UPES, in collaboration with HESCO, organised a national-level Expert Workshop on Environmental Education, bringing together academic leaders, sustainability experts and policymakers to shape an actionable ‘curriculum framework’ for embedding sustainability across Indian higher education. 

The workshop focused on reimagining environmental education as a practical, interdisciplinary competency. 

The deliberation focused on enabling measurable student competencies rooted in India’s ecological realities and development priorities.

Central to the discussions was a national imperative: as India advances growth, climate resilience, and sustainability transitions, higher education must equip students to balance ecology and economy. 

Participants endorsed a nature-led, experiential, locally anchored curriculum connecting learners to ecosystems through real problem-solving, field immersion and community-linked learning, tailored to regional environmental realities.

The deliberations focused on making environmental education a core, application-driven discipline across programmes, with region-specific learning pathways reflecting India’s ecological diversity. 

A key theme was institutionalising solution-oriented skills, enabling students to identify local issues, design context-relevant interventions, and measure impact, so sustainability becomes an essential professional capability across governance, industry, entrepreneurship, and community leadership.

The workshop concluded with a consensus that environmental education must become a national capability, shaping citizens and professionals who can balance development with ecological integrity. 

UPES reiterated its commitment to take the initiative forward through campus practices, research priorities, and region-linked partnerships, including its continued collaboration with HESCO, with a focused lens on pressing Himalayan concerns such as glacier melting due to climate change.