Purpose This study aims to develop a new teaching pedagogy paradigm that addresses the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s (2020) urgent call for making transformative changes in sustainability education by 2030 by providing a comprehensive philosophical understanding grounded in positivism, pragmatism and phenomenology of perception; and to implement a learning activity incorporating life cycle assessment (LCA), life-cycle thinking and carbon emission calculation based on a new teaching paradigm. Design/methodology/approach A semester-long project involving the use of a carbon quantification digital toolset was conducted in three universities (two tier-one research universities and one liberal arts university) in the USA. A total of 106 students from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM majors participated in this study. The project included three tasks. Tasks 1 and 3 were conducted separately at the beginning and the end of the semester, using a survey to evaluate students’ environment-related knowledge. Task 2 included journaling, data collection for greenhouse gas emission calculation and self-reflection. Findings This study highlights the effectiveness of a pedagogy that the authors introduce, the 4P paradigm (positivism, pragmatism, phenomenology of perception), and it demonstrates that integrating life cycle thinking, LCA and technology is a valuable addition to higher education curricula. This approach enhances students’ system thinking competency by deepening students’ understanding of LCA, carbon footprints and environmental impacts while improving their ability to calculate emissions and confidence in adopting sustainable behaviors across both STEM and non-STEM majors. Originality/value This research addresses a critical gap by connecting theoretical frameworks with practical case studies to respond to UNESCO’s call for transformative change in Education for Sustainable Development. It investigates how to effectively engage the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of student learning to foster transformative sustainability learning. This study also highlights the importance of innovative, learner-centered activities in building sustainability competencies across diverse disciplines, including both STEM and non-STEM fields. This study further contributes by exploring the differences in learning outcomes between STEM and non-STEM students and offers insights into tailoring educational approaches for these distinct groups.
Zhang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.