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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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Developing Curriculum Recommendations for Environmental Health in Nursing

  • Duquesne University (PA)
  • Naugatuck Valley Community College (CT)
  • Prince George's Community College (MD)
  • University of California, San Francisco (CA)
  • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (MA)
  • Villanova University (PA)

In 2010, the American Nurses Association (ANA) added an environmental health standard to the ANA Scope and Standards of Practice requiring that nurses implement environmental health strategies in nursing practice. …

Health-Related Education for Sustainability: Public Health Workforce Needs and the Role of Higher Education

  • Deakin University
  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

Public health practitioners have important roles to play in addressing environmental sustainability imperatives that have an impact on human health. Yet, to date, the extent to which practitioners are willing …

Preparing medical graduates for the health effects of climate change: an Australasian collaboration

  • The University of Newcastle (NSW)
  • Bond University (Queensland)
  • Royal Australian College of Physicians
  • The University of Notre Dame Australia (WA)

Building a medical workforce that understands the impact of climate change on health and health services and will create change.

The Lancet has described action to address climate change as …

Exploring emerging learning needs: a UK-wide consultation on environmental sustainability learning objectives for medical education

  • University of Bristol
  • University College London (London)
  • University of Hull
  • Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (Oxford)

Objectives: This study aimed to engage wide-ranging stakeholders and develop consensus learning objectives for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

Methods: A UK-wide consultation garnered opinions of healthcare students, healthcare educators …

The use of evidence-informed sustainability scenarios in the nursing curriculum: Development and evaluation of teaching methods

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

Background Climate change and resource scarcity pose challenges for healthcare in the future, yet there is little to raise awareness about these issues in the nursing curriculum and nurses are …

It’s Time for Medical Schools to Introduce Climate Change Into Their Curricula

  • George Mason University (VA)
  • Georgetown University (DC)
  • University of California, San Francisco (CA)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (NY)

Climate change presents unprecedented health risks and demands universal attention to address them. Multiple intergovernmental organizations, health associations, and health professions schools have recognized the specific importance of preparing physicians …

Truth before reconciliation: the difficulties of transforming higher education in settler colonial contexts

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

In response to the contemporary context of reconciliation in Canada, colleges and universities have made efforts to ‘Indigenise’ their campuses, extending earlier, Indigenous-led efforts to create more space for Indigenous …

A colonial history of the higher education present: rethinking land-grant institutions through processes of accumulation and relations of conquest

  • Idaho State University (ID)

This conceptual paper examines the colonial conditions of possibility for a formative moment of US public higher education, the Morrill Act of 1862, and considers how these conditions continue to …

From “education for sustainable development” to “education for the end of the world as we know it”

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

In this article, we address the limitations of sustainable development as an orienting educational horizon of hope and change, given that mainstream development presumes the possibility of perpetual growth and …

Seeking impact of medical schools on health: meeting the challenges of social accountability

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

Context The acquisition of sums of knowledge and mastery of sophisticated technologies by medical graduates is insufficient for their responsibilities to recognise and adapt to people's evolving needs.

Response A …

Caring for a common future: medical schools' social accountability

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

Origins and context: The concept of ‘the social accountability of medical schools’ is moving from the peripheral preoccupation of a few to a more central concern of medical schools themselves. …

Education for sustainable healthcare: Leadership to get from here to there

  • University of North Dakota (ND)
  • University of Northern British Columbia (BC)
  • University of British Columbia Okanagan (BC)
  • Dalarna University
  • Swansea University
  • International Federation of Medical Students' Associations

The current global crises, including climate, COVID-19, and environmental change, requires global collective action at all scales. These broad socio-ecological challenges require the engagement of diverse perspectives and ways of …

Education for the Anthropocene: Planetary health, sustainable health care, and the health workforce

  • University of Cambridge
  • Utrecht University
  • Ontario Tech University (ON)
  • Queen Mary University of London

Over the past few centuries, human activity has wrought dramatic changes in the natural systems that support human life. Planetary health is a useful concept for health profession education (HPE) …

Education for sustainable health care: From learning to professional practice

  • University of South Dakota (SD)
  • University of Calgary (AB)
  • Hochschule Esslingen University of Applied Sciences
  • Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (NY)

A number of planetary boundaries, including climate change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, has already been exceeded. This situation has deleterious consequences for public health. Paradoxically, 4.4% of …

Education for sustainable healthcare: A transdisciplinary approach to transversal environmental threats

  • Monash University (VIC)
  • The University of Newcastle (NSW)
  • Heidelberg University
  • Bond University (Queensland)

Global Environmental Changes are dynamic and complex, crossing disciplines, sectors, regions, and populations and shaping the health of current and future generations. GECs present an unprecedented challenge demanding a response …

Why use indicators to measure and monitor the inclusion of climate change and environmental sustainability in health professions’ education?

  • Bond University (Queensland)
  • The University of Notre Dame Australia (WA)

Currently, health professionals are inadequately prepared to meet the challenges that climate change and environmental degradation pose to health systems. Health professions’ education (HPE) has an ethical responsibility to address …

Indigenous perspectives on education for sustainable healthcare

  • University of North Dakota (ND)
  • University of Washington, Seattle (WA)
  • University of Auckland
  • Bond University (Queensland)
  • El Fondo para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y El Caribe (FILAC)
  • Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation (NT)

A range of global environmental changes are contributing to an increasing global burden of disease. Since human health and well-being are intimately associated with the health of our planet, healthcare …

Envisioning planetary health in every medical curriculum: An international medical student organization’s perspective

  • University Hassan II (Casablanca-Settat)
  • Federal University of Roraima
  • University of Dhaka
  • University of Khartoum
  • International Federation of Medical Students' Associations
  • University of Delhi (Delhi)
  • University Tunis El Manar (El Omrane Superieur)
  • University of Barcelona

Background With deteriorating ecosystems, the health of mankind is at risk. Future health care professionals must be trained to recognize the interdependence of health and ecosystems to address the needs …

Fulfilling a new obligation: Teaching and learning of sustainable healthcare in the medical education curriculum

  • Imperial College London

Aims: Leading the growing international recognition of the need for sustainability in healthcare delivery, the UK medical regulator has mandated that newly qualified doctors must be able to apply the …

Rethinking health professions’ education leadership: Developing ‘eco-ethical’ leaders for a more sustainable world and future

  • Bond University (Queensland)
  • Swansea University

In this commentary, we discuss health professions’ education (HPE) leadership in relation to planetary health emergencies, suggesting that an ‘eco-ethical leadership’ approach is highly relevant. Building on both traditional and …

Building an environmentally accountable medical curriculum through international collaboration

  • Georgetown University (DC)
  • University of British Columbia (BC)
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)
  • University of Cape Town
  • Aarhus University
  • University of East Anglia
  • University of Tasmania (TAS)
  • University of Hull

Background: Global environmental change is associated with significant health threats. The medical profession can address this challenge through advocacy, health system adaptation and workforce preparedness. Stewardship of health systems with …

12 tips for teaching environmental sustainability to health professionals

  • Monash University (VIC)
  • The University of Newcastle (NSW)
  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

Background: As recognition of the health impacts of climate change and other environmental challenges increases, so too does the need for health care professionals to practice healthcare sustainably. Environmental sustainability …

Faculty development and partnership with students to integrate sustainable healthcare into health professions education

  • Georgetown University (DC)
  • University of California, San Francisco (CA)
  • Imperial College London

There is an urgent need for health professionals to address the impacts of accelerating global environmental change. Healthcare faculty therefore have to educate the rising generation of health professionals in …

Mandate for the Nursing Profession to Address Climate Change Through Nursing Education

  • MGH Institute of Health Professions (MA)
  • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (MA)
  • Villanova University (PA)

Purpose The adverse health effects from climate change demand action from the nursing profession. This article examines the calls to action, the status of climate change in nursing education, and …

Implementing AACN's Recommendations for Environmental Sustainability in Colleges of Nursing: From Concept to Impact

  • Washington State University, Spokane (WA)

In 2011, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) released a guidance report titled Toward an Environmentally Sustainable Academic Enterprise: An AACN Guide for Nursing Education. The report was …

A cohort study of sustainability education in nursing

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution of scenario-based learning aimed at raising awareness of sustainability in health-care practitioners. The Lancet Countdown on Climate Change calls …

Integrating Environmental Sustainability Content Into an RN-to-BSN Program: A Pilot Study

  • University of Michigan-Flint (MI)

BACKGROUND: The link between environmental sustainability, climate change, and health outcomes makes environmental sustainability an important topic for educators to include in nursing curricula.

METHOD: Students completed a sustainability in …

Charting students’ exposure to promising practices of teaching about sustainability across the higher education curriculum

  • Columbia University (NY)
  • Michigan State University (MI)

Although policymakers have advocated for infusing sustainability throughout the higher education curriculum, we know little about how to teach students this complex subject matter. Therefore, using data from a sustainability …

A framework for mapping sustainability within tertiary curriculum

  • UNSW Sydney (NSW)

Purpose Sustainability within tertiary curriculum is hard to measure and often perceived to be illusive in nature. Existing higher education sustainability assessment tools rarely focus on the curriculum. This paper …

Towards a sustainable future with education?

  • Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies

The call for a kind of education which can contribute to a sustainable future has resulted in the “education for sustainable development” (ESD) campaign. What is implied here is that …

Building new foundations: the future of education from a degrowth perspective

  • Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie

Considering education in the context of making and unmaking sustainable futures, a growing relevance is attributed to the role of shared beliefs or mental infrastructures which shape the way people …

Exploring just sustainability across the disciplines at one university

  • State University of New York at Plattsburgh (NY)
  • University of Vermont (VT)

We examined The University of Vermont’s new sustainability requirement for undergraduates through the lens of just sustainability. We found that sustainability courses are proposed in diverse disciplines. Regardless of discipline, …

Engineering education and the development of competencies for sustainability

  • Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
  • University of Campinas
  • Universidade Federal Fluminense

Purpose This paper aims to deal with the skills for sustainable development in engineering courses. The main objective is to identify which competences should be developed in these courses to …

A whole‐person approach to educating for sustainability

  • University of Sydney (NSW)
  • University of Brighton

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of a whole‐person approach to educating for sustainability (EfS), with a focus on persons' identity, motivation and higher order …

Worthy of debate: discursive coherence and agreement in the formation of the field of sustainability in higher education

  • Northwestern University (IL)

This article explores the development of shared understanding in the field of environmental sustainability in higher education—a field that began with social movement pressure surrounding contentious issues and evolved over …

A Case Study of Sustainability and Civic Engagement in a Sociology of Food Course

  • Florida Gulf Coast University (FL)

This article presents a case study of a ‘Sociology of Food’ course premised on issues of social justice and ethical and sustainable food practices. Through sustainability-inspired service-learning projects, students learn …

Training tomorrow's environmental journalists: Assessing the extent of environmental-themed training in college-level journalism programs

  • Penn State Brandywine (PA)

While the scale of the environmental problems facing the planet mean that effective environmental journalism is now more important than ever, the environmental beat can be extremely challenging for journalists. …

Challenges in the teaching of environmental journalism

  • Michigan State University (MI)
  • University of Maine (ME)
  • University of St. Thomas (MN)

The birth of the modern environmental movement in the 1970's sparked more extended and in-depth news coverage of ecological issues and awakened interest among journalism educators and prospective journalists to …

Integrating sustainability across the computer science curriculum

  • Furman University (SC)

Issues of sustainability have received considerable attention on college campuses over the last decade. However, actions taken in support of sustainability generally take the form of changing the practices of …

Designing and Assessing Learning Outcomes: A Framework for Co-Curricular Sustainability Programs

  • Portland State University (OR)

In recent years, Co-Curricular Sustainability Programs (CoCSPs) have been established at many higher education institutions. However, few such programs have developed learning outcomes or assessment processes to measure the types …

Implementing sustainability as the new normal: Responsible management education – From a private business school's perspective

  • CBS International Business School

Globally, societies face enormous social, economic and environmental challenges, such as scarcity of resources, demographic developments, climate change, inequality, etc. The degree of success in coping with these complex issues …

Beyond criminal justice: connecting justice and sustainability

  • Edinburgh Napier University

The potential of higher education in advancing sustainability has been widely accepted and even partly realised, although a wholesale reorientation of core activities and curricula toward and embedded with sustainability …

Critical Sustainabilities: Negotiating Sustainability’s Discursive Maze in the Classroom

  • Texas State University, San Marcos (TX)

“Sustainability” features in numerous discourses, each of which frames the issue according to its particular worldview(s). Thus there is no singular sustainability conception, but multiple sustainabilities that compete with one …

Teaching Sustainability via the Environmental Humanities: Studying Water, Studying Ourselves

  • College of Charleston (SC)

The dawning anthropocene requires innovation and organizational change across all types of institutions, including in higher education. One area where innovation can occur is in curricula building, and the offering …

From Linear Industrial Structures to Living Systems: A Design Shift in Education for Sustainability

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

If sustainability is to be an integral part of rethinking education organization, it is necessary to redesign mental models that shape present curricular structures. Assumptions underlying the design of most …

Using Systems Thinking to Educate for Sustainability in a Business School

  • University of Hull

This paper explores what it means for a business school to embed systems thinking and sustainability into the curriculum by looking at both the application of systems thinking to the …

Toward an Environmentally Sustainable Academic Enterprise: An AACN Guide for Nursing Education

  • Adelphi University (NY)
  • Emory University (GA)
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore (MD)
  • Washington State University, Spokane (WA)

In Fall 2009, the AACN Deans/Directors passed a motion in support of AACN taking a leadership role on issues addressing environmental sustainability in nursing education. The following spring the AACN …

Changing roles of universities in the era of SDGs: rising up to the global challenge through institutionalising partnerships with governments and communities

  • American University of Beirut

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers a wide range of interrelated goals, including poverty eradication and economic growth, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and peace for all people by 2030. …

Teaching Psychology for Sustainability: The Why and How

  • University of St. Thomas (MN)
  • Willamette University (OR)

The behavioral sciences can make vital contributions to environmental sustainability efforts, as relevant basic and applied psychological research has grown considerably over the past dozen years. Recently, conservation biologists, environmental …

Sustainability education in textile and apparel programs in higher education: A web-based content analysis

  • University of Delaware (DE)
  • Keimyung University

Sustainability is a composite view of diverse and interwoven themes related to human welfare, economic growth, and the natural environment. Inclusion of education for sustainable development is a crucial paradigmatic …

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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