Curriculum
Introduction
One of the primary functions of colleges and universities is to educate students. By training and educating future leaders, scholars, workers, and professionals; higher education institutions are uniquely positioned to understand and address sustainability challenges. Institutions that offer courses covering sustainability issues help equip their students to lead society to a sustainable future.
Featured Resources
New Resources
Bridging the Disciplinary Divide: Tackling the Challenge of Educating for Sustainability at the University of MN
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
A major challenge facing the world is sustaining people's productive and meaningful livelihoods and the natural ecosystems on which they depend. Universities have a unique capacity, and an important ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Living Green, Learning Green: Applying Green Values to Housing and Across the University
- University of South Carolina (SC)
At the University of South Carolina, applying green values across the campus is part of an attempt to transform not only the curriculum but also the daily lives of students ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The FLC-SHE: A Transdisciplinary Faculty Learning Community on Sustainability in Higher Education
- Western Carolina University (NC)
In 2007, an ad hoc Campus Sustainability task force at Western Carolina University was regenerated as a Faculty Learning Community (FLC), with a focus on integrating sustainability in the WCU ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Integration of Sustainability Education into Pre-service Teacher Preparation
- Western Washington University (WA)
In Washington state, beginning Fall, 2009, all new teacher candidates will need to provide student-based and teacher-based evidence demonstrating they are able to prepare effective citizens for an environmentally sustainable ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Exploring New Terrain in Business Education: Bringing Sustainability to Ground Level
- Aquinas College (MI)
Sustainable business, as an emerging field of study, explores new approaches to commerce and business practices. Its focus on commerce departs from the linear "heat, beat, and treat" structure of ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Careers in Sustainability
- Arizona State University (AZ)
Sustainability education options increase each year. Colleges and universities offer courses, concentrations, certificates, minors, and now even full degree programs. Still, questions remain as to where students will use their ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Preparing Graduate Students to Teach Sustainability
- Arizona State University (AZ)
This presentation outlines an innovative approach to training graduate students to be effective teachers of sustainability in academic, K-12, community, and professional environments. Because most of our graduate students will ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability in the Curriculum: A Case Study in Art
- Auburn University (AL)
This presentation will summarize ongoing efforts to integrate sustainability into the theory and practice of the sculpture program at Auburn University. The first half of the presentation will focus on ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Many Fields of Green: An Interdisciplinary Approach
- Bridgewater State University (MA)
This curriculum-oriented presentation provides an overview of how sustainability principles are taught in a variety of academic disciplines at the college level. Through a series of examples and case studies ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Out of the Trash Aquarium: How Do We Teach Teachers to Educate for Sustainability in Their Classrooms?
- Bridgewater State University (MA)
In the United States as well many other countries, teachers must fulfill a governmental authorization of the particulars of their curriculum. These curriculum mandates propose benchmarks in pupil academic expertise ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Double Dipping: Combining Research and Outreach in a Sustainability Service Learning Project
- California State University, Sacramento (CA)
Students in an introductory environmental science course for non-majors participated in a service learning project for Earth Day 2008 that combined outreach to fellow students and data collection for research ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Posters for Change: the Power of Communication Design
- Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
The course, "Design & Social Change," at Carnegie Mellon University strives to promote environmental literacy in the early years of secondary education, encouraging students to incorporate environmental thinking into their ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainable Energy Curriculum Development
- Eastern Connecticut State University (CT)
At Eastern Connecticut State University, we are developing on-campus and online courses which serve the general student as well as majors and minors in Sustainable Energy Studies. The course sequence ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Economics and Sustainability: Using the Campus and Community as a Laboratory
- Furman University (SC)
Economics is not always at the center of sustainability discussions, but it is an essential consideration as universities and communities transition from discussion to policy formation. The answers to questions ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability as Part of the Curriculum: An Example from a Liberal Arts College.
- Furman University (SC)
There are many opportunities to engage students in sustainability projects in a liberal arts setting. Such engagement benefits the students but is also beneficial in moving the college toward greater ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Navigating Theory and Practice: Indiana University's Summer Program in Sustainability
- Indiana University Bloomington (IN)
As a prominent component of its emerging, campus-wide program of sustainability Indiana University has developed a high-profile internship program for its IU Bloomington campus. The IU Summer Program in Sustainability ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Going Beyond the Classroom to Study Sustainability: How to Design Community-based Experiential Learning Courses
- International Sustainable Development Studies Institute (Chiang Mai)
Education about sustainability should incorporate not just new ideas, but also innovative approaches to teaching. This presentation focuses on one such method-lessons learned and how to design experiential community-based courses ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Ithaca College's Finger Lakes Project
- Ithaca College (NY)
Ithaca College's Finger Lakes Project (FLP) is a sustainability curricular education workshop inspired by AASHE's Sustainability Across the Curriculum Leadership workshops. The FLP, which began in 2006, has ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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What's Next? The Greening of Art Pedagogy
- Land Views, Online Journal of Landscape, Art, and Design (NY)
Studio art teachers are confronting the unprecedented challenge of preparing students to maximize their artistic marks while minimizing their environmental footprints. What strategies can be adopted to integrate environmentalism into ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Principles and Practices for Effective Sustainability Education
- Luther College (IA)
So your president signed the President's Climate Commitment, and you've completed a carbon footprint analysis. What do you do about the education component? This presentation will provide an ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Framework for Evaluation: Determining Criteria and Indicators for Effective Higher Education Programs Focused on Environmental Sustainability
- North Carolina State University (NC)
An increasing number of colleges and universities in the United States are restructuring courses and research programs to focus on long-term use and maintenance of resources and protecting these resources ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Promoting Sustainable Agriculture Careers for Undergraduates through a Collaborative Experiential Learning and Research Program at Cornell University: The Sustainable Agriculture Scholars Program
- North Carolina State University (NC)
The number of undergraduate students majoring in agricultural fields is steadily declining, resulting in fewer trained agricultural professionals able to address complex problems concerning agricultural sustainability. We developed and piloted ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Developing Integrated Research, Education, and Outreach Programs in Sustainable Agriculture at NC State University: A Model for Land Grant Universities
- North Carolina State University (NC)
Land grant universities (LGUs) play a vital role in educating students and training extension agents in organic and sustainable agriculture. Incorporating research, education and extension outreach into their missions, LGUs ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Our Solar Sunflowers: Collaboration and Education
- Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (WI)
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College has developed three certificate programs which began enrolling students this summer. The programs include: Renewable Energy - Solar, Sustainable Design, and Biofuels. The college is focusing on ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Campus and Community, Tools for Teaching Sustainability: An Examination of a Service-Learning Project
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
This presentation will focus on a service-learning project that utilized the campus and community as tools to help teach sustainability in an introductory undergraduate course in Environmental Humanities. In this ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability and General Education
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
Universities, especially publically funded universities, have a responsibility to educate students about the world in which they live and the trends that are defining the world of the future. One ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Teaching Sustainability: Engaging Students in Developing Local Sustainability Indicators
- Oberlin College (OH)
Students play an important role in defining the culture and spirit of a campus and engaging them in sustainability initiatives on campus and beyond is an important component of the ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Teaching Sustainability
- Otterbein University (OH)
This presentation offers a case study of how teaching sustainability can become a force for change on campus and the wider community. The paper examines the 10 week process by ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Mapping the Landscapes of History: the Elwha River as curriculum
- Peninsula College (WA)
The largest dam removal/river restoration project ever attempted is slated for the Elwha River in rural Washington state. A 1992 Act of Congress guaranteed the removal, following the efforts ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Educators as Architects of Living Systems
- Peralta Community Colleges District Office (CA)
Imagine a learning community as a wetland or a forest. Imagine a group of learners as a highly interdependent community, a vibrant living system not unlike an ecosystem in nature ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Greener by Design
- Pratt Institute (NY)
Pratt Institute, a leading school of art, architecture and design in Brooklyn, New York has been awarded a FIPSE grant to implement an innovative educational initiative that addresses one of ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Education Revolution: Empowering the Next Generation of Sustainable Designers
- RMJM
Across the country, our nation's colleges and universities are leading the charge for sustainability - but are we really training the next generation of architects to be sustainable designers? How ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Green Building Maintenance and Management: A New Degree Program at Sullivan County Community College (SCCC)
- Sullivan County Community College (NY)
In Fall 2008, SCCC will offer a new AAS in Green Building Maintenance and Management. One of the first programs, if not the first, of its kind in the country ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Promoting Campus Sustainability through Interdisciplinary Cooperation: A Case Study at the University of Arizona Visitor Center
- University of Arizona (AZ)
During the 2006-07 academic year, University of Arizona students, faculty and staff designed and implemented a "green retrofit" for the UA Visitor Center. This retrofit emphasized two main components: water ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Academic Staff to the Rescue
- University of California, Santa Barbara (CA)
The Ellison Hall Sustainability Committee (EHSC), a 15-member group of faculty, staff and students representing six departments in University of California Santa Barbara's Ellison Hall, recently implemented the "Zero ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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From Operations to Mission: Finding Points of Pedagogical Leverage in Campus Sustainability Initiatives
- University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
Drawing on case studies and research conducted at the University of California Santa Cruz, this paper discusses the integration of campus sustainability initiatives and academic curriculum in universities. It explores ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student Directed Bicycle Education Course Creates Community Understanding
- University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
This project addresses the challenges UCSC faces with implementing sustainable transportation. The primary mode of campus transportation is via automobile. The cost of automobile use for the UC, students, and ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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SEE and Sustainability Across the Curriculum: Cooperation Among the Natural Sciences, Humanities and the Social Sciences
- University of Dayton (OH)
The University of Dayton, a Catholic Marianist institution, is currently developing an interdisciplinary program, Sustainability, Energy and the Environment (SEE). SEE is not a new major in environmental studies, but ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Promoting Sustainable Business Practices by Teaching Business Principles to Environmental Scientists
- University of Idaho (ID)
This presentation will report on a newly created course (spring 2008) to teach business principles to environmental science students. The course introduces the environmental scientist to how environmental sustainability is ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Creating Sustainable Colleges: Environmental Audits as Course Projects
- University of Illinois, Springfield (IL)
In Fall 2007, as a course project, students taking the Sustainable Development course from the Department of Environmental Studies conducted an environmental audit for the operation of the College of ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Environmental Action Component in Sustainability Coursework: Service Learning in the Syllabus
- University of Texas at Austin (TX)
In 2007, a new module for service learning in sustainability education at UT Austin was implemented. Known as the Environmental Action Component (EAC), the module dynamically included environmental community service ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Ecocritical Praxis: Re-establishing the "Principle of Relevance"
- The University of Texas at Dallas (TX)
The term "ecocriticism" was coined by William Reuckert, who proposed, in 1976, that literary criticism shift its locus to "a principle of relevance": he suggested that critics "experiment with the ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Students Teaching Students (STS) Courses: Supporting Peer Education on Emerging Environmental Themes
- University of Vermont (VT)
Courses designed and taught by students on emerging environmental themes have been offered at the University of Vermont since 1985 through Environmental Studies. Students Teaching Students (STS) is presented as ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Learning Barge Initiative: Advancing Sustainability through Multi-disciplinary Research Service Learning
- University of Virginia (VA)
The Learning Barge Initiative is a unique example of university students and community partners collaborating on a project with wide-reaching social, educational and environmental benefits. The research, design and construction ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Nature Immersion: A Model for Sustainability Education
- University of Wisconsin-Superior (WI)
This presentation is an overview of a new Nature Immersion Model for Sustainability Education. This model entails a week-long "Leadership in Sustainability" seminar offered through Student Support Services at the ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Curriculum and Sustainability
- Wake Forest University (NC)
This presentation explores how to create an educational experience for undergraduates and graduate students that explore firm-level strategy through the lens of sustainability. The core question addressed is "how do ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Applied Psychology: Service Learning to Address Campus Sustainability
- Wells College (NY)
In an upper-level psychology class titled, "Environmental Problems and Human Behavior," service learning was incorporated to address sustainability issues on the Wells College campus. Working in groups, students chose three ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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You Can Take It With You: Practicing Sustainability Within and Beyond the Academy
- Western Illinois University (IL)
In his essay "Sustainable Composition," Derek Owens suggests that teachers have an ethical and social responsibility to their communities to consider more sustainable practices in our pedagogy and professional lives ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Incorporating Sustainability into a College Course: Measuring the Impact of One Assignment on Sustainability-related Attitudes of the Students.
- Whatcom Community College (WA)
This presentation reports on a four year project measuring student attitudes about sustainability issues, and the impact of one assignment that focuses on related issues. A survey of sustainability-related attitudes ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Deepening the Conversation: Making the Connections Between Social Justice Education and Sustainability
- University of Colorado Colorado Springs (CO)
- Hackman Consulting Group
This case study seeks to help those who are not familiar with social justice educational frameworks gain an initial understanding of what they are and then how they connect to ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.
All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.
AC 1: Academic Courses
- Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings
- Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings
- Inventory of sustainability course offerings (upload)
- Website URL - Sustainability course offerings
AC 2: Learning Outcomes
- Description of institution level sustainability learning outcomes
- List of degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability
- Percentage of students who graduate from programs that require an understanding of sustainability
- Website URL - Sustainability learning outcomes
AC 3: Undergraduate Program
- First sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- Second sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- Third sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- First sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
- Second sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
- Third sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
AC 4: Graduate Program
- First sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- First sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
AC 5: Immersive Experience
- Description of the sustainability-focused immersive program(s)
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
AC 6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment
- Copy of the sustainability literacy assessment (upload)
- Copy of the sustainability literacy assessment (description)
- Website URL - Assessment of sustainability literacy
AC 7: Incentives for Developing Courses
- Description of the course development incentives
- Website URL - Incentives for developing sustainability courses
AC 8: Campus as a Living Laboratory
Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.