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.

7980 resources

Unlikely Relationships: Multidisciplinary Cooperation to Divert Textile Waste

  • Iowa State University (IA)

Hands-on design courses are an essential component of apparel design curriculum and make up a sizable portion of the classes offered in many university apparel design programs worldwide. However, sewing ...

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Integrating Sustainability and Development With Gala at the University of Michigan

  • University of Michigan (MI)

Sustainability is a necessary transition that poses unprecedented challenges for ensuring widely shared well-being and prosperity. Sustainable development seeks to illuminate specific pathways to sustainability, especially in geographic areas that ...

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Promoting Sustainability Through Diverse Children's Literature

  • University of Wisconsin-River Falls (WI)

Since 2013 this unit on assessment within the elementary Educational Psychology course introduces aspiring educators (>860 students) to the topic of constructing informal formative and summative assessments, rubrics and extension ...

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A More Bird-Safe Campus: The JCCC Bird Collision Study in Practice and the Classroom

  • Johnson County Community College (KS)

Johnson County Community College has since 2018 collected data on bird/window strikes across its xxx acre, suburban campus, assembling an impressive dataset on bird species and strike location(s ...

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Equipping Students with Data for Change - Chestnut Living Lab Study

  • Ithaca College (NY)

In 2018, Ithaca College's Office of Energy Management & Sustainability received funding from the Office of the President to design a research project focused on equipping students with the ...

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Developing Sustainability Internships Through an Employer Relations Lens: A Pilot

  • The College of Saint Scholastica (MN)

A brief talk on how grant funding and new academic programming in sustainability fostered a pilot to increase experiential learning opportunities. This session presenter is not a subject matter expert ...

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Developing Artful Leadership to Foster Sustainability at UW Oshkosh and Beyond

  • University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (WI)

This project titled Developing Artful Leadership to Foster Sustainability at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UW Oshkosh) and Beyond was a research project that utilized the fluidity of interdisciplinary application of ...

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Teaching Climate Change: Understanding Faculty Work & Identity

  • University of Hawaii System Office (HI)

The purpose of the Teaching Climate Change Study is to better understand faculty perspectives, pedagogical practices and overall confidence in teaching climate change and related issues. From this information, I ...

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Duquesne University's Sustainable MBA: Keeping our Facilities & our Students Ahead of the Pack

  • Duquesne University (PA)
  • AUROS Group (PA)

To stay at the top in their field, Duquesne University's thought leaders are embracing technology to inform and advise their choices on building renovations and upgrades. Duquesne University is ...

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Institutional Implications on Promoting Education in Sustainability: Student Learning Outcome

  • California Polytechnic State University (CA)

California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (herein referred to Cal Poly), was awarded the silver STARS rating in 2017. In all evaluated categories, Cal Poly received lower scores ...

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Green Advisors, Sustainability Advocates, and More: Building Engaged Community

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

This session will focus on innovative, action-oriented engagement opportunities in sustainability for a diverse range of stakeholders at the college and university level. At Swarthmore College, more than 80 faculty ...

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Course on Landscaping with Native Plants for Benefit of Students and Campus Grounds

  • Eureka College (IL)

People in general are spending less time indoors and more time looking at screens, leaving them less active and less connected with nature. Students face struggles learning to balance a ...

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WWF-Canada's Living Planet Leader certification: Graduating students to lead in sustainability

  • World Wildlife Fund (DC)

This workshop will provide Canadian students and campus sustainability and engagement staff and faculty an overview of WWF-Canada's Living Planet Leader student certification. Through WWF-Canada's Living Planet @ Campus ...

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Using Local Food Systems and Justice Issues to teach Sustainability

  • Eureka College (IL)

For two years, I have taught an upper-level seminar in Environmental Studies on Local Food Systems and Justice issues that also meets a gen ed requirement for undergraduates in Sustainable ...

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Opening up the 'Black Box' of Recycling: Discussion of Justice in Recycling Promotes Waste Reduction

  • The University of Findlay (OH)

Although recycling is a popular sustainability practice, college students usually have limited knowledge of how and where the recyclables they put in recycling bins are turned into usable products. It ...

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Get in the Zone: A New Training Model to Build Environmental & Social Consciousness

  • New York University (NY)

How do you foster dialogue about sustainability and the impacts on climate change on your campus? In 2019, NYU's Office of Sustainability began developing a Green Zone training to ...

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Research, Innovation and Student Engagement: University Field Stations as Sustainability Praxis

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)

Field stations are rich venues for engagement and investigations of natural science and social science connections to the environment. Universities of all types have a history of using field stations ...

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Demystifying that Six Syllable Word: Designing an Effective Intro to Sustainability

  • University of Richmond (VA)

With so many different definitions of sustainability on a university campus, it can be difficult to find people who share a common understanding of that tricky six syllable word. For ...

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Climatepedia.org: A Nationwide Student Effort to Spread Climate Change Information

  • University of California, Irvine (CA)
  • Climatepedia (CA)

Over 97% of publishing climate scientists agree that climate change is a real, anthropogenic threat to all life on earth. However, various polls show that amongst the American public, there ...

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Sustainability Literacy in an Undergraduate Class About Disabilities - What Are You Thinking?

  • University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)

In order to mobilize for a just transition, undergraduate education majors must understand how sustainability practices can be embedded in their teaching practices. Doing so has the ability empower today ...

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EchoWorks: a Cooperative e-Recycling Program

  • Western Dakota Technical College (SD)

Globally, electronic waste is the fastest growing segment of municipal waste. Unfortunately, there is a widespread lack of availability of safe disposal options for the often-toxic e-materials. To provide this ...

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We Are All Educators: Preparing Staff to Act as Effective Educators in Sustainability Projects

  • Harvard University (MA)

Increasingly, staff members are encouraged to engage with students on co-curricular sustainability projects that enhance their learning. However, too often, these staff members are not trained properly to create learning ...

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Educating Students in the Business Schools through Project-Based Courses to Advance Sustainability

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)

Recently, Business Schools have been focusing on educating student with social responsibility and sustainable practices by offering sustainability programs and sustainability project-based courses. However, there is little research about the ...

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Teaching the UN SDGs: Developing local goals in the classroom

  • Central Community College (NE)

In 2015, Central Community College (CCC) developed a faculty-driven program to incorporate sustainability issues across the curriculum. The presenter is co-chair of the Environmental Sustainability Across the Curriculum (ESATC) committee ...

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The Choose Earth Certificate: A Hands-on Approach to Improving Sustainability in Study Abroad

  • The Education Abroad Network (IL)

The Choose Earth certificate is an optional, add-on program that students can choose to participate in while studying abroad with TEAN. It was born from our organization's Choose Earth ...

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AIM2Flourish: Using Business for Good Education to Mobilize for a Just Transition

  • Case Western Reserve University (OH)

AIM2Flourish is an initiative of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead School of Management Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA ...

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The Process of Developing a Sustainability Certificate Program

  • University of North Carolina, Asheville (NC)

This talk will cover the three-year process of developing and launching an interdisciplinary Sustainability Certificate at the University of North Carolina Asheville. The multi-step process included developing campus support (with ...

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Veterans and Sustainability Education: Why Aren't we Taking Better Advantage of it?

  • University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)

While many veterans take advantage of the educational benefits provided by the Post 9/11 GI Bill, the number of student veterans participating in the earned benefit by the Veterans ...

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Own Your own Backyard: Farm to Keg

  • Grand Valley State University (MI)

This presentation will be a reflective narrative of multiple voices from a research project intended to assess the transformational learning of students engaged in a partnership between Grand Valley State ...

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People of the Environment: Lessons Learned From an Interdisciplinary Liberal Education Course

  • Bemidji State University (MN)

A distinctive component of the Bemidji State University general education curriculum is the team-taught, interdisciplinary class People of the Environment. In 1998, the Minnesota State College and University system established ...

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Campus as a Living Lab Curriculum: Lessons from a Diversity of Institutional Types

  • Michael Roy Iversen, Urban and Campus Sustainability Consultancy (IL)

The 'campus as a living lab' approach blends academic curriculum and campus facilities management, so as to both benefit students with experiential, real-world learning, and institutions with a purposeful means ...

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SDG101: Sustainable development integration in the classroom with the SDG Academy

  • United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (NY)

The SDG Academy creates and curates the best available educational content on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and makes it available as a public good. As the flagship education ...

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We Need the Leaders to Make it Happen

  • Radford University (VA)
  • Virginia Tech (VA)

The world is facing unprecedented sustainability challenges. While overcoming these challenges is daunting, it is reassuring to know that viable solutions already exist, and that in many cases we simply ...

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SCP Arts: A Collaborative, Applied Learning Partnership Model for Creative Community Engagement

  • University of St. Thomas (MN)

Communities locally and globally face the challenge of re-imagining and implementing systems that restore interconnected human and environmental well-being. Creative forms of engagement can inspire broad-sector participation with community sustainability ...

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Valuing What We Teach, Along With How We Teach in Sustainability Education

  • University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)

Education for sustainability is critical in preparing future generations with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to address the sustainability problems that challenge the health and stability of our world ...

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A Living Lab Approach to Saving The Farm

  • Butler University (IN)

The Farm at Butler University has existed for 10 years without dedicated administrative funding. With no immediate funding support from the University planned, the Center for Urban Ecology and Sustainability ...

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Open Access Sustainability Survey Data: How to integrate a longitudinal dataset into your classroom

  • Michigan State University (MI)

Many people call for research data to be made publicly available and praise those who publish their work in open access outlets. But what good is such data if no ...

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Creating Pathways to Empower Sustainability Professionals

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)
  • International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) (OR)

Sustainability professionals lead organizations and communities in driving social justice, environmental health, and a regenerative economy. For graduates of sustainability-oriented academic programs, professional, post-nominal, credentials help create an immediate on-ramp ...

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Developing an introductory Chemistry and Sustainability course for Sustainability majors

  • The College of Saint Scholastica (MN)

This talk will discuss the pedagogical experiences and challenges of developing and teaching an introductory level Chemistry and Sustainability course as part of a new Sustainability Studies major at The ...

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Increasing Access to Sustainability Education Through Online Programs

  • University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)

Education has long been seen as crucial to supporting the needed sustainability transitions. Yet if these sustainability transitions are going to be just and inclusive than so must the education ...

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Successes and Lessons Learned: Using Digital Badges to Engage Students in Sustainability

  • Central Community College (NE)

In 2015, Central Community College embarked on a series of sustainability digital badging projects in an effort to engage students, faculty, and the community on sustainability topics. To that end ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Breaking into Academics Without a PhD: Creating Sustainability Curriculum from Facilities

  • Florida State University (FL)

How can Offices of Sustainability change the academic culture of their institutions without an academic home? Colleges and universities are institutions of learning, and sustainability curriculum that engages students in ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Producing Podcasts in the Classroom: A Case Study from ENST 300 - Environmental Justice

  • Lawrence University (WI)

This session will focus on how to guide students through the process of scripting, recording, producing, distributing, and assessing podcasts as a course project. It will draw on specific examples ...

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Preparing a Faculty Cohort to Facilitate Internal Curriculum Integration Workshops

  • University of Michigan (MI)
  • Dallas College (TX)

An increasing number of colleges & universities are working to integrate sustainability & social justice into the curriculum. This often involves faculty development workshops led by external facilitators. In-house efforts ...

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New Methodology and Measurement Tool Linking Curricula to the 2030 Agenda and University Strategy

  • Copenhagen Business School

At Copenhagen Business School (CBS), 2008 marked the beginning of a university-wide effort towards connecting curriculum to Responsibility, Ethics and Sustainability (RES). As a United Nations PRME (Principles of Responsible ...

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Embedding SDG competencies into global education curriculum

  • The GREEN Program (PA)

This session will discuss the process of designing global education programs that educate for SDG competencies and measure progress in SDG comprehension through pre- and post-program assessment. The session will ...

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Engaged Learning in the Landscape

  • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Campus (NJ)

Land grant institutions have historically used the campus landscape as a classroom and laboratory for teaching, research and outreach on agricultural topics. Contemporary challenges urged us to expand this model ...

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Social Justice in Learning Outcomes: Environmental Literacy in an Indigenous Language Hotspot

  • Everett Community College (WA)

This session introduces a bottom-up approach to curriculum in environmental literacy, aligned explicitly to social justice learning outcomes at a state community college in Everett, Washington. Presented herein are three ...

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Meeting Immediate Needs: A Curriculum for Worker Cooperatives

  • University of California, Irvine (CA)
  • Cooperacion Santa Ana (CA)

UCI Community Resilience Projects fosters people-centered and inclusive solutions to climate challenges. Our community-driven academic partnerships work from a shared understanding that the problems of climate change, racism and all ...

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Enlightened Education: Solar Engineering Design to Energize School Facilities

  • Madison Area Technical College (WI)

This presentation will explore the potential for universities, colleges, and K-12 schools to implement solar electric infrastructure projects on their campus that also provide a learning environment and instructional opportunities ...

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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

AC 2: Learning Outcomes

AC 3: Undergraduate Program

AC 4: Graduate Program

AC 5: Immersive Experience

AC 6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

AC 7: Incentives for Developing Courses

AC 8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.

Curriculum Partners