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L. Diaz and A. Potvin
1 Introduction: The Challenge of Mobilizing Disciplines
Towards Sustainable Action
L’Institut Hydro-Québec en environnement, développement et société (Institut EDS)
1
has the mission to “promote a 360-degree vision of environmental and sustainable
development issues by spearheading and conducting activities aimed at furthering,
acquiring, and disseminating knowledge in order to mobilize stakeholders and generate tangible results for society”. This mission builds on its role in supporting and
developing interdisciplinary research at Université Laval as well as on innovations
in education and knowledge sharing. Since its creation in 2004, with a generous
support of Hydro-Québec, Institut EDS helps pool and drive efforts to better coordinate knowledge-sharing activities of its some 100 researchers, 400 student members,
and research chairs and groups from most of the eighteen faculties of the Université
Laval. Five interdisciplinary axes serve to weave collaborations: climate change, biodiversity and water representing three main global environmental challenges; cities
and territories as a priority action level; and governance as a key for transition to
sustainability. These axes correspond to the three interrelated components defining
the “pillars” of sustainable development: environment, development and society.
When André Potvin became director of the Institute in 2016, he set up an approach
that aims to facilitate collaborations between researchers and stakeholders, and he
called it “EDS Integrated Approach” (EDS-IA). This approach is based on an understanding that environment, development and society—the three parts of the institute’s
name—are all variables in an equation defining a close cyclical system based on environmental limits. Thanks to the contributions of the many scientific disciplines, it
is possible to understand and recognize the limits that natural cycles and resources
flows should impose on human actions. It is also through the interdisciplinary work
that we can imagine new and more respectful responses to human needs, according
to environmental limits. In a teaching context, still very fragmented by faculty divisions, EDS-IA is used as a tool for designing educational activities for students from
all the study programs
2 to contribute to develop Key Competencies in Sustainability
(Wiek et al. 2011). Furthermore, by considering the different scales of intervention of
each pillar, EDS-IA aims to help understand the challenge of multilevel governance,
which can only be tackled through a concrete practice of interdisciplinarity (Hufty
2011). Ultimately, by mobilizing and strengthening the links between academics and
a multiplicity of stakeholders, EDS-IA encourages the transformation of universities into living laboratories for the promotion and implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG).
1 www.ihqeds.ulaval.ca.
2 There are almost 240 graduate programs at Université Laval.
L. Diaz and A. Potvin
1 Introduction: The Challenge of Mobilizing Disciplines
Towards Sustainable Action
L’Institut Hydro-Québec en environnement, développement et société (Institut EDS)
1
has the mission to “promote a 360-degree vision of environmental and sustainable
development issues by spearheading and conducting activities aimed at furthering,
acquiring, and disseminating knowledge in order to mobilize stakeholders and generate tangible results for society”. This mission builds on its role in supporting and
developing interdisciplinary research at Université Laval as well as on innovations
in education and knowledge sharing. Since its creation in 2004, with a generous
support of Hydro-Québec, Institut EDS helps pool and drive efforts to better coordinate knowledge-sharing activities of its some 100 researchers, 400 student members,
and research chairs and groups from most of the eighteen faculties of the Université
Laval. Five interdisciplinary axes serve to weave collaborations: climate change, biodiversity and water representing three main global environmental challenges; cities
and territories as a priority action level; and governance as a key for transition to
sustainability. These axes correspond to the three interrelated components defining
the “pillars” of sustainable development: environment, development and society.
When André Potvin became director of the Institute in 2016, he set up an approach
that aims to facilitate collaborations between researchers and stakeholders, and he
called it “EDS Integrated Approach” (EDS-IA). This approach is based on an understanding that environment, development and society—the three parts of the institute’s
name—are all variables in an equation defining a close cyclical system based on environmental limits. Thanks to the contributions of the many scientific disciplines, it
is possible to understand and recognize the limits that natural cycles and resources
flows should impose on human actions. It is also through the interdisciplinary work
that we can imagine new and more respectful responses to human needs, according
to environmental limits. In a teaching context, still very fragmented by faculty divisions, EDS-IA is used as a tool for designing educational activities for students from
all the study programs
2 to contribute to develop Key Competencies in Sustainability
(Wiek et al. 2011). Furthermore, by considering the different scales of intervention of
each pillar, EDS-IA aims to help understand the challenge of multilevel governance,
which can only be tackled through a concrete practice of interdisciplinarity (Hufty
2011). Ultimately, by mobilizing and strengthening the links between academics and
a multiplicity of stakeholders, EDS-IA encourages the transformation of universities into living laboratories for the promotion and implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG).
1 www.ihqeds.ulaval.ca.
2 There are almost 240 graduate programs at Université Laval.