ABSTRACT
Although it is frequently acknowledged that sustainability and sustainable development are conceptually broader than environmentalism, it still needs to be recognised that the former remains a contested term. So much so that sustainable development, and by implication sustainability, was described within one leading text as suffering from 'lexical poverty'; and similarly, by Jickling as remarkable for its 'paucity of precision'. One key difference between environmentalism and sustainability is that the latter recognises the social and economic dimensions of well-being as well as the ecological elements by arguing that these are all 'deeply interdependent'. Educators operating in an outdoor or adventure setting are uniquely placed to educate on issues of sustainability. For most of those taking part in their programmes the setting offers an immediate contrast to the everyday worlds they have left behind. It is customary for informal educators to start from where the group they are working with is, both attitudinally and intellectually.
