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.
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Creating an Interdisciplinary Master of Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities
- Saint Louis University (MO)
A two year Master of Sustainability (MOS) program accepted its first group of students in the fall of 2010, leading to the first graduating class in May of 2012. The …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Compounding Interest: How and Why Southern Connecticut State University Decided to Prioritize Teaching First Year Students about Sustainability
- Southern Connecticut State University (CT)
In Spring 2010, as part of an effort to build a lasting foundation of sustainable practices on campus, Southern Connecticut State University's Sustainable Climate Committee prioritized curriculum development for first …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Transforming our Universities into Sustainable Development Labs Opened to the World
- Université de Sherbrooke (QC)
In our universities, any global sustainable development strategy should be woven into teaching, research and management activities altogether. In fact, universities are poised to become efficient sustainable development labs, locally …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Multidisciplinary Model For a New Graduate Certificate in Sustainability At a Land Grant University
- University of Arkansas (AR)
This paper provides the theoretical framework for the multidisciplinary curriculum design of the newly approved graduate certificate in sustainability at a Land Grant University. A hallmark of a graduate education …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability Beyond and On the Campus
- University of British Columbia (BC)
- H&A Columbus-UBC
Our paper focuses on a course we have developed and teach that connects Engineering students at our university with rural artisans in India. In the course, students propose solutions to …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Mindfulness in Energy Use: Course Participants Driving Conservation
- University of Louisville (KY)
Universities face an increasingly challenging financial landscape. In our state, government officials have cut funding for higher education for 12 years running. This budgetary crisis, combined with increasing enrollment, has …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Habitat for Humanity Eco-Village: A Living-Learning Laboratory for Sustainable Campus-Community Development
- University of Wisconsin-River Falls (WI)
The St. Croix Valley Habitat for Humanity Eco-Village is one, if not the most progressive low to moderate income housing project in the country. Through a holistic systems approach to …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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How to Create a Student Sustainability Office at Your University
- Utah State University (UT)
Universities across the nation are looking into renewable-funding initiatives to support their efforts to be more sustainable. Utah State University's (USU) Blue Goes Green initiative's success has set a precedent …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Infusing and Integrating Sustainability Across Research and Teaching
- Western Michigan University (MI)
A public university that is learner-centered and research oriented needs support in its mission and sustainability commitments. Since 2008, our University has made major strides toward building a campus culture …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Academic Working Groups - Infusing Sustainability into Curriculum
- Alliance to Save Energy (CA)
Faculty members and other curriculum developers will converge to learn about the recently formed academic working groups, and existing group members will report out on their progress.
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Green First Year Experience: A Holistic Approach to Learning about Sustainability
- Appalachian State University (NC)
During this presentation a sustainability themed first year experience model is described as a way to provide transformational learning opportunities. Students who participate in this model live together in a …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Solar Bus Stop Rises in Student Learning Opportunity
- Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (NC)
The project started in 2004 when a faculty member from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (AB Tech), filled out a purchase order and sent away for an aluminum frame bus stop. …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Who Knew Becoming NABCEP Certified Could Have a Social Justice Component?
- Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (NC)
Who knew becoming NABCEP Certified Could Have a Social Justice Component?
This presentation will outline the procedures of how to become NABCEP certified for the entry Level PV and Solar …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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WaterShed: the University of Maryland's Winning Solar Decathlon 2011 Entry
- Ayers Saint Gross (MD)
WaterShed is the net-zero home inspired by the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem that won the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon 2011. The student-designed, student-built home features constructed wetlands, a modular …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Shaping Perceptions of Sustainability: The Role of Post-secondary Coursework
- College of Charleston (SC)
This paper will gauge the role post-secondary academic instructions play in shaping student perceptions of the concept of sustainability. A comprehensive, web-based survey of College of Charleston students asked respondents …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Exploring Faculty Conceptualizations of Sustainable Universities Through the Use of Q Methodology
- Dalhousie University (NS)
The Sustainability in Higher Education literature reveals the highly subjective nature of thinking about what it means to be a sustainable university. We used Q methodology to explore how faculty …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Transitioning To Impact: From Classrooms To Careers In Sustainability
- Davidson College (NC)
This presentation introduces Davidson College's new Sustainability Scholars program and examines how it successfully transitions students from the classroom into sustainability careers. Sustainability Scholars are undergraduate students who address critical …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Inspiring Undergraduate Excellence with Direct and Meaningful Engagement
- Evergreen State College, The (WA)
This presentation demonstrates the power of significant engagement in conservation, sustainability, and social justice, as a motivator for undergraduate excellence. Two courses at The Evergreen State College will serve as …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Environmental studentship program as strategy to reach Sustainable University objective
- Universidade Federal de Uberlândia
One of the most important challenges of sustainable universities is to incorporate the environmental issues in education curriculum and research and in campus design. Federal University of Uberlândia, in Brazil, …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Empowering Students to Build a Pipeline of Sustainable Solutions
- Focus the Nation (OR)
This session will examine successful strategies to meaningfully engage students that harnesses their youthful idealism in a pragmatic way, promotes campus and community sustainability goals, and develops the skills they …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Building Green Bridges: Sustainability Career Paths for Students in Higher Education
- Green Training Associates LLC
Students seeking sustainability careers need supporting processes, tools and resources to enable them to follow appropriate educational paths and prepare them with the competencies, qualifications and relevant degrees/certificates to meet …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Teaching Business Sustainability Through Student-Led Corporate Sustainability Audits
- Ithaca College (NY)
Universities and colleges around the globe are beginning to offer more courses to teach students about environmentally responsible business practices. These courses often offer important theoretical foundations for students who …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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No Campus Is An Island: College Sustainability As Interdependence vs. Self-Sufficiency
- Lewis & Clark College (OR)
Definitions of sustainability at institutions of higher education often hearken back to the 1987 Brundtland Commission report, Our Common Future, yet many fail to capture its global scope, resulting in …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Flying our Talk: Sustainability Standards for Education Abroad
- Living Routes, Inc. (MA)
International Education exposes students to the world. It also exposes the world to the environmental, economic, and social impacts of travel and program activities. With over a quarter-million U.S. students …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Learning Outcomes for Teaching Sustainability in the Humanities
- Luther College (IA)
This paper explores the question of what we expect students to know and be able to do as the result of successful education for sustainability. I start by defending the …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Universal Design and Sustainability: an Appealing Synchronicity of Concepts for the 21st Century Campus Accessibility Audit.
- McGill University (QC)
Triggering organic change in Higher Education institutions towards widened access and the implementation of Universal, on the one hand, or sustainable development, on the other, is an arduous task which …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Activism that Pays: How Student Social Entrepreneurship Can Revitalize Your Campus
- New York University (NY)
Student clubs and organizations can be a useful platform for getting students involved, but is this traditional model of engagement limiting student capacity? This workshop, aimed at students and sustainability …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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SustaiNAITability
- Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (AB)
As members of a Bachelor of Technology in Technology Management capstone applied research team, we were able to establish NAIT as the first member of Polytechnics Canada to receive a …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Environmental Caucus: Connecting Students, Faculty and Staff Across Disciplines and Departments
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
The mission of the Environmental Caucus is to facilitate creative and strategic communication across campus to advance the institutional commitment to sustainability and to promote education, research, and collaboration on …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus to Community Engagement through Action Research Teams
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
How do university students engage with local communities to actually create meaningful action that brings everyone together toward common sustainability goals? The Weatherization & Community Building Action Team, which is …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Case Study on a Residential Energy Efficiency Service Learning Education Program
- Pennsylvania State University (PA)
The mission of the National Energy Leadership Corps (NELC) education program is to train (STEM discipline) students in partner universities to complete energy assessments and to perform home energy assessments …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainable University IdeaLab: Engaging Students Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Rochester Institute of Technology (NY)
Universities have big budgets, big energy bills, and large carbon and waste footprints. They also waste a major resource: large numbers of students with great entrepreneurial, technological, and innovative potential …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Students as Key Stakeholders in Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education
- Thompson Rivers University (BC)
This research project attempted to gauge the "culture of sustainability" among students at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and to determine whether students are key stakeholders in advancing sustainability by contributing …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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UBC Solar: An Example of Student Directed Faculty-Student Research Partnerships
- University of British Columbia (BC)
The research interests of faculty members direct most of the academic output in university environments. While there are opportunities for students to suggest research topics, these are largely limited to …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Little Classroom in the Big Woods
- University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)
Construction of the sustainable Bagley Outdoor Classroom at UMD demonstrated leadership in energy efficiency, renewable energy, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, passive heating, natural ventilation, water efficiency, local and renewable materials, …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sustainability as Deep Learning: the University of the District of Columbia's Sustainable City Faculty Fellowship
- University of the District of Columbia (DC)
The University of the District of Columbia's Sustainable City Faculty Fellowship (SCFF) is a collaborative, interdisciplinary professional development program designed to integrate sustainability into curriculum throughout UDC's schools and colleges …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Action Research in Education for Sustainability at the University of Vermont's Greenhouse Residential Learning Community
- University of Vermont (VT)
Higher education institutions are addressing sustainability issues through the Education for Sustainability (EfS) framework. Innovative curricula on sustainability provide engaging topics and contexts through which to teach and learn about …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Eco Adventures: Combining Recreation with Civic Engagement to Enhance Learning
- Washington State University, Pullman (WA)
Eco Adventures is a collaborative program offered by university recreation and service learning departments, providing outdoor recreational trips that include a service learning project. These adventures have been successful as …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Using Experiential Activities to Introduce and Enhance Sustainability Education
- Washington State University, Pullman (WA)
Through experiential games and activities, student leaders and faculty/staff can provide a framework and enhance understanding of sustainability concepts in a variety of settings including boardrooms, classrooms and workshops. Experiential …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Teacher Educators Luncheon
- Webster University (MO)
Teacher Educators are invited to come together to discuss the status of sustainability in higher education, how to move it forward, and who to work with.
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Why Would We Work Together?: Sustainability Projects and Interdisciplinary Student Learning
- West Virginia University at Parkersburg (WV)
Sustainability, as a concept, is a familiar part of curriculum and a high priority for colleges and universities throughout the world. In an effort to meet the interdisciplinary research goals …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Towards a Zero Plus Campus
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
The Zero Plus Campus Project (Z+ Project) is developing an innovative interdisciplinary curriculum focused on modeling the performance of the buildings integrated in the landscape to regenerate the campus environment …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Universities Adopting Cities to Address the Climate Challenge
- Strategic Energy Innovations (CA)
Local governments are increasingly compelled to take action on climate and energy issues, but are challenged to respond as a result of limited capacity. At the same time, universities are …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Creating a culture of firestarters: How to cultivate highly effective students
- University of Missouri (MO)
Students are an essential part of a robust campus sustainability movement. Their involvement is not only educationally valuable for them, it can also expedite your projects and allow you to …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Introduction to Sustainable Development: Creative Teaching Techniques to Connect, Engage, and Enlighten
- Appalachian State University (NC)
How do you introduce and explicate the complicated and interdisciplinary concept of Sustainable Development? This interactive presentation will explore a variety of ways to creatively and effectively teach the Gordian …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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A Sustainable Course on Sustainability
- Dickinson College (PA)
My college recently offered me the opportunity to teach a new kind of course with a new set of technological teaching tools. This class, "Thoreau, Wilderness, and American Nature Writing,"" …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Imperative of a Sustainable Human Resource Management Course in MBA Programs
- Kent State University (OH)
The MBA Human Resource Management core course covers all functional areas of HRM, with an emphasis on the manager's perspective and responsibilities. This session makes a case for the imperative …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Energy auditing by summer undergraduate interns
- Sewanee - The University of the South (TN)
With tight budgets, many small colleges have a hard time finding the funds to hire a consulting engineering firm to conduct energy audits and develop retrofit strategies. A way to …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Putting the Sustainability into Existing Courses
- Frostburg State University (MD)
While many courses have a potential connection to sustainability studies, developing that linkage requires additional work. For existing courses to maximize their contribution to the sustainability studies program, course revision …
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Beyond the Worshops: Examples of sustainability integration across the curriculum
- University of Mount Union (OH)
The Headwaters Project is our institution's program to infuse concepts of sustainability across the curriculum. Motivated by the AASHE-supported curriculum development workshop at Emory University in January 2010, we developed …
- 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
- Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings
- Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings
- Inventory of sustainability course offerings (upload)
- Website URL - Sustainability course offerings
AC 2: Learning Outcomes
- Description of institution level sustainability learning outcomes
- List of degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability
- Percentage of students who graduate from programs that require an understanding of sustainability
- Website URL - Sustainability learning outcomes
AC 3: Undergraduate Program
- First sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- Second sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- Third sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- First sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
- Second sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
- Third sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
AC 4: Graduate Program
- First sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- First sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
AC 5: Immersive Experience
- Description of the sustainability-focused immersive program(s)
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
AC 6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment
- Copy of the sustainability literacy assessment (upload)
- Copy of the sustainability literacy assessment (description)
- Website URL - Assessment of sustainability literacy
AC 7: Incentives for Developing Courses
- Description of the course development incentives
- Website URL - Incentives for developing sustainability courses
AC 8: Campus as a Living Laboratory
Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.