Capacity building: a course on sustainable development to educate the educators Francisco J. Lozano-Garcı ´a ITESM, Monterrey, Nuevo Leo ´n, Mexico Guillermo Ga ´ndara Public Management and Public Policy Graduate School, ITESM, Monterrey, Nuevo Leo ´n, Mexico Orietta Perrni International Relations and Political Science Department, ITESM, Campus Monterrey, Nuevo Leo ´n, Mexico Mario Manzano Centre for Environmental Quality, ITESM, Monterrey, Nuevo Leo ´n, Mexico Dora Elia Herna ´ndez Biological Engineering and Agribusiness Department, ITESM, Monterrey, Nuevo Leo ´n, Mexico, and Donald Huisingh Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present information about a team-teaching course on sustainable development (SD) for educators in an institution of higher education, Monterrey Campus of ITESM in Me ´xico. Design/methodology/approach – Four faculty members were invited to work together with the Sustainable Campus Programme coordinator in the process of developing the “Educate-the-Educator’s” SD course. The course was structured using lectures, readings, class role play activities, homework, and general discussion. Additionally, a workshop-format was woven throughout the course; its function was to help the educators incorporate SD issues within their own courses. Findings – It was found that a multi-disciplinarily developed and delivered course is an effective vehicle for educating educators on SD. Documentation of some facets of the learning process further helped the “students” and the course leaders to better understand the whole learning process. Originality/value – The paper’s value rests on the interconnected structure, showing resonance with the triple bottom line, as well as many other dimensions linked with sustainable development. This structure increased the course participants’ comprehension of sustainability. Furthermore, the use of concept maps and digraph theory to evaluate “faculty participants’” comprehension of the interconnections and dimensions of SD proved to be a successful innovation. Keywords Training, Education, Sustainable development, Mexico Paper type Research paper Capacity building 257 Received 20 July 2007 Revised 26 November 2007 Accepted 10 March 2008 International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education Vol. 9 No. 3, 2008 pp. 257-281 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1467-6370 DOI 10.1108/14676370810885880