Canada’s colleges are adept at developing new skills training and educational programs to meet changing labour market needs. The challenge of responding to a greening economy, environmental sustainability and climate change and mitigation is different. In this, colleges face the prospect of systemic transformation of education and training programs, with limited market intelligence, and an increasing sense of urgency. This paper explores how colleges are leading and responding; with examples of new programs and program modifications, curriculum innovation, new strategies for teaching and learning, new types of partnership and a vigorous applied research agenda.  Advancing Knibb’s frameworks we identify three phases of development that characterize curriculum greening in Canada’s colleges and institutes; some strategies for curriculum adaptation; propose a typology approach that can be used to help manage the curriculum transformation process, and suggest some systems level changes that would facilitate curriculum greening.

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