TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: Competencies, regulations, and paradigm shifts in education

This chapter explores sustainability education’s interdisciplinary nature, emphasizing its role in shaping a comprehensive sustainability culture. It discusses competencies crucial for citizens and future business actors, emphasizing the need for a nuanced and temporal educational approach. The European regulatory landscape, particularly the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) - which saw a postponement of the final vote - prompt a focus on hard-skill development for sustainability reporting and due diligence. The discussion underscores the insufficiency of regulatory frameworks alone, advocating for a holistic approach that combines compliance with awareness, consciousness, and rigour. The evolving European paradigm shift towards a network-centric approach places sustainability at the core, akin to the importance of digitization.