What is ESD?

ESD is the acronym for Education for Sustainable Development. While it is a new program at the International School of Tianjin, the values central to the program are already inherent in many of the things we do.

Our vision for ESD is as follows:

IST aspires to be a sustainable school with a globally aware and active student body.

We define sustainable development as, “. . . development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987

Sustainable development is also defined as consisting of three interrelated areas of the environment, economy, and society


At the center of the three areas is human well-being.


We recognize that education is held to be central to sustainability. As such, we strive to be a center of education that:
• Integrates and promotes concepts of sustainability into the school’s PYP, MYP, and DP curricula
• Reduces our personal ecological impacts and our ecological impact as an institution