Education should prepare young people not only to earn a living but to sustain life itself, Prof (Dr) B K Ravi said at the 5th Yuva Sustainability Conference, held online on 12 August 2026 to mark International Youth Day 2026. The conference, themed ‘Mainstreaming Sustainability in the Education Ecosystem’, was organised by Voices of Bharat: Yuva for Sustainability, an initiative of Sustainability Karma.
Ravi, Vice Chancellor of Bengaluru North University, described sustainability education as a national imperative and a global responsibility. Universities, he argued, are educating the generation that will determine India’s social, economic and environmental direction by 2050. Their responsibility therefore extends beyond degrees and employment to the values, habits and judgement graduates carry into every profession.
“Education should not only prepare students to earn a living; it should prepare them to sustain life itself,” Ravi said. The distinction placed sustainability at the centre of education rather than at its margins: a student may be professionally successful yet still contribute to waste, inequality or ecological damage if learning has not developed responsibility.
India’s greatest resource is its youth
India’s greatest resource is not oil, technology, agriculture or artificial intelligence, Ravi said, but its young people. Citing the country’s demographic profile, he noted that nearly 65 per cent of Indians are below the age of 35 and almost one in two is younger than 25. Every second person, in that sense, belongs to the generation that will shape what India looks like in the middle of the century.
That scale makes youth participation decisive rather than symbolic. India does not need to imagine a youth-led sustainable future, he said; it is already living inside one. ‘If this generation adopts sustainable lifestyles, India will lead the world. If it does not, no policy alone can save us.’ Public policy can create direction and infrastructure, but daily choices will determine whether those systems succeed.
Ravi urged students not to wait for graduation before thinking of themselves as leaders. The next clean-energy innovation could emerge from a classroom, the next climate startup from a hostel room and the next sustainable business model from a college project. Leadership, he said, begins the moment a young person decides to accept responsibility.
Sustainability is everything, not a separate activity
Planting trees matters, but Ravi cautioned against reducing sustainability to a narrow set of environmental activities. It concerns how people produce, consume, travel, communicate, educate, innovate and treat one another. It is environmental and economic, but also social, cultural, digital and ethical. At its simplest, he said, it means meeting present needs without compromising the opportunities available to future generations.
He connected this understanding with Indian philosophical traditions that treat rivers as mothers, forests as sacred and the Earth as one family. The principle of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, he said, recognises the interdependence of humanity and nature. Citing Mahatma Gandhi’s warning that the Earth can satisfy human need but not human greed, Ravi argued that responsible consumption, local self-reliance and ethical living were discussed in India long before sustainability became a global policy term.
Mission LiFE – Lifestyle for Environment – offered a contemporary framework for converting that ethic into public action. Ravi said the initiative identifies 75 practical steps, from saving electricity and water to reducing plastic, choosing sustainable transport and avoiding food waste. Its ambition to mobilise one billion ‘pro-planet people’ by 2028 rests on a simple proposition: extraordinary environmental challenges can be addressed through ordinary actions repeated at scale.
The message to young people is immediate. Climate action does not begin only at an international summit. It can begin the next morning with a reusable bottle, switched-off lights, a cloth bag, public transport, less food waste, native planting, community volunteering and the responsible communication of facts. No individual action is sufficient on its own, but consistent choices can change social expectations and create demand for wider institutional change.
Behaviour change is the real test of education
For decades, education has concentrated on transmitting knowledge. Students today generally know that climate change and pollution exist, Ravi said; the urgent question is whether education can change behaviour. ‘A student who scores 100 marks but wastes water has not understood sustainability,’ he said. ‘A university that teaches environmental science but generates mountains of plastic waste has not understood sustainability.’
Education must therefore create habits, values and action. Universities should become laboratories in which sustainability is experienced every day through campus operations, curricula, research and student life. Ravi cited institutions including IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Bombay, IIT Jodhpur and IIT Tirupati as examples from which campuses can learn. The best institutions, he argued, do not merely teach sustainability; they demonstrate it.
That demonstration must extend across disciplines. Engineers can design renewable-energy systems; commerce graduates can advance responsible business and ESG practices; lawyers can protect environmental justice; medical professionals can understand planetary health; journalists can communicate climate realities responsibly; teachers can shape citizens; and entrepreneurs can build circular-economy ventures. There is no discipline outside sustainability, Ravi said.
Instead of asking what sustainability has to do with a particular subject, every student should ask a more demanding question: ‘How can my profession leave the world better than I found it?’ This reframes green skills as core professional competence. Sustainability is not an optional specialisation for a small group of environmental experts; it is a way of assessing the purpose and consequences of work in every field.
Technology needs ethics and human values
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, drones, data science and the Internet of Things are transforming higher education and creating new possibilities. Ravi warned, however, that technology alone cannot guarantee sustainability. Technology without ethics can accelerate inequality, while technology without responsibility can increase waste. Guided by human values, the same tools can help address some of humanity’s greatest challenges.
Universities must therefore build sustainable leaders rather than merely skilled job seekers. Knowledge and technical ability have to be joined with compassion, integrity, responsibility, respect for diversity and a readiness to act. Ravi grouped the institutional work into four pillars: community engagement, research, green entrepreneurship and policy innovation. When these reinforce one another, students learn to translate ideas into public value.
India’s recent experience shows that behaviour can change, Ravi said, pointing to large public initiatives such as Swachh Bharat and the expansion of access to cleaner cooking fuel. The lesson for universities is that social habits are neither fixed nor beyond influence. Clear goals, public participation, accessible alternatives and sustained communication can move sustainability from aspiration to practice.
Ten commitments for every university
Ravi proposed ten sustainability commitments for Indian universities: a green curriculum across all disciplines; regular assessment of the institution’s carbon footprint; rainwater harvesting; renewable-energy adoption; movement towards zero-plastic campuses; waste segregation and recycling; biodiversity conservation; student sustainability clubs; community outreach aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals; and sustainability reporting every academic year.
Taken together, the commitments cover what universities teach, how they operate, how students participate and how institutions remain accountable. Curriculum provides knowledge and professional relevance. Campus systems make that knowledge visible. Student clubs and community outreach create opportunities for action, while carbon assessment and annual reporting allow institutions to measure whether promises are producing results.
Only then, Ravi said, will sustainability move from policy documents into institutional culture. A campus should not be able to claim progress simply because it offers an environmental course or holds an annual plantation drive. Its energy, water, waste, procurement, transport, biodiversity, teaching and public engagement should tell the same story.
A pledge that begins with the individual
Ravi closed by urging sustainability to become a value before it becomes a policy, a habit before it becomes a regulation and a culture before it becomes a curriculum. Education remains the most powerful instrument through which humanity can create a sustainable future, he said, but its power is realised only when learning becomes conduct.
His invitation to young people was framed as a personal pledge: ‘I will not wait for others to build a sustainable India. I will begin with myself.’ If students carry that sense of agency into their institutions and professions, Ravi concluded, India can move beyond meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and become a global model of sustainable development.