Nexus between social work and environmental sustainability

Abstract

The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development declared environmental problems as social problems. Over the years, the social work profession, although governed by the ‘person-in-environment’ principle, has long neglected the natural environment and progressively assumed the significance of environmental issues in the social intervention context. In this article, we first describe the environmental context for human life, followed by a narrative review of existing research on understanding environmental sustainability and its relationship with social work. This is supported by an explanation of the current global climate change situation and the utilization of sustainable development goals which are directly associated with environmental sustainability. In order to arrive at the conclusion, social work before environmental sustainability in the UK context and Hamilton’s psychosocial casework are also discussed. It can help social workers broaden and strengthen practices by incorporating the realm of ecology and the environment in the social work field.