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

Using Competencies in the Design and Assessment of Sustainability Programs

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

At Penn State University, the Sustainability Leadership Minor has been administered using a list of sustainability and leadership competencies that are the basis of the expectations of the program. Now ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Addressing Campus Sustainability Challenges with the Social Sciences: Linking Applied Learning to Student Performance

  • Portland Community College (OR)

What do the social sciences have to offer for understanding and addressing campus sustainability challenges? This is the question undergraduate environmental science and studies students explore as part of a ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Using Bluegrass Music to Power Careers in Sustainable Energy

  • Portland State University (OR)

This presentation will analyze the problems of human capital flight and ecological decline in the coal fields of Appalachia. An affective strategy for engaging these economic and ecological problems using ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Establishing Sustainability as a General Education Directive

  • Southern Oregon University (OR)

Colleges and universities nationwide continue to struggle with strategies for integrating sustainability within higher education curricula. While many universities have encouraged faculty to develop one or more courses that introduce ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Sustainable Study Abroad: A Critical Framework

  • Southwestern University (TX)

In the past decade, sustainability and global citizenship have emerged as two of the most prominent themes in contemporary higher education. Literature that specifically merges the two themes has, however ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Planting seeds of sustainability leadership in engineering education

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

More than 480 courses are offered at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where environmental, social and/or techno-economic aspects of sustainability are incorporated; of which, 88 reside in the ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Connecting Academic Work with Funds to Address Campus Sustainability

  • University of Colorado Colorado Springs (CO)

In order to educate future sustainability leaders we must bridge the academic operational divide by connecting student coursework with funding to address real campus sustainability projects. We must begin to ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Coding and Theorizing Syllabi for Sustainability Skills and Competencies

  • University of Florida (FL)

My doctoral research has involved collecting over 200 syllabi from sustainability programs all over the United States. I have been coding these syllabi for evidence of skills-based sustainability education. My ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Greenhouse: A Place-Based Sustainability Living Learning Program

  • University of Kentucky (KY)

Greenhouse is a living-learning community at the University of Kentucky that engages students in learning about many aspects of the local environment through the lens of sustainability. Greenhouse will bring ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Integrating Service-Based Learning and the Flipped Classroom through the National Energy Leadership Corps Program

  • University of Kentucky (KY)

Engineering pedagogies traditionally aim to teach students technical skills and large quantities of information over relatively short periods while in a classroom setting. The successful construction of buildings that reach ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Institutional Behavior Change and Sustainability

  • University of Louisville (KY)

It is well established that human behavior underlies almost all environmental problems, e.g. air and water pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, resource overuse, waste generation and recycling, etc ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Pedagogic elements for student interest in an introductory course

  • University of Louisville (KY)

While there are many contested strategies for delivering an education for sustainable development, there are far fewer empirical studies demonstrating the relationships between classroom elements that generate the interest necessary ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Immersion Education: Transcending Psychological Barriers to Action

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

In this briefing, we will bring together some of the best thinking on psychological barriers to action at local and global scales from the American Psychological Association and combine it ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Natural Dye Campus Garden: Art and Permaculture

  • University of North Texas (TX)

Funded by the environmental services fee, the University of North Texas Natural Dye Garden is a student initiated project in the College of Visual Arts and Design. Inspired by a ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Developing a Sustainability Degree with minimal resources

  • University of Northern Colorado (CO)

The University of Northern Colorado developed an Environmental Studies Minor program in 1970. In 2011 it launched an interdisciplinary Environmental & Sustainability Studies Program B.A degree. While it was ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Graduate Attribute Development at the University of Saskatchewan

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

The School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS) at the University of Saskatchewan, located in Saskatoon, Canada, is home to a thriving community of eighty-five graduate students, a dozen post-doctoral fellows ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

A Framework for Systematic Learning for Sustainability Science

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

The urgency of global problems including growing income inequality, climate change, threats to water security, loss of species and the intensification of urbanization suggest that the aspirations for sustainable development ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Environmental Life Cycle Analysis of Food at University of Washington

  • University of Washington, Seattle (WA)

In spring 2014, twenty-five students in the class Sustainability Studio (in the undergraduate Environmental Studies program) partnered with University of Washington Housing and Food Services to assess the environmental impacts ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

The Campus Sustainability Planning Studio

  • Western Washington University (WA)

This session will cover the Campus Sustainability Planning Studio (CSPS), a hands-on, problem-based learning class that has been taught at Western Washington University’s Huxley College of the Environment since ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Learning How to Apply Social Science Research by Solving Campus Sustainability Challenges

  • University of Michigan (MI)

“Social Sciences and Environmental Problems,” a 75-student class at taught annually at the University of Michigan (U-M), introduces six social sciences and how each can help understand and address environmental ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Show Me the Learning!

  • Moraine Valley Community College (IL)

Over the past four years, over 60 faculty across the disciplines participated in a series of 9-20 hour long workshops internalizing the key concepts of sustainability and unearthing the connections ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Teaching Sustainable Business 101: Required Readings

  • University of Arkansas at Little Rock (AR)

If you teach introductory sustainable business, you need to hear to this presentation. Based on a review of 96 introductory courses representing 63 universities, the most common reading assignments and ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

STARS Curriculum: Trends, Challenges and a Proposed Solution

  • East Tennessee State University (TN)

STARS Curriculum: Trends, Challenges and a Proposed Solution

M. Moin Uddin, Ph.D., East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN

STARS (The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System) curriculum subcategory ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Case Studies in Educating for Sustainability Across the Curriculum: Liberal Arts Edition

  • Dickinson College (PA)
  • Furman University (SC)
  • Sewanee - The University of the South (TN)

Small colleges possess a unique opportunity to infuse sustainability across the curriculum. Dickinson College, Furman University, and Sewanee: The University of the South will share three case studies that demonstrate ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Libraries as Partners Around the University Table

  • University of California, Los Angeles (CA)
  • University of Florida (FL)
  • University of Nevada Las Vegas (NV)

The university table where sustainability campus initiatives and academic programs are discussed is relatively busy. Seats are filled by representatives from academic and student affairs; buildings and grounds; housing services ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Assessing Undergraduate Sustainability Knowledge Campus Wide: From design to implementation and analysis

  • The Ohio State University (OH)
  • University of Maryland, College Park (MD)

Many universities and colleges have adopted goals to increase the knowledge and awareness of sustainability concepts and issues among their student populations. To this end, more and more sustainability themed ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

GS3: Developing Sustainable Business Leaders

  • University at Albany (NY)

The proposed workshop will provide an in-depth review of the unique Going Green Globally program, or G3, designed for the first year MBA students at the University at Albany. The ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Four Approaches to Sustainability Education: One Degree

  • Prescott College (AZ)

A look at doctoral programs across the United States reveals there is only one focused specifically in Sustainability Education. In its 9th year of operation, Prescott College’s Sustainability Education ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Partnerships for Youth Development: Green Leadership Academy for Diverse Ecosystems (GLADE)

  • Missouri State University (MO)

The Green Leadership Academy for Diverse Ecosystems (GLADE) is a week-long academy for high school students sponsored by the Greater Ozarks Audubon Society, Missouri State University, Missouri Department of Conservation ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Engaging Students in Climate Research with High Altitude Stratospheric Balloons

  • Trevecca Nazarene University (TN)

For the last four years, Trevecca Nazarene University has been using small-scale high altitude balloon flights to engage students in climate research and raise awareness of that research within the ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Incubation of a New Suite of Courses in Food Systems

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

Five innovative new courses at the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities focus on issues of changing food systems and global sustainability. Responding to student interest, the courses developed independently. Even as ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Integrating Sustainability Initiatives and Green Energy Infrastructure on Engineering College Campuses

  • Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ)

Emphasis on sustainability in higher education over the last decade prompted the formation of nonprofit organizations, like the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), which administers ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

A holistic approach to culture change on campus: a new model of liberal arts education

  • Green Mountain College (VT)

Making the transition to sustainability in higher education will require a significant culture change across the campus. The current approach in which sustainability is pursued as a collection of isolated ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Sustainability Literacy & Pro-Environmental Behavior -a comparison across domestic and international students at Ohio State Univ

  • The Ohio State University (OH)

The Ohio State University (OSU), one of the nation’s largest public universities, ranks among the top 10 nationally for international student enrollment. As per the findings of the Open ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Integrating Sustainability Sciences into a Social Science Discipline: An Exploration in the Fiber, Textile & Clothing Field

  • Oklahoma State University (OK)

Climate change is a multifaceted global issue that is transforming Earth’s surface and atmosphere in response to human influences. The $2 trillion fiber, textile, and clothing (FTC) industry contributes ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

So, You Think That's a Sustainability Course?!?

  • Portland State University (OR)
  • Alfred State College (NY)
  • University of Louisville (KY)
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (WI)

Considerable uncertainty haunts university sustainability officers when developing sustainability-focused and -related course identifiers. It seems everyone has an opinion about which courses qualify for the different categorizations, and why. Unresolved ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Wholly Frijoles! Teaching Sustainability Through Interactive Systems Thinking Education

  • University of Arizona (AZ)

This presentation will be highly interactive and begin with participants playing and discussing “Wholly Frijoles” for about 40 minutes. The “Wholly Frijoles” simulation focuses on the use (and abuse) of ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Next Wave Workshop: UVM Sustainability Faculty Fellows

  • University of Vermont (VT)

Many sustainability initiatives on college campuses do not seem to be grounded in theory, but rather appear to be practices drawn from a toolkit or grab bag—in effect, practices ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

The Library and You: Sharing Our Vision

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)

Are you a faculty member frustrated with the lack of reliable information in your students’ papers and projects? Are you a librarian seeking ideas for integrating your expertise into the ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Connections for Sustainability: Creating a Sustainability Affiliate Faculty Program at Furman University

  • Furman University (SC)

Questions of sustainability are inherently interdisciplinary and must be examined from a variety of perspectives to ensure a comprehensive solution or answer. At the faculty level, however, devoting time to ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Disciplinary Trends in Sustainability Education: Preliminary Results

  • Southern Illinois University Carbondale (IL)

This study examines disciplinary impacts and trends of sustainability education in the United States using data from AASHE STARS and the National Council for Science and the Environment. Current community ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

From the Bayou to our Campus: Immersive Experience as an Opportunity for Student Leadership

  • University at Buffalo (NY)

Over the last two years, our students have travelled to southern Louisiana as part of our Alternative Winter Break program to help transform and adapt the landscape into one that ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Institutional Change for Sustainability in Higher Education: United Kingdom University Experiences of the Green Academy Program

  • University of Southampton

The United Kingdom (UK) Higher Education Academy (HEA) leads a university change management programme in sustainability in partnership with UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) entitled ‘Green Academy: curricula for tomorrow ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Beyond Carbon Offsetting: Making a Sustainable Living Class Carbon Conscious

  • Living Routes, Inc. (MA)

This Case Study will report on how a university class measured and managed its carbon footprint in a way that directly supported campus sustainability projects. It’s clear that climate ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Does experiential student learning lead to more sustainable lifestyles outside the classroom?

  • St. Edward's University (TX)

Experiential learning is increasingly promoted as a means of enhancing student learning, especially for Millennial students (Brown, Hansen-Brown and Conte, 2011). Although the applied focus of sustainability courses seems ideal ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Environmental Literacy: A Lifelong Learning Approach

  • University of Cincinnati (OH)

As higher education institutions endeavor to prepare students for the future, environmental literacy is increasingly important. In addition to educating students, universities play a significant role in engaging the broader ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Transdisciplinary Collaborations for Sustainability Education: Institutional and Intragroup Challenges and Opportunities

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)

In order to most effectively contribute to creating adaptive and resilient socio-ecological systems appropriate for an uncertain future, educators must develop transdisciplinary sustainability education praxis. This presentation is about collectively ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Designing for Sustainability: Project-based Seminar Series

  • Daemen University (NY)

As we encourage students to address sustainability-related issues, we need to have an effective strategy for empowering them to be creative and successful. We have structured our curriculum to include ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Access to Local Food in the Carolinas Program: Campuses to Communities

  • Davidson College (NC)
  • Duke University (NC)
  • Furman University (SC)
  • Johnson C. Smith University (NC)

The Duke Endowment (TDE) schools, Davidson College, Duke University, Furman University, and Johnson C. Smith University, all have significant interest in promoting sustainable farm and food systems in the Carolinas ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

Experiential Learning Lab: LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance

  • Indiana University Bloomington (IN)
  • Heapy Engineering (OH)
  • Purdue University (IN)

In order to achieve the short-term goal of piloting a LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB:O+M) project on campus, an office of sustainability initiated such a ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
  • Conference Presentations
  • View more

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