Learning Units

The NBS EduWORLD Learning Units page offers a comprehensive and flexible suite of resources designed to integrate Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) into higher education and professional training. With 50 curated Learning Units, this platform supports educators, students, and practitioners at all levels—undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG), doctoral (PhD), vocational, and entrepreneurial.

Covering a broad spectrum of themes and contexts, the Learning Units are structured around key educational streams:

  • Common Core Units introduce foundational NBS concepts, such as ecosystem services, biodiversity, and the SDGs.
  • 3rd Level Units target university-level learners, with a focus on implementation, policy, social inclusion, and future urban development.
  • Entrepreneurial Units support learners exploring nature-based enterprises, business models, green finance, and sector-specific NBS opportunities.
  • Vocational Units are tailored for practical skills development, project management, policy engagement, and multi-level governance.
  • Case Studies and Workshops offer real-world applications and participatory methods from NBS EduWORLD demonstrator sites across Europe.

Each unit is aligned with European Qualification Framework (EQF) levels, ranging from Level 6 to Level 8, ensuring academic relevance and adaptability.

These Learning Units are editable and adaptable, supporting custom integration into curricula, practice-oriented, blending theory with applied learning, and geographically diverse, reflecting urban, rural, and coastal NBS contexts.

Download the full list of Learning Units

Whether you're a lecturer seeking ready-to-use teaching materials, a student exploring sustainability, or a professional upskilling in green innovation, the NBS EduWORLD Learning Units offer a unique, user-friendly gateway into nature-based thinking and action.

Search results ( 6 - 7 of 7 )

Workshop

UrbanByNature: Going through Step 5​ IMPLEMENT

In this Learning Unit, you will enter the role of a stakeholder at the fictional Evergreen School. Located in a city with 200,000 residents, Evergreen is facing sustainability challenges after a city council report reveals its poor sustainability performance in areas such as emissions, energy inefficiency, and biodiversity decline. A student-led survey further highlights issues of food waste and a lack of green spaces to address these challenges. The school principal, Mx. Green, initiates a mission to transform Evergreen School into a model of sustainability.- you will collaborate and co-develop knowledge regarding key elements in the nature-based solutions implementation process.

Find here the editable version and the teaching note.

Educational Level: Higher Education

Language:  English

Organisation: ICLEI

See the learning unit

UrbanByNature: Going through Step 5​ IMPLEMENT

Workshop

UrbanByNature: Going through Step 6 MONITOR, Collective workshop

This LU provides learners with key elements to understand the importance of the monitoring process before/during/after an NBS implementation. It provides some case studies from the MNHN in France about citizen science, to understand how citizen science can support NbS mainstreaming. Eventually, the last 35 minutes are dedicated to a collective workshop activity, gathering different departments from a municipality in order to develop their own citizen science monitoring protocol.

Find here the editable version and the teaching note.

Educational Level: Professional

Language:  English

Organisation: ICLEI

See the learning unit

UrbanByNature: Going through Step 6 MONITOR, Collective workshop

European Union

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.