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

Transforming education for the just transition

  • University of Dundee
  • King's College London
  • Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour

Society faces many challenges in promoting a just transition to a low-carbon economy, a transition that does not create or exacerbate injustices. Notably, the just transition can only be attained ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Developing curricula that equip designers with capabilities to enact sustainable futures: A matter of ethos

  • Queensland University of Technology

This project addresses the lack of research regarding emerging roles for designers in the 21st century and their associated capabilities, along with the lack of studies looking into how a ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Empowering Future Leaders to Advocate Sustainable Action: A comparative analysis between two university programmes focusing on leadership and sustainability in Sweden and Germany

  • Malmö University

Sustainability must be integrated into our everyday world. To achieve that, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established. Some scholars agree that the SDGs are not enough. So, a new strategy ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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A self-Identity-development approach to higher business education for sustainability

  • University of Manitoba (MB)

This study is focused on reorienting conventional educational approaches in higher education, particularly in higher business education, that tend to link unsustainable inner values with economic and analytical skills. Higher ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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What can Sustainability Schools Learn from the Career Services Offered at Business Schools?

  • University of Michigan (MI)

Increasingly, the importance of sustainability as a goal for different sectors in society is becoming paramount. Given the importance and urgency of this, the objective of this paper is to ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Integrating a sustainability curriculum within maritime education: case study of a South African university

  • World Maritime University

Sustainable Development (SD) is increasingly receiving attention in the maritime sector with literature suggesting that sustainability in this sector has moved from being a mere buzzword to a challenge that ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Moving Towards Increased Biological Diversity on Campus Through Environmental Stewardship

  • Radboud Universiteit

Moving towards higher sustainability on campuses is the priority in the majority of university agendas. However, when it comes to biodiversity loss, many people tend not to recognize the urgency ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Alternatives to the Mainstream Economic Growth Paradigm in Business Administration Curricula at Dutch Research Universities.

  • University of Twente

This Master’s thesis sheds light on the reasons for including or excluding alternatives to the mainstream economic growth paradigm in/from the Bachelor curricula of Business Administration (BA) programmes ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Perspectives on Sustainability in Short-term Faculty-led Programs

  • SIT School for International Training (VT)

Sustainability is a relatively new topic to the field of International Education. Despite this, its importance is tantamount for the continuation of the industry for future generations. The industry’s ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Environmental Attitudes of Community College Students Concerning Age, Gender, and Race

  • St. John's University, New York (NY)

Many studies have shown the mental, physical, and academic benefits of environmental education to students. Equally important, environmental education can develop our students into more environmentally minded citizens. However, we ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Understanding Environmental Justice Instruction in Higher Education: Activist Epistemic Orientations and a Continuum of Community Engaged Curricular and Pedagogical Practice

  • University of Massachusetts Boston (MA)

Starting in the early 1980’s, the environmental justice (EJ) movement was critical in drawing much needed attention to how communities of color, low-income groups, Indigenous peoples, and other marginalized ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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The Green Passport Program: Proposing A Study Abroad Program to Encourage Sustainable Behavior and Offset Emissions

  • University of Richmond (VA)

The University of Richmond has a goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, and in order to do this, carbon offsets are likely a necessary component to implement in lieu ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Who will save the world if the profit is too low?: A single case study on a Swedish business school, investigating their work toward responsible management education

  • Jönköping University

Background: Business schools are one of society’s most influential institutions as they contribute to transforming and influencing the way the business world works. Hence, business schools bear responsibility for ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Preparing Business Students to be Sustainable Business Leaders in the 21st Century

  • University of Michigan (MI)

The necessity and importance of sustainability has been discussed increasingly often and urgently as material business considerations, notably by Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock (Fink 2021a). Further, research over ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Perspective Transformation Regarding Sustainability in Higher Education

  • University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)

This study examined transformative sustainability learning (TSL) by determining the occurrence of perspective transformation (PT) regarding sustainability in sustainability-focused courses offered at a public university. 131 students in two upper-division ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Sustainable entrepreneurial intentions: Exploration of a model based on the theory of planned behaviour among university students in north-east Colombia

  • Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
  • Universidad Industrial de Santander

Entrepreneurship is considered the basis of economies, in which finding ways to stimulate it is a constant object of research. With the increasing awareness of social and environmental sustainability, sustainable ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Planetary health education in medical curricula in the Republic of Ireland

  • University College Dublin, National University of Ireland
  • Trinity College Dublin (The University of Dublin)
  • Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
  • University Hospital Galway
  • Mater Misericordiae University Hospital

The World Health Organization considers climate change an urgent global health challenge requiring prioritised action. A recent global survey reported that only 15% of medical schools have incorporated climate change ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Teaching sustainable development: an approach to rapidly introducing the UN sustainable development goals into an undergraduate business curriculum

  • Dominican University (IL)

The purpose of this study is to determine whether an undergraduate business program that rapidly introduced sustainable development into its curriculum, without an overall curriculum revision, was effective in terms ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Integrating sustainability into scientific research

  • My Green Lab (CA)

Laboratories have a large environmental impact, with high levels of resource consumption and waste generation. In this article, I discuss some of the actionable strategies that can bring real and ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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A model of behavioral climate change education for higher educational institutions

  • University of Arizona (AZ)

This paper puts forth a novel model of Climate Change Education (CCE) targeting to bridge the attitude-behavior gap in students’ climate action, called the behavioral CCE. It refers to relevant ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Narcissism as a global barrier to education for sustainable development

  • Troy University (AL)
  • Berjaya University College

Narcissism, extreme self-interest, refers to a set of personality characteristics including arrogance, self-centeredness, need for admiration, sense of entitlement, grandiosity, lack of empathy, and interpersonal exploitation, which can range from ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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EffSET: a Self-Evaluation Tool to Assess the Effectiveness of Education for Sustainable Development

  • University of Bari Aldo Moro

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) plays a prominent part in the process of building the ethical, responsible, and sustainable consciousness of future generations and in addressing the sustainability challenge that ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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On sustainability and higher education: Towards an affirmative ethics

  • North-West University (North West)
  • University of KwaZulu-Natal

Sustainable development has been the dominant focus in sustainability discourses over the past three decades. In 2015, the United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Embedding sustainable development goals (SDGs) in an undergraduate business capstone subject using an experiential learning approach: A qualitative analysis

  • Monash University (VIC)

Universities have an important role in ensuring that business school graduates can address issues regarding sustainable development and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. While ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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What is Ecological Economics?

  • United States Society for Ecological Economics (PA)

This document is a very brief description of the field of ecological economics, which purports to be more trans-disciplinary than environmental economics. The former also claims to have closer ties ...

  • Posted June 8, 2023
  • Course Materials
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The Sulitest Certificate: a new global standard for assessing sustainability knowledge

  • AASHE (PA)
  • Sulitest

The Sulitest was the first tangible implementation of the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative at the United Nations’ Rio+20 event in 2012 to allow educational institutions and their students to ...

  • Posted June 1, 2023
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Kaié:ri Nikawerà:ke Indigenous Bridging Program

  • Concordia University (QC)

We are proud to offer the Kaié:ri Nikawerà:ke Indigenous Bridging Program as a pathway for eligible First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples who don’t meet Concordia’s ...


Sustainability into Action: Undergraduate Certificate Catalyzes Sustainability Progress

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

A generation of students faced with a sustainability crisis have the appetite to learn how to "do sustainability" and put their learning into action. We developed an innovative interdisciplinary program ...


Duke University Climate Commitment

  • Duke University (NC)

As Duke University enters its second century, President Vincent Price has directed the University to marshal its collective resources and capabilities to address the climate crisis. Stemming from President Price ...


Brandeis University’s Year of Climate Action

  • Brandeis University (MA)

In 2019, a task force set out to write a new climate action plan for the university. Among its recommendations was to dedicate an entire year to catalyzing and deepening ...


Addressing Climate Anxiety through Resilience and Community Building

  • Portland Community College (OR)

Sustainability and climate work require resilience to fend off burnout and avoidance. While our college does good work promoting sustainability through our Climate Action Plan and curricular and co-curricular environmental ...


Addressing the Social Pillar of Sustainability by Enhancing Racial Equity of Minorities in STEM Higher Education through the CREaTE Pathway

  • El Paso Community College (TX)
  • University of Texas at El Paso (TX)

The Center for Research in Engineering and Technology Education (CREaTE) is a national center for research in engineering, science, and technology education at The University of Texas at El Paso ...


Unanue Scholars Program: Improving College Access for Local Latina Students

  • Catawba College (NC)

The Unanue Scholars Program serves junior Latina students from public high schools in Rowan County, North Carolina. Recipients of the scholarship are provided with a cost-free course at Catawba College ...


Advancing Sustainability Education through a Cross-Disciplinary Online Course: Sustainability and Human Rights in the Business World

  • Florida State University (FL)

Abstract: The increasing threats of climate change, resource depletion, and human rights crises have led us to realize the impendent need for advancing sustainable development education and to reevaluate the ...


Sustainable New Product Development for Ten Thousand Villages, a Fair-Trade Social Enterprise: Empowering Women and Economic Development through Problem-Based Service Learning

  • Florida State University (FL)

Abstract – Universities have an important role in advancing sustainable development by educating future professionals. As an effective approach to scaling sustainability education, the author implemented a problem-based service-learning (PBSL) project ...


US Society for Ecological Economics

  • United States Society for Ecological Economics (PA)

The United States Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) provides a venue for intellectual exchange and collaboration on issues related to the theory, policy, and implementation of sustainability. The society consists ...

  • Posted May 31, 2023
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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UBC’s Sustainability Open Data: Research, Learning and Operations

  • University of British Columbia (BC)
  • AASHE (PA)

The Sustainability Hub – a central unit at UBC focused on collaboration – have created a new open data platform to share sustainability performance metrics, increase transparency, support teaching, learning, operations on ...

  • Posted May 25, 2023
  • Videos & Webinars
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Students Taking on Oil & Petrochemicals Fellowship

  • Post-Landfill Action Network (NH)

PLAN’s Students Taking on Oil and Petrochemicals (STOP) Fellowship supports students that attend universities in Appalachia, a region threatened by an impending petrochemical buildout. This year-long fellowship provides students ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
  • Conference Presentations
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Co-Learning Partnerships & Carbon Management in Denmark & Canada

  • University of Northern British Columbia (BC)
  • Aarhus University

Businesses are increasingly interested in carbon management as a climate change mitigation tool. They want to respond to climate policy targets aimed at keeping global warming within a two-degree centigrade ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
  • Conference Presentations
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From the Amazon to Florida: Climate Change Education at Miami Dade College

  • Miami Dade College (FL)

This educational session will showcase how the high-impact teaching approaches used in Miami Dade College’s Global Sustainability and Earth Literacy Studies (GSELS) learning network are also efficacious climate change ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
  • Conference Presentations
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Environmental Justice & Nature Immersion: A Collaborative Partnership

  • North Hennepin Community College (MN)
  • YMCA of the North (MN)

GCST 1970 is a nature-based, credit-bearing program for North Hennepin Community College and high school students from Brooklyn Park, MN, in partnership with the YMCA and Three Rivers Park District ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
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Engaging Students and Curricula to Create a More Sustainable and Equitable University Food System

  • Naropa University (CO)

Join us for a step-by-step explanation of a curriculum-based, community development approach to creating a more sovereign, secure and sustainable food system at Naropa University. Discover how staff and faculty ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
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The UBC Climate Studies and Action Certificate as a Response to the Climate Emergency Declaration

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

This certificate is a response to the climate emergency 1. Creating justice centered, action oriented, accessible, interdisciplinary and hopeful climate education opportunities was one of six strategic priorities in the ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
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Innovative Approaches and New Networks Around Sense of Place and Connection to Nature

  • Wellesley College (MA)

Undergraduate education often separates “place” from pedagogy. Incorporating place into pedagogical approaches through landscape “living laboratory” frameworks can provide benefits that include improving well-being, increasing “pro-environmental” behavior, and fostering a ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
  • Conference Presentations
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Supporting Roles for STARS: Regional Campus Libraries in Sustainability Initiatives

  • Indiana University South Bend (IN)
  • Indiana University Southeast (IN)
  • EcoChallenge.org (OR)

Academic libraries are rich storehouses of expertise and initiatives that directly contribute to sustainability initiatives impacting both your campus and local service communities. These initiatives also contribute to ongoing reporting ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
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The KCKCC Library Sustainability Research Guide: Resources, Literacy, & Engagement

  • Kansas City Kansas Community College (KS)

This session will provide an overview of the Sustainability Research Guide created for the Kansas City Kansas Community College library. This guide has been crafted over several years and is ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
  • Conference Presentations
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Social & Financial Sustainability: What Is Its Role in the Sustainability Dialogue?

  • Sonoma State University (CA)

Sustainability denotes many things to many of us. But to the majority in education space, if you have offered a sustainability course it means you have done something related it ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
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Education as Sustainability: Courageous Conversations in a Changing World

  • Nipissing University (ON)

For the past ten years, we have been offering a PhD in Educational Sustainability. We recognize that “education for sustainability means educating for the emergence of a different, possible world ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
  • Conference Presentations
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Innovative Approaches to Teaching Sustainability

  • Stanford University (CA)

This session presents learnings from the design and teaching “Leading Change for Sustainability,” a Stanford University course that is part of the Sustainability Science and Practice Master’s Program. It ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
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Bringing a Travel Experience Into the Classroom

  • University of Arkansas at Little Rock (AR)

How material obtained from a university funded research project on sustainability focused on water conservation in Israel is used to create a learning module will be presented. The presenter created ...

  • Posted May 17, 2023
  • Conference Presentations
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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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