The department of natural resource use economics and sustainable development functions for more than ten years on the basis of Yaroslavl State Academy of Industrial Management named after Pastukhov with the support from “Cadaster” Institute (chair – Dr. of Geographical Sciences, Professor, G. Fomenko). It is the first department of sustainable development in Russia, created within an institution of additional education. Lecturers of the department — staff members of “Cadaster” institute — perform educational activities реализуют according to the National Strategy of Education for Sustainable Development in the Russian Federation successfully addressing the following issues: (1) creation of mechanisms for commitment for getting education in the interest of sustainable development; (2) ensuring accessibility of training materials and methodological aids for education for sustainable development; (3) support for resear4ch activities in the field of education for sustainable development; (4) inclusion of elements of education for sustainable development in the system of training of civil servants and decision-makers in all sectors of the society, etc.
The work of the department is aimed at retraining of specialists of enterprises and institutions of real sector of the economy. The department of natural resource use economics and sustainable development implements educational and research activities on issues of improvement and organization of effective functioning of innovative, economic and investment mechanisms in the field of rational natural resource use and environment protection according to the concept of sustainable development and the use of methodology of environmental-economic accounting. Leading researchers of “Cadaster” Institute profess the following training programmes of the department: (1) “Basics of environment protection activities” (the objective of the programme — qualitative changes in professional competences through obtained knowledge, skills and competences in the field of environment protection oriented on professional standards), (2) “Management of hazardous wastes” («Обращение с опасными отходами» (the objective of the programme — qualitative change in professional competences necessary for implementing professional activities in the field of environment protection and improving knowledge and skills of the students related to effective waste management). By now, more than 1500 specialists of different industrial enterprises of Yaroslavl oblast and some other regions of the Russian Federation were trained. They can use main provisions of the concept of sustainable development in their work.
Materials of international thematic conferences, workshops and meetings in which lecturers of the department took part are actively used in educational process (for the last 5 years): the 15th Environmental Forum (18-21 November, 2014, Moscow), the Workshop “Practices of Application of New Norms and Regulations in the Field of Environment Protection” (Yaroslavl, 2014), Workshop on application of SEA in specific sector and support for implementation of activities according to the work plan of the ESPOO Convention (Czech Republic, Prague, 1-5 December, 2014), 9th Working Group on Environmental Statistics (25-27 June 2014, Baku, Azerbaijan), Simposium “Studies of Socio-Cultural Peculiarities of Decision-Making in the Field of Natural Resource Use for Improving Natural Resource Management” (Uppsala, Sweden, 18-24 June, 2014), OECD Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum (France, Paris, December 14-15, 2015), Joint UNECE / OECD Seminar on the Implementation of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (Switzerland, Geneva, October 14-16, 2015), Regional Workshop for the countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia – Shared Environmental Information System and Green Growth (France, Paris, March 10-11, 2015), The Eighth Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference (Georgia, Batumi, 8-10 June 2016), Expert Forum for producers and users of climate change-related statistics (Switzerland, Geneva, October 5-7, 2016), Russian Investment Forum (Sochi, February 27-28, 2017), Conference of European Statisticians – Joint Task Force on Environmental Statistics and Indicators ( Switzerland, Geneva, June 29-30, 2017), Climate Forum of Russian Cities (Moscow, August 21-22, 2017), Joint UNECE / OECD Seminar on the implementation of SEEA (Switzerland, Geneva, February 21, 2018), OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment (France, Paris, 1November 13, 2018), ROSSTAT/UNECE/UNEP/OECD Joint Workshop on environment-related SDG Indicators (Moscow, 19-21 March 2019).
Starting from 2015 the graduate course on economics of natural resource use, including studies of spatiual aspects of sustainable development was opened on the basis of Yaroslavl State Academy of Post-graduate Education named after Pastukhov.
Thus, implementing additional professional education for sustainable development lecturers of the department as much as possible orientate themselves at actual needs of high-tech companies, consulting firms, research and designing institutions. In order to raise the quality and flexibility of additional professional education the main focus is made on the acquaintance of students with principles of sustainable development; informing them of changes that happen in the world, of new global challenges; teaching of practical approaches for applying obtained information in their own activities at their places of work.