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

Plenary: Are we succeeding? 3 Approaches to Assessing Sustainability Education

  • Green Mountain College (VT)
  • Oakland Community College (MI)
  • University of Michigan (MI)
  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

Sustainability educators need to measure the impact of their programs but find few widely accepted methodologies for doing so. Panelists will describe three very different approaches for evaluating sustainability education ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student and Community Transformation: Addressing Civic Responsibility, Sustainability and Values through Engaged Scholarship

  • Bard College (NY)
  • Oakland Community College (MI)
  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)
  • Edison Energy (CA)

Civic responsibility and sustainability are often seen as separate issues, yet in practice these concepts intersect and reinforce one another. At the core of this intersection today is our citizens ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Doctoral Program in Sustainability Education: the Student Experience

  • University of Mount Union (OH)
  • Prescott College (AZ)
  • Willamette University (OR)

Four recent graduates and a current student will describe their individualized approached to the PhD program in sustainability education. This panel discussion will include graduate experiences, descriptions of their individualized ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Global Classroom Experiment. Challenges and Opportunities for International Education for Sustainability

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Sustainability problems need to be addressed by concerned citizens, who are able to (1) critically understand the complexity of the world, (2) take action in appropriate ways to address those ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Illusive Thread: Developing HE Transdisciplinary Sustainability Learning Outcomes

  • Colorado College (CO)
  • University of Wisconsin-River Falls (WI)

A sustainable campus and community approach to learning outcomes provides the single richest multi-disciplinary and discipline specific platform for immersing our students and stakeholders in a place-based, living-learning laboratory environment ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Colorado State University and Coca-Cola Partner to Deliver Hands-on Sustainability Education

  • Colorado State University (CO)
  • Coca-Cola (GA)

Colorado State University entered into a unique multi-year partnership with Coca-Cola in 2012. This partnership includes extensive hands-on sustainability education for CSU's students from a variety of schools (Agriculture ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Aligning sustainability education with the needs of business

  • Global Council Science and the Environment (DC)
  • International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) (OR)

How is higher education preparing students to be sustainability professionals? What sustainability skills do businesses look for? How can professional certification help businesses, academics and most importantly, the students themselves ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Undergraduates in a Sustainability Semester: Agency and Structural Change for Sustainability

  • Goshen College (IN)
  • Michigan State University (MI)

Many Sustainability Education (SE) researchers are interested in understanding how our students envision the mechanisms of social change, and how to help them develop capacity to make the change they ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Global Campus: Linking Student Educational Experiences to Global Realities

  • University of California, Irvine (CA)
  • SERES (Sacatepequez)

Presentation highlights the collaboration between the University of California, Irvine and SERES, a Central American NGO working on youth sustainability leadership. Their joint effort - manifested through the Global Sustainability Resource ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Teaching Sustainability In Place: A Workshop and Field Experience at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Reserve

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
  • Will Steger Foundation (MN)

Since an understanding of ecology underlies any notion of sustainability, teaching about sustainability means teaching fundamental ecology. Sustainability envisions a system in which humanity and nature are inextricably and forever ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A new classroom environment: Extending sustainability education into living & learning residential communities

  • University of Rhode Island (RI)
  • NORESCO (NC)

Over the past 8 years, the University of Rhode Island (URI) has been working with the Energy Service Company, NORESCO, to increase energy efficiency for campus buildings. Multiple phases of ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Moving Beyond the Generic at Community Colleges: 100 and 200-Level Sustainability Education Courses, e-Badges and Co-Curricular Learning

  • Central Community College (NE)

An environmentally sustainable future requires more than sustainability professionals working in sustainability-focused positions. Needed are employees across businesses and organizations capable of implementing, communicating, applying and maintaining environmentally sustainable practices ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Sustainability Seminar: A model for sustainability curriculum connected to the local community

  • Macalester College (MN)

In 2014, Macalester College began a new initiative called Educating Sustainability Ambassadors (ESA) with the purpose of infusing sustainability across all the units of campus. The flagship program of ESA ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Assessing the Feasibility of a Microgrid to Reinforce Campus Climate Resiliency

  • Middlebury College (VT)

Catastrophic weather events like Katrina, Irene, Sandy and others have raised concern about being prepared for the uncertainties of climate change. Students participating in the summer Middlebury School of the ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Self care for sustainability leaders: Insightful perspectives and innovative practices

  • Portland State University (OR)

A shift toward a more connected, collaborative, and relational way of leading for sustainability requires leaders who can sustain themselves in the midst of challenging work. Self care involves slowing ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainable Systems: Coming in at the ground floor

  • The New School (NY)

Our case study presents the development of a required course for all first year students, a cohort of approximately 900 students. Students learn about the challenges and opportunities presented by ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Growing Up Green

  • University of Arizona (AZ)

Three interns from the University of Arizona's Students for Sustainability (SfS) program will present the necessity for linking environmental education programs from universities to K-12 classrooms. The SfS program ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Cooperative Curriculum for a Resilient Future: How to Integrate Education on Cooperatives in U.S Undergraduate Programs.

  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)

The co-operative business model and co-operative economics are not taught as subjects in most U.S. undergraduate programs. To address this systemic lack of awareness, our workshop will explore how ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Global Cities as a Learning Environment for Sustainability: Comparing Field Experiences in Austria, China and India.

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

This presentation will bring in students and faculty from from multiple courses offered at different Schools who have participated in and/or delivered study abroad courses on sustainability, focusing on ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Engaging K-12 educators in Sustainability Science: Case study on urban sustainability systems at Arizona State University

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

Universities often include education & outreach as part of their broader impacts. However, research endeavors of faculty are typically presented through one-way forms of dissemination (i.e., presentations, articles, and ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Professional Skills in Sustainability

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

The practice of professional sustainability requires critical competencies that focus on teamwork, communication, project management and stakeholder engagement. A one-credit hour course which highlights these critical professional competencies in sustainability ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Teaching Sustainability as a Philosophical Concept

  • Bemidji State University (MN)

We address teaching sustainability primarily as a philosophical rather than scientific idea. We propose to relate our experience as part of an interdisciplinary team of faculty leading a course titled ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Assessing Sustainability Attitudes: A New Multi-Dimensional Measure

  • Central College (IA)

The rise of sustainability curricula in higher education has coincided with increasing calls for academic assessment, and a variety of tools have been developed to measure sustainability literacy and attitudes ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Getting in Touch with the Pachamama: An Interdisciplinary course with emphasis on Global Sustainability and Study Abroad

  • Central College (IA)

Pachamama Never Left: Nature and Culture of Peru is a liberal arts course at Central College. The course has a study abroad component with an emphasis on global sustainability. The ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Integrating Environmental Sustainability Across the Community College Curriculum: Courses, Co-Curricular Learning and Badges

  • Central Community College (NE)

An environmentally sustainable future requires more than sustainability professionals working in sustainability-focused positions. Needed are employees across businesses and organizations capable of implementing, communicating, applying and maintaining sustainable practices within ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainable Learning Initiative at Franklin Falls: Developing Transdisciplinary, Community-Based Living Laboratory Partnerships

  • Colby-Sawyer College (NH)

The Sustainable Learning Initiative at Franklin Falls is a partnership between Colby-Sawyer College and the city of Franklin, NH, which has plans for a comprehensive revitalization of their downtown that ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Establishing Pipelines for Sustainability Students, Two-year to Graduate Level: A Working Session

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)

In recognition of the importance of integrated approaches to address the pressing challenges of sustainability, sustainability-focused academic programs are growing rapidly among higher education institutions. This growth necessitates increased coordination ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Assessing Sustainability Efforts: Examples and Opportunities

  • Concordia College (NY)

Assessment is necessary to determine impact on students, but finding effective instruments to accurately measure change can be difficult. Our college has been actively involved in assessing student perception and ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Wicked Problems in Sustainability Initiative: Creating and Supporting a Multi-Institution Course Community

  • Engineers for a Sustainable World (CO)

Creation or replication of multidisciplinary courses with real-world context is limited by technical and economic constraints at many institutions. Efforts that connect multiple institutions to multidisciplinary resources can enable success ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Digital & Interactive Short Courses in Technical Sustainability & Design: Pilot Results and Lessons Learned

  • Engineers for a Sustainable World (CO)

In an effort to improve access to education on both skills and multidisciplinary topics within sustainability Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) has been piloting a series of digital short ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Progressing Toward Sustainability Literacy: Assessing Curricular and Co-Curricular Learning Outcomes for First-Year Students

  • Hobart and William Smith Colleges (NY)

The Sustainable Living and Learning Community (SLLC) Program is a newly launched pilot program for first-year students, bringing together a group of faculty, staff, and students into a unique partnership ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Building School-to-Farm Traffic: Small-farm Infrastructure as Sustainable Technology Design

  • Lafayette College (PA)

Farm-to-school projects have flourished in recent years. By aggregating and delivering food from local sources to regional institutions (like schools), they help rebuild the missing middle between producers and consumers ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Educating Sustainability Ambassadors: Insights from a campus-wide sustainability initiative

  • Macalester College (MN)

Achieving sustainability is one of the grand challenges confronting society. To answer this challenge, in 2014 Macalester embarked on a campus-wide initiative to infuse sustainability throughout the college curriculum and ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Cooperative Education: Promoting Sustainability in Procurement & Education

  • Portland Community College (OR)

This presentation will share highlights from projects which seek to support instructors in the development and implementation of sustainability curriculum thereby increasing student engagement and improving their knowledge, skills and ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Management of an Urban White Oak Savanna: Blending Indigenous Permaculture with City Life

  • Portland State University (OR)

White Oak Savannas are among the most endangered ecological communities in the Pacific Northwest. Historically, annual burnings of these sprawling grasslands inhibited encroaching forests to allow for plentiful hunting, gathering ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Pursuing impact: Facilitating and assessing curricular partnerships that advance neighborhood sustainability

  • Portland State University (OR)

Neighborhoods are advancing urban sustainability in powerful ways. In cities like Portland, Oregon, non-profits, businesses, government, and residents are learning that by working together they can effect more sustainable change ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Beyond Conservation-Reimagining the Purpose of Energy Education: An interactive issue of Journal of Sustainability Education

  • Prescott College (AZ)

A major challenge to human quality of life in the 21st century is going to be our successful ability to shift the burden of our energy resources and the way ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Incorporating sustainability one course at a time

  • Randolph College (VA)

Sustainability programs (including certifications, majors, minors, graduate and professional programs) began appearing at institutions of higher education over a decade ago. Randolph College first proposed a sustainability minor in 2011 ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Analyzing the future of education and the influence of experiential sustainability education

  • The GREEN Program (PA)

A Think Tank, presenting The GREEN Program findings related to weak signals and trends within the changing higher educational system, student-mindset and needs, and the industry expectations of graduates. The ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainable design and construction contest

  • Universidad de Monterrey

Universidad de Monterrey created a multidisciplinary contest were students must develop an alternative energy systems and sustainable building proposal on a non-profit organization that attends people in situations of vulnerability ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Compass Curriculum: The Successful Implementation of Sustainability as a General Education Requirement

  • University of Colorado Colorado Springs (CO)

In Fall 2014,sustainability was added to the General Education requirements at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. The new Compass Curriculum requires that all students, in all majors and ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Weaving Sustainability into Curricula across Disciplines: Challenges and Successes from the Green Threads Faculty Workshop

  • University of Louisville (KY)

How does a large research institution that offers nearly 200 different majors across the undergraduate- and graduate levels integrate sustainability into its many disciplines? Since 2009, the University of Louisville ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Northern Roots: Growing Food in the Western Lake Superior Region: A Participatory, Public Ethnography in Film Form

  • University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)

Planting and cultivation instructions: 1) Combined engaged students, hard-working farmers, a supportive university, dedicated nonprofit leaders and the fertile potential of participatory media. 2) Seed the ground with community coordination ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability education: A campus-wide study guiding an all unit strategic approach at the University of Minnesota, Duluth

  • University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)

A team of faculty and staff who were working on sustainability education across the UMD campus conducted an all campus survey (N=1700) to meet the Chancellor's Strategic Initiative ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Hair dryers, gaming systems, and fans: Engaging an online Social Psychology Class in an Energy Competition for Residence Halls

  • University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)

This presentation describes the development, implementation, and outcomes of an online Social Psychology class project designed to reduce energy consumption among students living in a campus residence hall. The co-curricular ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Project-based courses provide practical educational experience for students and advance sustainability within local community

  • University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)

Collaboration between the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD), a local non-profit that promotes sustainable energy and six area businesss has resulted in a series of class projects implemented into two ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Developing Sustainability Leaders - Skills and Experiences from a Leadership Development Program for Graduate Students

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

In this workshop participants will both experience and learn about a cutting-edge leadership development program for graduate students. The Boreas Leadership Program, at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities's ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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An Innovative Approach to Training the Next Generation of Interdisciplinary Professionals in Environment and Sustainability

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

Field Skills in Environment and Sustainability is a mandatory course in the Master of Sustainable Environmental Management program at the University of Saskatchewan. The main goals for this interdisciplinary field ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability meets employability: developing career readiness skills in our students

  • University of South Carolina (SC)

At the University of South Carolina we've developed a high impact coaching program for students to develop skills employers seek, while working on projects to further the impact of ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Systems Approach to Supporting Curricular Innovations

  • University of St. Thomas (MN)

UST faculty, through grass-roots efforts, have transformed piecemeal efforts to integrate sustainability into their courses into a system that encourages the integration of sustainability throughout the curriculum. Our system consists ...

  • 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

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.

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