The article aims to consider the ecological, economical, and climatic situation on the planet, taking into account the currently growing crisis. It shows that it is impossible to build an economy that would satisfy any human needs, and the only solution consists in the limitation of material needs and the unconditional superiority of the spiritual values over the material ones. The authors of the article see the possibility for such a change in our mindset through environmental education and upbringing of young people, using a comprehensive implementation of practical environmental tasks (expeditions, hikes, excursions, work at agricultural enterprises and waste disposal plants). For universities this means, first of all, getting the status of "green", i. e., entering the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings, which has incorporated almost all sustainable development indicators of the United Nations. The UI GreenMetric World University Rankings can be viewed as the ideal mechanism for theoretical and practical environmental education and upbringing in the modern world. The authors have developed the new training course "Environmental management in the youth policy" for the master’s degree students of the Department of the organisation of work with young people of the Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin as one of the steps towards this mechanism.