Lexicon

Biosphère, Environment Canada
Environmental museum and National Centre of Expertise on Environmental Education and commitment. The Biosphère has been committed to a sustainable development success since it opened in 1995.

RCE
Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development, a member of the international network established by the Graduate Studies Institute of the United Nations University.

Collège Rosemont
Post-secondary learning institution (pre-university). Collège de Rosemont is considered a Quebec leader in sustainable development.

Montreal School Board (CSDM)
The Montreal School Board is a group of primary and secondary learning institutions, schools for special needs students, adult education Centres and professional learning institutions.

Eco-citizenship
"The eco-citizen is aware of being part of an environment that guarantees his existence, which, for that person, involves rights and duties regarding the environment. For example: The right to enjoy a healthy environment, and the duty not to pollute it in order to keep it healthy.

Each eco-citizen has the means to ensure sustainable development through his or her daily actions or to defend its principles with authorities (votes, petitions, etc.), i.e., a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations, which preserves human life and eco-systems, since one is closely linked to the other."

(translation of an excerpt from WIKIPEDIA. Écocitoyenneté, page consulted on April 10, 2007)

Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is the idea that development as it is practised today cannot sustain itself. We must correct the shortcomings of a model based only on economic growth by reconsidering our ways of thinking and acting.

It is therefore important to :
-Maintain the integrity of the environment to ensure the health and safety of human communities and ecosystems that support life.
-Ensure social equity in order to allow the full development of all women and men. Healthy growth of communities and respect for diversity.
-Aim at economic efficiency to create an innovative and prosperous economy that is environmentally and socially responsible.

(translation of an excerpt from the QUEBEC MINISTÈRE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT DURABLE, DE L’ENVIRONNEMENT ET DES PARCS. Développement durable, pages consulted on April 21, 2007).

ESD
Education for Sustainable Development.

Education that places the human being at the heart of its concerns. It aims to harmonize relationships between individuals, people and their environment. It explores the economic, social and environmental implications of our ways of thinking and acting. It aims to form citizens who are willing to commit to individual and collection actions that contribute to democratic, fair, equitable and viable societies from an economic, socio-political and environmental perspective. (EVB/CSQ)

Formal Education
Education system used from the primary to the university level in recognized public and private institutions.

Informal Education
Public education that teaches awareness using mass communication means, such as television broadcasts, popularized science magazines for the general public, and other media.

Non-formal Education
Education means and tools that are complementary to the formal education system. For example, the Biosphère, museums, Insectarium, among others, are organizations that are responsible for complementary or non-formal education using programs and activities that they offer to the public.

ERE
Evaluation of environmental education.

Essential dimension of fundamental education that concerns our relationship with our environment, with shared "home". At a personal level, it aims to build an environmental "identity", a sense of being in the world, belonging to the environment, a culture of commitment. At the community level, and then at the expanded solidarity network, it aims to bring about social dynamics that encourage a cooperative and critical approach of the socio-environmental realities, and to address autonomously and creatively existing problems and emerging projects. (UQAM)

A permanent process in which individuals and the community become aware of their environment and acquire the knowledge, values, skills, experience, and desire that will enable them to act individually and collectively to resolve current and future environmental problems. (UNESCO)

I.C.I Environnement
Network bringing together 16 universities and campuses from Québec actively working in the areas of science, technology and engineering related to the environment and sustainable development.

FSPSD
Montreal's First Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development.

UNU
United Nations University.

City of Montreal
In 2005, the City of Montreal adopted Montreal's First Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development (MFSPSD) thus confirming the importance of sustainable development as a foundation on which to build the city.