 Aloha, I'm Joshua Cooper, and welcome to Cooper Union. What's happening with human rights around our world? On Think Tech Live, broadcasting from our downtown studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, in Moana, New York. Today, we'll be looking at education for sustainable development, regional centers of expertise of the Americas meet for mobilization to move our minds. United Nations University, regional centers of expertise, Americas, host an exchange of ideas and initiatives to build the culture of education for sustainable development beyond campuses to our collective communities and global civil society. Today, we're joined by three leaders who have created United Nations University regional centers of expertise to focus on education for sustainable development. Beginning with you, Meghna, can you share with us why it was important to create RCE and how it contributes to your community? Yeah, thank you for having me, Joshua. My name is Meghna Thare, and I am the chief sustainability officer for UT Arlington here in Texas and also the founder and director of RCE North Texas. So there are 179 RCEs across the world because it's a United Nations University initiative. And we have 10 to 11 RCEs in the Americas or in the U.S. and RCE North Texas is one of those. I launched RCE North Texas in 2019. The idea was just to kind of, you know, build that consensus within the community and work with my stakeholders to address the regional challenges of, you know, North Texas using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework because I think we all are experiencing this population growth where the regions are, you know, growing at a really rapid rate. And so how do you have sustainable development and sustainable communities in a way that is, you know, truly sustainable for us? And we are a big campus with 60,000 students. So we are a big part of the community. So anything that you do, you know, actually resonates beyond the walls of the campus community. And so the idea with launching the RCE North Texas was to have that collaborative capacity building within the campus community, but with our external stakeholders who range from private sectors to nonprofit organizations, other academic institutions and even local governments to advance sustainable development goals in the region. Thank you so much, Myra. Can you share your experience with RCE? Sure. My RCE is in Curitiba. Curitiba is in the south of Brazil. And we are in the road since 2007. And we start that because Curitiba is known as a sustainable city. So we have a lot of things here that people come to see and they want to do the same thing in other parts of the world. And because of that, we decide to create this RCE to talk about sustainability and engage more people about climate change and sustainable cities and things like that. So, yeah, we are a big group now and we need to talk more about sustainability and things like that. Thank you so much, Myra. Diego, please share your experience. Thank you for having me, Josh. Well, my name is Diego Adamson. I'm the founder and director of RCE, Cuenca Lata. We've been operational since late 2015. And we're based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I think one of the most southern RCEs out there. And it's interesting because at that time it was December, 2015, when we were acknowledged by UNU. And what happened then? It was at the same time, the SDGs were only two months old and the Paris Agreement was actually being born. So it's a very, very special moment. At that moment, I was also coordinating the Climate Change Working Group for United Nations Global Compact in Argentina. I was a member of the National Steering Committee and back in 2014, we were working on the post-2015 agenda with the New York Office of Global Compact. So we were already focusing on climate change and what we were going to do about it. But we know, I'm a social psychologist among other things. And we know that without education, we will get nowhere. So that was the moment when I found out about the global RCE community and initiative based in Tokyo. And I said, this is definitely what we need to do. So I reached out and basically presented this project that we were going to sort of manage from Buenos Aires, but with a regional perspective. So we focus on the Cuenca del Plata, which is one of the largest river basins in the world. So it covers almost northwards to Curitiba. So south of Brazil, big part of Paraguay, even a part of Uruguay and northeast of Argentina. And we think that RCEs are crucial as Magno is saying because of the possibility of combining a framework and a mindset in terms of sustainability with a regional approach or a territorial approach to stakeholders and the challenges, the specific area has in terms of what we need to address to move forward to a more resilient future. So it's a fantastic platform to address all these challenges and bring together all these players so we can create a common language and focus towards a better future. Thank you so much for sharing all three of you about the impetus. And we agree too. We think education is the foundational stone that we can then begin to create that culture that will then ripple across the Americas and around the world. Also agree with you about the regional framework for Hawaii, ours is Hawaii Moana Nuiakea showing that the ocean of the Pacific actually unites us all and allows us then to all communicate from an island perspective but also pointing out the commonality. Moving into our second phase, maybe we can share a little bit of the importance of the RCE on your campus in your community and global civil society and some of the results that have happened since the creation in each one of our specific circumstances. Magno? Yeah, I can do that. Yeah, like you said, I think the notion behind the RCE is used to use education as a tool to guide the conversation and since we are embedded in an academic institution it gives us a chance to sort of work with grassroots organizations or other organizations who can benefit from the expertise that an academic institution brings, right? So for example, we have students at resources, right? Those who are in graduate school who are in the PhD program or we have faculty researchers who can actually help drive some of these projects in the community, right? So since we launched in 2019 we have done a couple of projects. There was one which was kind of developing a water quality report card for our river here to kind of show to the community that the river is completely safe for use. And so we kind of using researchers and a PhD student developed a report card that showed the level of, you know, San Malayda in the water or how safe it is to go paddle in the water. We have done a couple of projects to address food insecurity in the region through dialogues, summit, PowerPoint presentations, webinars, inviting speakers who actually are experts in the area of food justice to talk about, you know, how can we have a regional approach to this challenge that we are all facing? We have had lots of discussions on climate change. This is a topic that it resonates with the students a lot and so we have been hosting like simulations for climate models for students to kind of educate them. What happens when, you know, you do not have mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change. So, you know, sometimes you start with the basics of introduction to sustainability or sometimes you go really deep into research projects. It varies, but it's important because you have to target every audience in your community and that is how you bring about change. It's true. The inclusivity is absolutely essential as we move forward. Maida. Well, here we have projects from formal and informal education. So, we have a lot of events and workshops and things like that. We have three major guideline SPGs. That is the four, that is equality education, right? The 11, that is sustainable cities and 13, that is climate change. So, this year we are focusing in these three SDGs. For example, for education, we have a course for teachers that we discuss about sustainable education that we talk about how important it is to have experience outdoors for students, day learning, practice and things like that. We have another project about mobility in Curitiba. Curitiba is a city that mobility is very important. So, here we are discussing about bicycles and how we can be a better city without cars and things like that. We are discussing a lot about this and also about water and the quality of rivers and so on. So, and I think the SDGs are very important for the RCEs because they guide us and they show us what is important and how we can work together with other RCEs in America and in the world, right? We can have projects together and SDGs for example, or another SDG and so that's why we keep going with SDGs. It's true. The SDGs are great common language for all of us to be able to connect with one another and then see how we can then build and then scale up these exciting events. Diego? Well, regarding our experience and the comments on the SDGs as a common language, I usually joke about the SDGs being the new Esperanto for sustainability, we can go anywhere and this is such an upgrade for the past last decade, for instance, we can go anywhere in the world and if we start talking about quality education and education for sustainability development, one can say, oh, so you're focusing on target 4.7. It's a way of decoding what we mean and how we are seeing the world and where we are setting our priorities. It's wonderful and we certainly need to take advantage of this. It's something we need to embrace and make the most of. And regarding our track record and our focus, I think one important moment for us was after 2016 where we started sort of figuring out what was it that we wanted to do and how we could do it, et cetera, was focusing on the possibility of hosting and RC America's meeting. And we learned so much and we got so inspired by Curichiba because their meeting was actually in 2016. So that was my first meeting. And that's where I came face to face with Maeda and everybody else. And I said, we need to empower this. Because at that moment, and this is something we want to keep doing, we sort of have one annual meeting on either side of the equator. So it was North and South. So 2017 was out of the question because it had to move Northwards. But there we were saying, hey, next time in the South, we're hosting and that took place in October, 2018. And we went to North Argentina close to the border with Brazil, the province of Nistianis, which is one of the most biodiverse provinces and territories in Argentina and the region. It's a small province to our standards. Argentina is a very big country. But to give an idea, that small province with tropical forest has more species of birds at the whole of Europe. So over 550 species of birds. So that's where we decide it was a good location to host this America's meeting. And it was a challenge and an opportunity because we gave it a sort of a different approach. We designed the meeting where we could bring together actors from all sectors. So we had representatives from the governments, from private sector. But because we were at a very specific location close to the border with Paraguay, we decided we would invite the United Nations representatives from Argentina and from Paraguay and government representations from both countries. So we, as an RCE, we had the power to summon all these actors to discuss sustainability sustainability from a regional approach. And that allowed a different level of conversations, a different level of exchange of experiences, points of view, perspectives. And we believe it made a substantial contribution in that sense, the possibility of having workshops where different companies presented their work, their sustainability reports, learning from the local authorities. The event provided a platform for the government to show what they were doing. It was a moment where local governments from all around the province aim to the event and took the stage to sign a commitment towards sustainability and the SDGs at that very moment. So these were what RCEs can actually do. So that was a big moment for us and the region and the Americas network as a whole because there at that very moment, we decided we needed to focus on our cooperation and synergy and this is what we've been working on for the past four years. And actually we made some serious progress on this last meeting we had last week. Perfect, and that puts us exactly where we are where we've been able to share about the birth of RCEs and respective communities, but then also the bold agenda. And then you and you RCE Americas does offer unique projects and programs promote education for sustainable development to increase the understanding view and global goals on the ground. And RCEs Americas 11th regional meeting offered that opportunity to organize comprehensive and creative campaigns of knowledge. And what could we say then is some of the impacts of the RCE Americas 11th annual meeting that just took place in Southbury, Maryland. Could you share a little bit, Magna, with the highlights for your experience and some next steps we can all imagine going forward? Yeah, I think the biggest takeaway is like everybody has different challenges, right? I mean, there's a reason people use UN SDG for regional work because the challenges for every region is different. So it was great to learn from various RCEs who presented about their projects and their community from service learning to climate action to sustainable cities engaging with the youth network. And the biggest takeaway was that, collective action is something that helps everyone, right? We are coming very close to 2030, which is where the timeframe for the UN SDGs and we need action more now than ever. And we sort of had this coordinated approach of how we can structure ourselves better to have that conversation, how we actually bring in other RCEs or other institutions who might not be aware that this is a model that they can adopt and use to educate not just their community but also work with their community. So the biggest takeaway was how do we bring about this conversation with other academic institution, perhaps have like a certification course for other organizations to come learn about, okay, what is an RCE model even, right? We'll just start with there. And then, different RCEs can offer different kind of expertise. And then Diego and Myra and their team actually built a very solid website for the RCEs Americas. It's in the chat. They put a lot of effort into this kudos to you guys. And the idea is we will populate this website with all the projects that everybody does so that it's accessible to everyone, not just something that happens within the close boundaries of a meeting. Exciting. Myra, can you expand on that a bit? Yeah, and I think another challenge is to work together. So we, as Magna said, we have different projects and interests because we have actions in our regions, but also we have interests in common rights because we all live in the, and we need to take care of our planet. So I think one of the challenges is to have projects together and discuss things together. And that's why Diego and I and all the communications committee are working to strengthen the network and try to build bridges through RCEs so we can talk and create projects to work together. And as a continent for the Americas, that's important too. That's true. The comprehensive and creativity is absolutely essential to be able to think of us as one continent and then one island earth. Diego. Absolutely. Well, one of the, I think, achievements of this Americas meeting that took place in Salisbury last week was, I think it allowed us to show how much we had worked over the course of those four years since 2018 through a pandemic, mind you, which was not easy. So the fact that back in 2018, we started putting on the table these perspectives, these possibilities, these, you know, the potential we had as a network, as a continental network. And the fact that last week we could present to all members this portal, the RCAmericans.org portal, whereas Meghna was saying we could or we can present in RCEs and the network to everybody. But also it will allow us to show projects, we'll have a library of relevant resources. We want to offer the platform as a one-stop shop for relevant documentation, et cetera, et cetera, that's scattered all over the place regarding sustainability. There is a data section that's coming soon where we will provide visual information regarding certain characteristics of the Americas, but also how our impact contributes to sustainability and the SDGs, among other things, you know, the connection with social networks, et cetera, et cetera. But also it allows us to, you know, basically visualize the portal as a common platform, you know, we all RCEs feel part of it. And we can have now, we now have a window to show and share with everybody what we can do. And in that sense, we will launch another project, a collective project, as Myra was saying, the Sustainable Americas Network Initiative, the possibility of not only working, you know, each RCE in their territories, but collectively for the Americas as a whole. And I think it's quite a challenge, but a beautiful opportunity to take everything to the next stage, to the next level. We need impact, as Meghna was saying, we're running out of time. We have the, you know, midterm stock take in 2025. And then the second part of the decade where we really need to boost our commitments and our efforts towards achieving the agenda by the end of a decade and even forward with the new agenda that we don't know the structure of yet. But we know that the coming agenda after 2030 will be built upon the, you know, the achievements and the learning curve we accomplished during this decade. So that's where we are and that's where we're heading. It's true, when you look at it, we have seven years as we know, so we might face irreversible harm. So the climate clock is definitely ticking for all of us. We also know, as you said, there are voluntary national reviews that each country will be reviewed on the 17 global goals. We also know with the Paris Agreement, there's nationally determined contributions and those are also being examined as well. So there are different ways to see and measure how we're doing, but it's also important for us to look at what education can do as really that creative catalyst though that gets people to get beyond the challenges or what some people would see as the huge steps that people think might not be possible. Education, in a way, ignites our imagination to see what we can do and how we can accomplish it together. And that's why the UNURCE's model has been so successful. And we thank all three of you for coming and sharing and describing examples from the North and the South, but to show how everything is interconnected. And we look forward to the 12th annual that will take place in the South, I guess, and we'll be excited to continue our work, not only then, but leading up to that with some exciting results. So thank you all for joining today, Mahalo. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.