What has Shakespeare got to do with sustainability? : educating minds while teaching

What is the connection between Shakespeare and sustainability? To explain we would like to present a case study of an educational institute where, just like Shakespeare, sustainability as a content and a medium of teaching and learning, is educating students about the relationship between members within society, the environment and economics, the commonly accepted three elements of sustainability (triple bottom line). At the University of Western Sydney, Australia, it can be seen that sustainability is related to and can be relevant to many aspects of university education. For example, it is included in an academic literacy development course, a core engineering first semester subject and an entire Environmental Health course. These three examples demonstrate how sustainability can be integrated into subjects and courses in many different disciplines. The concepts and ideas generated by the controversies surrounding sustainability lend themselves to critical thinking, something that is considered to be a graduate attribute by many Australian universities. This paper argues that education for sustainability is a theme which should be included in university education globally, either within disciplines or in an interdisciplinary context, as it is an essential approach to preservation of our planet and its inhabitants for the future. As a core theme in today’s world sustainability is as universal and topical as is Shakespeare, especially as the urgency for action to preserve the planet and its inhabitants is mounting leaving not much room for contemplating; “to be or not to be” or may be more aptly “to do or not to do” is not a question anymore.