The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) Roundtable.

Since 2009, the Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) Roundtable has been a collaborative forum for college and university faculty and administrators, practitioners, and others from throughout North America and beyond to pursue their commitment to providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to meet the existential sustainability challenges that plague the modern world. The result has been the SHES approach to sustainability education and practice, a living set of recommendations about the pedagogy and administration of interdisciplinary and higher-order, sustainability-focused programs in higher education and their implications for sustainability practice. The Roundtable's edited book, Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice (Routledge, 2019), is the most comprehensive summary of the Roundtable's first decade of work, with more recent publications updating and building upon the contents of the book (see the list below). 

The SHES approach to sustainability education and practice is rooted in a vision, a mission, and a strategic goal. The essence of the SHES vision is a world of sustainable societies. The essence of the SHES mission is to sustain the viability of the human and environmental systems and interactions among those systems on which the realization of the SHES vision depends. The essence of the SHES strategic goal is to bring about and sustain the types of social learning needed to fulfill the SHES mission. The SHES approach to sustainability education and practice is both an educational approach and a cognitive strategy for designing and prescribing responses to sustainability challenges for use by students in the classroom and practitioners in the field. It rests on ten essential competencies: holistic thinking; systems thinking; supradisciplinary thinking; complexity thinking; future thinking; adaptive thinking; diversity thinking; collaboration; stakeholder engagement; and project planning, implementation, and outcomes assessment. Although the SHES approach is compatible with many pedagogical strategies, some of them are essential: competency-based education, backward design, the flipped classroom, and project-based learning. Similarly, although the SHES approach is designed to be used in any institutional setting or subject matter context, certain administrative considerations are likely to warrant special attention when building a SHES-based degree program. They include supporting SHES faculty, supporting SHES program design, and broader institutional support and recognition for the SHES approach.

The results of the 18th SHES Roundtable, which met in 2024, were the logical culmination of a process of evolution in the SHES approach that started with first principles, then moved on to course and program design, program administration, and, finally, to program evaluation and assessment and their implications for sustainability practice. Yet the SHES approach remains a living set of recommendations, with room for improvement. Members of the SHES Roundtable plan to present papers and workshops on these developments as they emerge as part of a broader, ongoing effort to disseminate information about the SHES approach at academic conferences and elsewhere.

Anyone interested in joining the SHES Roundtable and participating in its work should contact Michael Reiter, Professor, Director, and Chair of the Department of Integrated Environmental Science, Bethune-Cookman University, or Paul Barresi, Professor of Political Science and Environmental Law and Co-Chair of the Department of Social Sciences, Southern New Hampshire University.

For more information about the details of the SHES approach, please see the following:

Reiter, M. A., P. A. Barresi, and R. C. Smardon. In revision. “The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) Approach to Sustainability Education and Practice: Foundational Thematic Principles.” OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development. (forthcoming)

Reiter, M. A., R. C. Smardon, and P. A. Barresi. In revision. “The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) Approach to Sustainability Education and Practice: The Administrative Challenge.” OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development. (forthcoming)

Barresi, P.A., M. A. Reiter, and R. C. Smardon. In revision. “The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) Approach to Sustainability Education and Practice:  The Pedagogical Challenge.” OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development. (forthcoming)

Barresi, P.A., M. A. Reiter, R. C. Smardon, and K. D. Reiter. In prep. “The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) Approach to Sustainability Education and Practice:  Program Evaluation and Transformation.” OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development. (forthcoming)

Smardon, R. C., P. A. Barresi, and M. A. Reiter. In revision. “The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) Approach to Sustainability Education and Practice: From the Classroom to the Workplace.” OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development. (forthcoming)

Barresi, P. A., M. A. Reiter, and R. C. Smardon. 2022. The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems Approach to Sustainability Education: Foundational Principles, Pedagogical Strategies, and Administrative Considerations. OIDA Intl. J. Sustain. Dev. 15(1):11-22 (The Journal of the Ontario International Development Agency). ISSN 1923-6662, http://www.ssrn.com/link/OIDA-Intl-Journal-Sustainable-Dev.html.

Focht, W. J., M. A. Reiter, P. A. Barresi, and R. C. Smardon, eds. 2019 (paperback 2020). Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice. Routledge, NY. Edited book (16 chapters), ISBN 9780815399520 (9780367500504). (Reviews available at https://www.routledge.com/Education-for-Sustainable-Human-and-Environmental-Systems-From-Theory/Focht-Reiter-Barresi-Smardon/p/book/9780815399520.)

• Smardon, R. C., P. A. Barresi, and M. A. Reiter, 2019. Essential learning outcomes. In: Focht, W. J., M. A. Reiter, P. A. Barresi, and R. C. Smardon, eds. 2019. Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice. Routledge, NY, Ch. 8, pp. 122-134. 

• Smardon, R. C., M. A. Reiter and M. L. Humphreys. 2019. Course design: Examples of graduate courses. In: Focht, W. J., M. A. Reiter, P. A. Barresi, and R. C. Smardon, eds. 2019. Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice. Routledge, NY, Ch. 10, pp. 150-163.

• Smardon, R. C. and M. A. Reiter. 2019. Program evaluation and assessment. In: Focht, W. J., M. A. Reiter, P. A. Barresi, and R. C. Smardon, eds. 2019. Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice. Routledge, NY, Ch. 13, pp. 201-215. 

• Smardon, R. C., S. Pfirman, and M. A. Reiter. 2019. Supporting sustainable human and environmental systems faculty. In: Focht, W. J., M. A. Reiter, P. A. Barresi, and R. C. Smardon, eds. 2019. Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice. Routledge, NY, Ch. 14, pp. 216-227. 

• Reiter, M. A. and R. C. Smardon. 2019. Supporting curriculum and program design. In: Focht, W. J., M. A. Reiter, P. A. Barresi, and R. C. Smardon, eds. 2019. Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice. Routledge, NY, Ch. 15, pp. 228-238. 

• Mulkey, S. S., R. C. Smardon, and M. A. Reiter. 2019. Model structures for institutional support and recognition. In Focht, W. J., M. A. Reiter, P. A. Barresi, and R. C. Smardon, eds. 2019. Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice. Routledge, NY, Ch. 16, pp. 239-250. 

rev. 2/24/25