Alessandro Pollini

Within a global landscape characterised by increasing fragmentation, community empowerment requires interdisciplinary, evidence-based and validated methodology for assuring collaborative and transformative action. This research addresses the need for equity and inclusion in underserved rural areas by investigating the CleanAir@Schools initiative in Romania. The study employed a human-centred, multi-stakeholder methodology, utilising exploratory workshops with educators and pilot implementations to develop a learning framework on Sustainability Education, in which students used passive sensors to measure local air quality. Results indicate that the project successfully mobilised entire school communities, catalysing a pedagogical shift from passive reception to active, inquiry-based environmental education. Furthermore, the strategic use of both digital and analogue technologies ensured accessibility for communities facing digital divides. The research concludes that participatory design acts as a catalyst for long-term community empowerment and social transformation by addressing localised challenges through inclusive, restorative practices. By intentionally centring society’s margins, design research fosters regeneration and care, serving as an essential resource for social innovators and policymakers.

The present study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the attitude–behavior link in the sphere of environmental issues by taking into account the role of moral disengagement. Pro-environmental attitudes, at both the implicit and explicit levels, were considered under the hypothesis that they may have direct and indirect effects on pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) through moral disengagement. The hypothesized relationships specified in the mediation model were tested by administering a cross-sectional online survey to a convenience sample of adult students enrolled in a digital university (N = 176; M_age = 40.54, SD_age = 14) via Millisecond Inquisit Web. The assessment included instruments measuring environmental moral disengagement and explicit attitudes toward the adoption of PEBs, together with an ad hoc Implicit Association Test designed to capture implicit attitudes toward sustainability, and the use of a pro-environmental behavior rating scale. While the sensitivity to model misfit was limited given the achieved sample size, the results from the path analysis show that implicit attitudes do not have a direct effect on PEBs, while explicit attitudes directly influence them. Moreover, as positive explicit and implicit pro-environmental and sustainability attitudes increase, moral disengagement decreases, which in turn negatively affects PEBs. Overall, the present findings confirm that moral disengagement plays a mediating role, and that attitudes can be targets for potential interventions aimed at promoting pro-environmental behaviors and addressing justificatory mechanisms that hinder their adoption.

This study examines the challenges of implementing educational technologies for sustainability education in diverse, real-world settings. While such tools are often designed for universal applications, a multitude of contextual factors, particularly in low-resource scenarios, can impede their full implementation. Through a series of in situ experiments conducted across three educational settings in Greece, Romania, and Italy, the research revealed that field deployment yields critical insights into organisational and technical limitations that are not evident in controlled experiments. The key findings underscore the importance of incorporating a broad range of socio-technical factors into design research protocols. The research also reveals a significant trade-off between the readiness of a tool and the need for its contextualisation, underscoring that effective implementation requires iterative adaptation and tailored training. Ultimately, the work concludes that real-world deployment blurs the distinction between a prototype and a product, necessitating a flexible approach to ensure equitable and prosperous adoption.

This book shares real-life case studies taken from GreenSCENT, a three-year EU-funded project that promotes sustainability through the development of digital platforms and tools, green education programme, and climate and environmental literacy certification. To date there has been little work published on the application of the European Green Deal in educational programmes and, while environmental education is very dynamic at present, this area has received scant attention. Seeking to remedy this critical omission, this book represents the first application of the Green Deal topics in the classroom. It examines environmental education from an academic perspective, looking specifically at the development of digital tools used to promote sustainability and provides recommendations for their practical application. The authors also discuss ways to engage larger and more diverse audiences (children, young people, and adults across socio-economic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds) on the topic of sustainability through activities such as air quality monitoring, Climathons, and Youth Assemblies. As the highlighting factors are inclusivity, accessible design, and responsible research and innovation, this volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of European environmental policy and environmental education.

Mitigating the worst effects of climate change is the most pressing issue facing humanity today. In their recent report (2023), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underscored the urgency of achieving a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and net-zero by 2050, as per the terms of the Paris Agreement (2015). However, a concerning disparity exists between the aforementioned targets and the projected trajectory of global emissions, with current data suggesting the potential of a 10% increase in GHG emissions before 2030 (IPCC, 2023). In response to the increasing urgency of the climate crisis, governments have recalibrated their national priorities to meet the GHG emissions targets as set out in the Paris Agreement. This recalibration has manifested in several key areas, including the economy and finance, energy, as well as in social and environmental policy. Environmental concerns are increasingly integrated into economic and development planning, with governments allocating more resources towards renewables and sustainable development initiatives to phase out fossil fuels. Global cooperation on climate change mitigation and adaptation has also intensified with international treaties, like the Paris Agreement, serving as a catalyst for new partnerships and agreements between countries to cut emissions and provide financial support for countries who are or will be most affected by the effects of climate change (e.g. the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund). However, the pace and rate of these changes vary significantly across regions. While developed countries have more resources to implement more ambitious climate targets, developing countries face the challenge of balancing economic growth with environmental safeguards.

Underserved communities experience less access to resources and heightened power imbalances between individual citizens and local governing organisations or institutions. This imbalance, in turn, leaves individuals in these communities in a position where it is harder to access advanced education opportunities, obtain wealth, or other measures of upward social mobility. This chapter describes the design research activities conducted within the GreenSCENT project to develop a new integrated and holistic design approach to promote the empowerment of individuals and the growth of communities in the perspective of future sustainability education among European citizens. Apart from co-design, the project sought to develop essential skills beyond knowledge acquisition. These included fostering dialogue, negotiation, and interpersonal skills, along with the ability to develop a mature personal perspective and integrate scientific knowledge with personal and social values.

This chapter describes the user research activities conducted during the GreenSCENT project to design a new integrated and holistic approach to foster future sustainability education among European citizens. The user research explored an extensive and scalable methodology at different educational levels to address the complexity of the current environmental crisis. The methodological framework involved a heterogeneous group of User Panels composed of students, teachers, educational managers, and parents coming from different European countries. We begin this chapter by examining several educational challenges related to climate change from the perspective of multiple and diverse users. The user research involved small local communities with the goal of assessing and implementing research findings on a global scale, covering all European countries. We begin this chapter by examining several educational challenges related to climate change from the perspective of diverse users. The research outcomes will then inform the design and development of technology-enhanced learning solutions, which seek to educate and empower young people to adopt pro-environmental behaviours and promote respectful societies for sustainable development.

This paper presents an empirical perspective on intersectional design in practice. The research is related to caring for the environment and for all citizens, including vulnerable groups, working towards sustainability for all people at systemic level. Starting from the need for defining new educational ways to teach sustainability to all citizens from an intersectional design model we took into consideration the importance of data gathering by the school community towards devising inclusive processes and by applying methods from participatory discussions to prototype experiments. The same intersectional approach will be used to design the technology for sustainability education that should trigger green and digital transitions and the maximum societal reach by mean sustainability through design.