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

The Contribution of Social Sciences to Sustainable Development at Universities

This volume presents contemporary, state-of-the-art examples of how social science theories, models, and findings can advance all aspects of campus sustainability, an area that has so far been largely neglected ...


Student Sustainability Sculptures Contest

  • Johnson County Community College (KS)

Beginning in 2011, Johnson County Community College art faculty member Mark Cowardin assigned his Sculpture II students a project requiring the design, proposal, planning, and installation of a public art ...


The role of students in the co-creation of transformational knowledge and sustainability experiments: Experiences from Sweden, Japan and the USA

  • Clark University (MA)
  • Oberlin College (OH)
  • University of Tokyo
  • Lund University

Accompanying realizations that engagement of multiple societal sectors (academia, industry, government, citizenry) and disciplines are required for formulating effective responses to complex sustainability challenges, calls for new forms of knowledge ...


Creating Tree Ambassadors: Fostering a campus culture of sustainbility through urban trees

  • University of Kentucky (KY)

Urban trees contribute substantially to ecological, economic, and social sustainability, but are often overlooked both as a method to achieve greater sustainability and as a vehicle for engagement in sustainability ...


Sustainability Champions: Role Models in Sustainability Graduate Education

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

Sustainability champions are iconic men and women who have shaped the scholarly understanding of sustainability by considering broad, alternative, and visionary solutions to sustainability problems. For instance, sustainability champions such ...


Field Guide to Teaching Sustainability

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

Penn State’s Field Guide to Teaching Sustainability is for sustainability education what the Peterson guides are for birds, trees, or wildflowers. We have designed it to help our faculty ...


Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities: Stories of Change

  • United Nations Environment Programme

This document includes over 25 chapters on sustainability in African universities.


Learning while transforming: solution-oriented learning for urban sustainability in Phoenix, Arizona

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

Conventional educational settings struggle with enabling students to acquire competence in collectively solving sustainability problems. Such competence is best conveyed in real-world learning settings. Solution-oriented sustainability learning (SOSL) programs create ...


Implementing sustainability education with undergraduate business courses, A case study

  • Alfred State College (NY)

The purpose of this submission is to discuss experiential learning related to strategic management and environmental sustainability. The paper outlines one case of implementing project-based sustainability education within the BUAD ...


Personal values and attitudes towards societal and environmental accountability: a study of MBA students

Efforts to promote corporate societal and environmental accountability (SEA) should be informed by an understanding of stakeholders’ attitudes toward enhanced accountability standards. However, little is known regarding current attitudes on ...


MBA Concentration in Sustainable Business

  • City University of New York, Baruch College (NY)

Students in the Zicklin School Of Business MBA program may specialize in Sustainable Business during their second year. The four-course major is conceptually anchored in strategy, with the understanding that ...

  • Posted May 20, 2016
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Sustainable Entrepreneurship MBA (SEMBA)

  • University of Vermont (VT)

The University of Vermont’s accelerated one-year Sustainable Entrepreneurship MBA (SEMBA) was designed from the ground up to challenge the traditional MBA. The curriculum has been reinvented to address the ...

  • Posted May 20, 2016
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Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM)

  • University of Toronto (ON)

The Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM) program provides the training for graduates to act outside the traditional disciplinary black boxes; integrate knowledge from management, social, and natural sciences ...

  • Posted May 20, 2016
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Center for Education on Social Responsibility

  • University of Colorado Boulder (CO)

The purpose of the Center for Education on Social Responsibility (CESR) is to advance the Leeds School of Business’ commitment to preparing future leaders to confront social, environmental, economic, and ...

  • Posted May 19, 2016
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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How We Came to Inhabit These Spaces: Reflections on the Role of Place in Our Individual and Collective Journeys as Emerging Sustainability Scholars

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the experience of four doctoral students engaged in a collective project of place exploration at a mid sized Canadian university. Under the methodological ...


Sustainability and Social Innovation MBA Concentration

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

After focusing primarily on business fundamentals throughout their first year, MBA students at Smeal College of Business may choose to concentrate on Sustainability and Social Innovation in their second year ...

  • Posted May 16, 2016
  • Academic Programs
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Monash Sustainable Development Institute

  • Monash University (VIC)

The Monash Sustainable Development Institute tackles sustainability challenges head on with distinctive interdisciplinary approach. It pulls together scientists, lawyers, economists, psychologists, biologists, engineers, health professionals, training experts and more to ...

  • Posted May 13, 2016
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Organizational transformation and higher sustainability management education: The case of the MBA Sustainability Management

  • Griffith University (Queensland)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the roles of leadership in enabling sustainability transformation of universities and higher sustainability management education. It advocates research into the role of leadership for ...


Educating change agents for sustainability – learnings from the first sustainability management master of business administration

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

In recent years, knowledge and capabilities to manage corporate sustainability have become a significant component of different career paths in companies, consultancies, and even in non-profit and public institutions. As ...


Centre for Sustainability Management

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

The Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM) conducts research, teaching and continuous education in the fields of entrepreneurial sustainability management, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social entrepreneurship. With a strong focus ...

  • Posted May 12, 2016
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Mi­nor in Sustaina­bi­li­ty Sci­ence

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

The Minor in Sustainability Science provides a comprehensive exploration of the issue of sustainable development and integrates social, cultural, ecological/environmental and economic perspectives through project-based work. It includes inter- ...

  • Posted May 12, 2016
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MBA in Sustainability Management

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Students in this programme learn a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary subjects related to sustainability management and corporate social responsibility (CSR). They also acquire comprehensive general management qualifications and the ...

  • Posted May 12, 2016
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MSc in Global Sustainability Science

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

The two-year dual degree program in Global Sustainability Science is jointly administered by Arizona State University and Leuphana University of Lüneburg. It aims to provide an academically well balanced education ...

  • Posted May 12, 2016
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MSc in Sustainability Science

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

A distinctive feature of Leuphana University Lüneburg's inter- and transdisciplinary research-oriented and problem-focused Master's program in Sustainability Sciences is its balance between sustainable natural sciences and sustainable humanities ...

  • Posted May 12, 2016
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MBA Concentration in Social Change

  • Clark University (MA)

The Clark Graduate School of Management’s MBA Concentration in Social Change helps business students gain specialized knowledge to effect positive environmental, social and economic change. Through this unique concentration ...

  • Posted May 12, 2016
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MBA Concentration in Social Change & Sustainability

  • Clark University (MA)

Clark University's MBA Concentration in Social Change & Sustainability is for business leaders who want to take on environmental sustainability challenges. The program helps students integrate business management, leadership ...

  • Posted May 12, 2016
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Zygmunt, the electric car

  • Universidad de Monterrey

Monterrey is the third largest city in Mexico, and there is about 2 million cars. This amount of vehicles creates traffic jams, pollute the air and chaos. According to the ...


MBA in Global Sustainable Management

  • Anaheim University (CA)

Anaheim University's MBA in Global Sustainable Management (also refered to as the Online Green MBA) focuses on leadership, social responsibility and sustainable practices. Students must complete 12 courses in ...

  • Posted May 10, 2016
  • Academic Programs
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Business pedagogy for social justice? An exploratory investigation of business faculty perspectives of social justice in business education

  • York University

What needs to happen in business schools to create a space for social justice? In this article I explore business faculty members’ perspectives on social justice as a means of ...


Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Education: Shifting the Worldview

  • DePaul University (IL)
  • Temple University (PA)

While the topics of business ethics and social responsibility education have received much attention in scholarly and pedagogical literature (although less in the pedagogical literature), the authors argue that the ...


A Methodology for Building Faculty Support for the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education

  • Kennesaw State University (GA)

Evidence from extant literature indicates that faculty support is a critical driver for implementing the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), particularly for schools pursuing an advanced, cross-disciplinary ...


An integrated approach to achieving campus sustainability: assessment of the current campus environmental management practices

  • King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

Universities can nowadays be regarded as ‘small cities’ due to their large size, population, and the various complex activities taking place in campuses, which have some serious direct and indirect ...


Integrating environmental sustainability into universities

  • Monash University (VIC)

Universities play a fundamental role in addressing global environmental challenges as their education, research and community involvement can produce long-lasting environmental effects and societal change. By demonstrating best practice in ...


Shaping the Education of Tomorrow: 2012 Full-length Report on the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

  • UNESCO
  • Wageningen University

This report represents the second review of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and is conducted in the context of its Global Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (GMEF). The ...


The Sustainable University: Progress and prospects

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

The direction of higher education is at a crossroads against a background of mounting sustainability-related issues and uncertainties. This book seeks to inspire positive change in higher education by exploring ...


Turnaround Leadership for Sustainability in Higher Education

  • Western Sydney University (NSW)
  • Australian National University
  • University of Gloucestershire (Gloucestershire)

Universities play a central role in addressing key challenges of social, economic and environmental sustainability. For this role to be delivered effectively it is critical to identify not only what ...


Master of Environment and Sustainability

  • Monash University (VIC)

The Master of Environment and Sustainability is a forward-thinking, interdisciplinary, two-year course that integrates the knowledge needed to mitigate and adapt to global change with sustainability principles. Central to its ...

  • Posted May 9, 2016
  • Academic Programs
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The Essex Report: Workshop on the Principles of Sustainability in Higher Education

  • Second Nature (MA)
  • Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (DC)

In February of 1995, a workshop at the Essex Conference Center of Essex, Massachusetts brought together thirty-two educators and other professionals with environmental expertise to discuss the principles of sustainability ...


Examining the Literature: A Bibliometric Study of ESD Journal Articles in the Education Resources Information Center Database

  • Dalhousie University (NS)

Using the tool of bibliometry, this study examines journal articles related to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in academic journals from 1990 to 2005. It offers a statistical description of ...


Developing key competencies for sustainable development in higher education

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Purpose

To date, little attention has been given to the circumstances in which the process of developing key competencies for sustainable development may take place. The purpose of this paper ...


Advancing Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy: A Road Map and Call to Action

Education in America must prepare all students for informed participation in civic and democratic life—so that all Americans are ready to tackle the challenges confronting communities and the nation ...


Greening the Ivory Tower: A Review of Educational Research on Sustainability in Post-Secondary Education

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)
  • Dalhousie University (NS)

There is a deficit of multi-site studies examining the integration of sustainability in the policies and practices of post-secondary institutions. This paper reviews what comparative empirical research has been undertaken ...


College students are flocking to sustainability degrees, careers

  • USA TODAY (VA)

With an increased interest in the environment and growth in the "green collar" job sector, colleges and universities are beginning to incorporate sustainability into their programs. From MBAs in sustainable-business ...


Sustainable development, higher education and pedagogy: a study of lecturers' beliefs and attitudes

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is playing an increasing role in the higher education curriculum. However, little previous research exists on lecturers' understanding of and attitudes towards sustainable development. This ...


Meeting the growing demand for sustainability-focused management education: a case study of a PRME academic institution

  • La Trobe University (Victoria)

The current business landscape has created the impetus to develop management graduates with capabilities that foster responsible leadership and sustainability. Through the lens of Gitsham's 3C Model (Complexity, Context ...


The Essential and Growing Role of Legal Education in Achieving Sustainability

  • Widener University (PA)

This article suggests that law schools need to play a leading role in the national and global effort to achieve sustainability, including the effort to address climate change. The article ...


Sustainability in the Real Property Law Curriculum: Why and How

  • James Cook University (Queensland)

Traditionally considered the preserve of environmental law, for the lawyer and the legal academic, sustainability does not immediately come to mind in considering the subjects of the core curriculum. Yet ...


Legal Education for Sustainability: A Report on US Progress

  • Widener University (PA)

This article is an overview of sustainability efforts in US law schools. It describes two sets of drivers for these efforts—inside and outside the legal profession. Drivers from within ...


A bibliometric study on “Education for sustainability”

  • University of São Paulo

The scientific production on “education for sustainability” has been growing in recent years what demonstrates the attention this subject has gathered. To better understand and characterize this trend, a bibliometric ...


Where in the World of Sustainability Education is US Geography?

  • University of Central Missouri (MO)

This paper investigates latest developments in sustainability studies, sustainability education and geography's place in sustainability education, with a focus on the USA. The investigation draws on latest information on ...

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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