BSI Education

Sustainable development

Lesson plan 2

Why is international sustainability so difficult?

Learning Objectives

Students should be able to:

  • understand the local, national, and international impact of large events, such as the Games.
  • express an opinion/make decisions about managing a sustainable event.
  • consider the environmental, emotional, and health consequences of a sustainable event on their own lives.
  • understand the issues of developing a standard approach to organising sustainable events.

Cross-curricular links

Resources

Starter

Explain to students that globalisation should be considered when evaluating how successful an event is, and whether it should go ahead in one place over another, or at all. Use London 2012 as an example.

Encourage students to think about how the management of people and resources affects not just London and the whole United Kingdom, but also other countries.

Teaching sequence

Activity 1
Ask students to debate whether they think that the Games are being managed sustainably.

All students work in threes or fours and ‘become’ an interest group with a viewpoint to express about the Games 2012 and whether they think it is being managed sustainably enough (or too much?). Each group will have to consider how the Green Games policies will actively affect them:

  • socially
  • economically
  • culturally
  • environmentally
  • emotionally
  • and in terms of health and safety

Students work in groups representing different interest groups. These can include:

  • local residents
  • local businesses
  • local community activists
  • Transport for London
  • transport workers (airports, trains, underground)
  • Police
  • local councils
  • Central Government (UK)
  • Games committee
  • athletes from all over the world
  • environmental activists
  • social justice and workers rights activists

Activity 2
Debate
Using Activity sheet 1 and information from the London 2012 website, students are asked to consider whether the event is really the ‘Green Games’ and who would benefit from it. After filling in the activity sheet, each group is given three minutes to present their arguments to the class. The whole class should then have a chaired meeting weighing up concerns in order to come to a consensus.

It is important for students to consider the social, environmental, emotional, and health consequences of the proposals in relation to their own lives, and also to bear in mind how their opinions and decisions may impact upon people and environments over time as well as how using particular resources may affect people in other parts of the world.

Students use activity sheet 1 to add arguments made by different interest groups represented in their class debate as they make their presentations, so that they have some points other than their own group’s perspective for the following activities.

Activity 3
Using Activity sheet 2 students are asked to write a letter to Lord Sebastian Coe, Leader of the Games bid, summarising the outcomes of the classroom debate. They explain their vision of sustainable development for the Games; give examples of how sustainable development Standards could be introduced, and what the consequences would be. How could they be documented and publicised?

Plenary

Students to summarise and have a vote on whether or not they think the games is ‘green’ and whether enough sustainable management Standards are being introduced by the London 2012 committee.

As a class, summarise the difficulties students faced when developing their arguments, for example, the economic cost of sustainable programmes, lack of statistical evidence to support their arguments, difficulty in meeting the needs of different groups, etc. Then students should relate their experience to the difficulties faced at international government level (use the Kyoto agreement as an example). Discuss why it is so difficult to introduce international Standards.

Extension

Ask students to consider how international events like the Games are seen to support work, employment and economic development (links to GCSE Geography and thinking skills).

A selection of websites is available