustainability education and how to expand those impacts. AIMS The study aims to understand these key questions: How does sustainability education influence attitudes and behaviours around biodiversity conservation and sustainability? What pedagogies support impactful sustainability education? What barriers and opportunities are there for education to help create more sustainable communities? DESIGN AND METHODS Sustainability education practitioners and advisers were consulted through semi-structured interviews, in a mixture of telephone, virtual and face-to-face modes. The interviews were coded for anonymity and transcribed. Transcripts were uploaded to nVivo and autocoded. Transcripts were also manually coded; both methods were explored in tandem to develop final codes and themes. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Nine people accepted the invitation for interview and returned the completed participant information and consent form. Six of the participants were from higher education institutions, the other three participants were from local and state government agencies, and one from a private organisation. Three participants were internationally based. Preliminary analysis suggests that practitioners see the potential of sustainability education to create behaviour change for more sustainable communities. Themes emerged around the importance of experiential, and personally meaningful learning that supports student agency to overcome barriers to behaviour change (e.g., student perceptions of costs and challenges of sustainability action). Better integration of sustainability concepts into formal and community-based education was identified as a lever to expand the impacts of sustainability

Sustainability education impacts on student knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and wellbeing

BACKGROUND Educating about sustainability is a critical step in moving towards a more sustainable future for humanity. And as higher education moves into the online space, there is greater potential for education for sustainability to reach bigger and more diverse audiences. The University of Tasmania’s (UTAS) Diploma of Sustainable Living is one such example. However, while sustainability education has the potential to impact student knowledge, attitudes and behaviours about sustainability, these impacts are rarely captured in a systematic way. In this presentation we introduce the outcome of a study designed to capture the impacts of taking a fully online unit, Backyard Biodiversity (KPZ006), part of the Diploma of Sustainable Living at UTAS. The study uses a survey, offered to students before and after taking the unit, to examine changes in student knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and wellbeing. AIMS This study aims to understand if and how engaging with the online unit, Backyard Biodiversity, impacts on student knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and wellbeing. DESCRIPTION OF INTERVENTION This study is designed to assess the impact of an online unit, Backyard Biodiversity, on its non- traditional (predominantly mature-aged, part-time) student cohort. This 12-week, Diploma-level unit is focused on understanding biodiversity, its benefits (using Sustainable Development Goals framework) and how to create a more biodiverse backyard. To do so, it uses an experiential learning approach where students learn about and engage with their own backyard and neighbourhood. The unit was consciously designed to have co-benefits for student wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. DESIGN AND METHODS We draw on a mixed-methods research design by including survey questions that facilitate quantitative (e.g. Likert scale questions) and qualitative (e.g. open-ended questions) analyses. The before-after surveys have been offered to students since the unit’s inception in 2020 and are matched according to an anonymous linking code. To date, over 1500 total surveys have been completed but in this analysis, we included only paired surveys - those that had a matched before and after survey completed (n = 140). We report the average responses before and after for selected questions and use T-tests to determine statistically significant differences. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We found that there was a statistically significant increase in students’ subjective knowledge, and agency around biodiversity management. There were significant changes in how important students considered biodiversity to be and how connected they felt to nature. Students reported more pro- environmental behaviours after taking the unit and many believed that taking the unit improved their wellbeing. While there are limitations to this approach, our study suggests that sustainability education, even fully online units, can create real impacts for sustainability

Bridging the evidence gap: A review and research protocol for outdoor mental health therapies for young Australians

Internationally, over 60% of all lifetime cases of mental health disorders are identified as emerging by 25 years of age. In Australia, young people (aged 16–24 years) report the highest prevalence of mental health problems. Acceptability of mainstream services for young people is a concern, particularly for clients 18–25 years, heterosexual males and certain marginalised communities. With unaddressed distress in young people a precursor to poor, potentially lifelong mental ill-health trajectories, the provision of acceptable, and accessible mental health services remains a critical system imperative. Outdoor therapies, such as outdoor talking therapies, present an option for increasing the breadth of mental health interventions available to young people. Reported benefits of outdoor therapies include improved self-esteem and confidence, positive and negative affect, stress reduction and restoration, social benefits, and resilience. As outdoor therapies draw on multidisciplinary skillsets, this modality has the potential to expand services beyond existing workforce capacities. However, there are evidence gaps that must be addressed before mainstreaming of this treatment modality can occur. Here we overview the existing evidence base for outdoor talking therapies, as a form of outdoor mental healthcare, to determine their appropriateness as an effective and efficient treatment modality for young people with psychological distress in Australia and elsewhere. We then propose a research protocol designed to determine the acceptability, efficacy and efficiency of ‘outdoor talking therapies’. Our aim is to help address identified youth mental healthcare service shortages in Australia, and potentially support the health of our mental healthcare workforce

City-size bias in knowledge on the effects of urban nature on people and biodiversity

The evidence base for the benefits of urban nature for people and biodiversity is strong. However, cities are diverse and the social and environmental contexts of cities are likely to influence the observed effects of urban nature, and the application of evidence to differing contexts. To explore biases in the evidence base for the effects of urban nature, we text-matched city names in the abstracts and affiliations of 14 786 journal articles, from separate searches for articles on urban biodiversity, the health and wellbeing impacts of urban nature, and on urban ecosystem services. City names were found in 51% of article abstracts and 92% of affiliations. Most large cities were studied many times over, while only a small proportion of small cities were studied once or twice. Almost half the cities studied also had an author with an affiliation from that city. Most studies were from large developed cities, with relatively few studies from Africa and South America in particular. These biases mean the evidence base for the effects of urban nature on people and on biodiversity does not adequately represent the lived experience of the 41% of the world’s urban population who live in small cities, nor the residents of the many rapidly urbanising areas of the developing world. Care should be taken when extrapolating research findings from large global cities to smaller cities and cities in the developing world. Future research should encourage research design focussed on answering research questions rather than city selection by convenience, disentangle the role of city size from measures of urban intensity (such as population density or impervious surface cover), avoid gross urban-rural dualisms, and better contextualise existing research across social and environmental contexts

Multispecies Sustainability

The sustainability concept in its current form suffers from reductionism. The common interpretation of ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ fails to explicitly recognize their interdependence with needs of current and future non-human generations. Here, we argue that the focus of sustainability on human well-being – a purely utilitarian view of nature as a resource for humanity – limits its conceptual and analytical power, as well as real-world sustainability transformation efforts. We propose a broadened concept of ‘multispecies sustainability’ by acknowledging interdependent needs of multiple species’ current and future generations. We develop the concept in three steps: (1) discussing normative aspects, fundamental principles underlying the con- cept, and potential visual models, (2) showcasing radically diverging futures emerging from a scenario thought experiment based on the axes sustainable-unsustainable and multispecies-anthropocentric, and (3) exploring how multispecies sustainability can be applied to research and policy-making through two case studies (a multispecies stakeholder framework and the Healthy Urban Microbiome Initiative)

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Another Emerging Mosquito-Borne Disease? Endemic Ross River Virus Transmission in the Absence of Marsupial Reservoirs

Ross River virus (RRV) is endemic to Australia and Papua New Guinea, with marsupials (especially macropods) as the primary reservoir hosts. Its geographic range was thought to be limited by the distribution of reservoir hosts, but recent evidence suggests that the virus can circulate endemically in the Pacific Islands, where marsupials are absent. RRV therefore has the potential for wider emergence because mammalian diversity in the Pacific Islands is limited and the possible species that have been sustaining endemic transmission are panglobal in distribution. Furthermore, RRV is a vector generalist and can be transmitted by numerous mosquito species, including Culex and the globally invasive Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus. We review the evidence for RRV expanding its host and geographic range from prehistoric times to the present and for it to potentially pose a threat as another emerging arbovirus with significant implications for human health far beyond its currently known endemic range.EJF and PW were supported by funding from the Environment Institute, University of Adelaide. CLL was supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship (no. 1109035)

Data from: Socioecological predictors of immune defenses in wild spotted hyenas

Social rank can profoundly affect many aspects of mammalian reproduction and stress physiology, but little is known about how immune function is affected by rank and other socioecological factors in free-living animals. In this study, we examine the effects of sex, social rank and reproductive status on immune function in long-lived carnivores that are routinely exposed to a plethora of pathogens, yet rarely show signs of disease. Here, we show that two types of immune defences, complement-mediated bacterial killing capacity (BKC) and total IgM, are positively correlated with social rank in wild hyenas, but that a third type, total IgG, does not vary with rank. Female spotted hyenas, which are socially dominant to males in this species, have higher BKC, and higher IgG and IgM concentrations, than do males. Immune defences are lower in lactating than pregnant females, suggesting the immune defences may be energetically costly. Serum cortisol and testosterone concentrations are not reliable predictors of basic immune defences in wild female spotted hyenas. These results suggest that immune defences are costly and multiple socioecological variables are important determinants of basic immune defences among wild hyenas. The effects of these variables should be accounted for when attempting to understand disease ecology and immune function

Beyond bushfire preparedness: Evaluating the impact of a higher education sustainability unit on bushfire-related attitudes and behaviours

BACKGROUND Sustainability education plays a key role in addressing the sustainability crisis: it supports an empowered and informed citizenry who actively negotiate, create, and implement solutions. However, to achieve this, sustainability education must do more than transmit knowledge: it must empower and motivate students to take action. This raises key questions for sustainability educators: (1) how can we design units that change behaviours (and/or the antecedents of behaviours) so that students can be informed and active agents for sustainability in their communities; and (2) are units that have been designed to facilitate such changes successful in doing so? Despite considerable investment of resources in sustainability education, few units are evaluated rigorously for impact. Thus, gaps exist in our understanding of the contextual and pedagogical determinants of effectiveness, and the complexities of students’ perceptions and responses to the competing values inherent in sustainability challenges. This study seeks to expand knowledge in this field through a case study of a unit offered via the University of Tasmania’s Diploma of Sustainable Living: Living with Fire (LwF). AIMS This study aims to understand how LwF impacts student attitudes, self-efficacy and behaviours related to bushfire, and generate learnings for sustainability and bushfire preparedness education. DESCRIPTION OF INTERVENTION LwF is a fully online undergraduate diploma unit, targeted primarily at non-traditional adult learners. Its design is based on personally relevant, authentic experiential learning, grounded in global sustainability concepts and a transdisciplinary perspective on wildfire. The unit encourages critical reflection and assessment of bushfire risk in one’s own home and community through practical activities and assessments, and contextualises bushfire risk reduction through a sustainability lens. DESIGN AND METHODS We address our research questions using a before-after mixed methods approach. This combines: (1) a survey capturing bushfire related attitudes, perspectives and behaviours, applied at course commencement, course completion, and twelve months after completion; and (2) online focus groups. We will apply these methods initially to three cohorts in 2023 (approx. 90 students/cohort), with multivariate quantitative analysis and qualitative thematic analysis used to assess the data. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The first tranche of data collection is currently underway with Semester 1 2023 students. This presentation will present preliminary results from this initial cohort, providing quantitative and qualitative insights on the impacts of LwF on the perspectives and behaviours of this group. These initial findings will provide insights into the capacity of a fully online unit, based on experiential learning, to assist students to build capacity to engage with complex sustainability challenges such as bushfire

Nature-based solutions in Australia: A systematic quantitative literature review of terms, application and policy relevance

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are emerging as an approach to sustainable environmental management and addressing environmental and social issues in ways that benefit human well-being and biodiversity. NbS have been applied to social-environmental challenges such as climate change and urbanization, but with diverse conceptualisations and applications that may impact their effectiveness and broader uptake. Much of the literature and implementation of NbS has emerged from Europe and though NbS use is rising in Australia, the context is unclear. This systematic quantitative literature review aims to improve understanding of NbS in the Australian context.Here we explore the meaning and uses of NbS in the scientific literature in Australia, through three research questions: In Australia, (1) what is meant by the term ‘nature-based solutions’? (2) what socio-ecological challenges do NbS aim to address and how? (3) what are the barriers and opportunities for greater integration of NbS into policy and practice in Australia?We show that in Australia, local governments are using NbS in urban planning to address the compounding challenges brought on by climate change in the human-environment interfaces. However, there is no consensus on NbS definitions and approaches, research is focussed on urban areas and problems, and NbS implementation follows a bottom-up, localised pattern without an integrated policy framework. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for improving the implementation of NbS in Australia including: (1) a consistency of NbS definition and awareness of NbS approaches; (2) interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaboration on NbS methods and effectiveness and; (3) an integrated policy framework supporting NbS nationwide