Greening Social Work Education: Teaching Environmental Rights and Sustainability in Community Practice

Green issues such as protecting environmental rights and promoting sustainability are growing in importance to social work practice but are largely ignored in social work curricula. This article uses comparative case studies of three student-led community practice projects to demonstrate how environmental rights can be incorporated into social work education. The three cases detail student projects related to promoting farmer’s markets in food deserts, community gardens in homeless shelters, and political advocacy against mining. These cases provide examples of how environmental rights can be incorporated into the social work curriculum and reveal the interconnection of human and environmental rights, and of social and environmental justice. Lessons from the case studies and implications for social work education are presented.