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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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Learning to change: Transformative knowledge for building a sustainable bioeconomy

  • University of Hohenheim

The transition towards a bioeconomy is considered a powerful approach to combating current trends of unsustainability. To date, the concept has been widely perceived as a predominantly technical endeavor. This ...

Predicting Student Sustainability Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors: Effects of Demography, Environmental Science Education, and Sustainability Intervention Programs at Georgia Southern University

  • Georgia Southern University (GA)

This mixed-methods research approach assesses trends in sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in the student population at Georgia Southern University (GS). Students completed a baseline survey in order to determine ...

Education for sustainability in business and management studies: learning history of the GoGreen Pilot'12

  • Anglia Ruskin University

This doctoral study aims at investigating the contribution of the GoGreen Pilot’12 project in the process of embedding education for sustainability (EfS) in business and management studies in the ...

Understanding and Opinion on Sustainable Development Among Youths in Higher Educational Institutions in Penang, Malaysia

  • Universiti Sains Malaysia

The implementations of sustainable development are a global trend and recently focus on Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda. Furthermore, in ensuring the successful implementation of the Agenda, youths play a ...

Perception of sustainability competencies amongst Spanish pre-service secondary school teachers

  • Universidad Camilo José Cela (Madrid)

This paper aims to present the results from a questionnaire distributed to a group of Spanish postgraduate teacher students pursuing a Master’s Degree in Secondary School Education. The aims ...

Sustainability-as-flourishing: teaching for a sustainable future

  • Auckland University of Technology
  • Kenvale College of Hospitality, Cookery & Events (NSW)

Purpose In a recent article, Schaefer et al. (2015) argue that cultivating appropriate beliefs and values, cultivating systems thinking and encouraging responsibility are the stages to be followed to achieve ...

Engineering Education for Sustainable Development: The European Project Semester Approach

  • Universitat Politècnica de València (Valencia)
  • Polytechnic University of Catalonia
  • Instituto Politécnico do Porto (Porto)

Contribution: An analysis of the extent to which sustainability is present in the syllabi, project briefs, report templates, and student final reports of the three Iberian European project semester (EPS ...

Incorporating Sustainability Principles Into Architectural Design Education: Results of an Experimental Design Studio

  • Middle East Technical University
  • Izmir Institute of Technology (IYTE) (İzmir)

Design is a structured process or a tactical guideline to accomplish a unique expectation of a product, while a design studio is the environment where students are taught the skills ...

A study of energy literacy among nursing students to examine implications on energy conservation efforts in Taiwan

  • National Taiwan Normal University
  • Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology
  • Ming Chi University of Technology

Nurses' energy literacy should be developed during schooling to ensure their involvement in sustainable healthcare. In this study, we explored nursing students' energy literacy and the relationships among knowledge, affect ...

The Bridge Between Education for Sustainable Development and Transformative Learning: Towards New Collaborative Learning Spaces

  • Vienna University of Economics and Business

Recent research has become increasingly interested in the concepts of education for sustainable development (ESD) and transformative learning (TL). However, even as ESD can be described as holistic and transformational ...

Designing a Sustainable Marketing Class to Be Relevant: Fostering Engagement and Active Learning

  • Morehead State University (KY)

This paper discusses the activities and assignments of a sustainable marketing course that have been designed to show the personal as well as societal relevance of the course content to ...

Sustainability science in education: analysis of master’s programmes’ curricula

  • University of Helsinki
  • Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) (Uusimaa)

Sustainability science is an emerging, free-standing scientific discipline. It has introduced a new approach to both sustainability research and educational programmes, while evoking novel perspectives to stronger societal contextualization. Among ...

Bringing an entrepreneurial focus to sustainability education: A teaching framework based on content analysis

  • Nord University
  • Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS) - Campus Viamão (RS)

Research on sustainability education has neglected to integrate entrepreneurial skills into other relevant competences such as foresight, complex problem-solving, and interdisciplinarity. Previous research highlights possible convergences between sustainability education and ...

Education for advancing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals: A systematic approach

  • Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul (SP)

The research presented systematically reviewed the literature on education for advancing implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to identify important bibliometric patterns and evidence in this relatively new, but ...

Building Leadership Competencies for the SDGs through Community/University Experiential Learning

  • University of Calgary (AB)
  • The Strongest Oak Foundation (AB)

This research provides a case study of how experiential learning opportunities provided by a Master of Science program in Sustainable Energy Development (SEDV) helped to achieve four Sustainable Development Goals ...

Diversity Content in STEM? How Faculty Values Translate into Curricular Inclusion Unevenly for Different Subjects in Environmental and Sustainability Programs

  • University of California, Los Angeles (CA)
  • University of Virginia (VA)
  • Vincent Evaluation Consulting (OK)

While addressing racial inequality in the higher education curriculum and promoting an inclusive curriculum in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) remain contentious issues, little is known about the processes ...

Curriculum gaps for adult climate literacy

  • Smith College (MA)
  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)
  • Delta Stewardship Council (CA)

Conservation scientists need to advance climate literacy so that people understand how climate affects all of life, acquire the skills to communicate about climate change, and become aware of ways ...

Transactional learning and sustainability co-creation in a university – business collaboration

  • University of Helsinki
  • Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) (Uusimaa)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the learning outcomes of the project-based learning in a Master Class programme on sustainability carried out in collaboration by the University ...

Best practices for teaching green invention: Interviews on design, engineering, and business education

  • Dartmouth College (NH)
  • Alula Consulting (MT)

This study investigated best practices in teaching environmental responsibility to inventors and innovators. Because successful invention includes engineering, design, and business, best practices in all three disciplines were investigated, as ...

Empirical evidence that concept mapping reduces neurocognitive effort during concept generation for sustainability

  • Virginia Tech (VA)

Sustainable development is a systems problem that requires a shift in thinking from individual parts to the relationships between them. Enabling those involved in the development process to more quickly ...

Phosphorus – a “political” element for transdisciplinary chemistry education

  • University of California, Davis (CA)
  • Universität Bremen

The paper describes a curriculum innovation project for integrating the sustainability-oriented socio-scientific issue of phosphate recovery into undergraduate chemistry education. Justification for the topic is derived from the importance of ...

Towards an Education for the Circular Economy (ECE): Five Teaching Principles and a Case Study

  • Utrecht University

The circular economy (CE) concept is seen by many as a novel pathway to sustainable development. A few scholars have started outlining educational approaches and tools that lecturers can use ...

“Future-proof your Degree”: Embedding sustainability and employability at Nottingham Business School (NBS)

  • Nottingham Trent University

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of how a UK business school has explicitly linked sustainability to employability and embedded these into all levels ...

Classroom collaborations: Enabling sustainability education via student-community co-learning

  • De Montfort University

Purpose This study aims to explore co-learning classes, a novel approach to leveraging universities’ capacity to contribute to the local sustainable development agenda whilst enhancing students’ learning. These participatory classes ...

Learning for Transdisciplinary Leadership: Why Skilled Scholars Coming Together Is Not Enough

  • University of Calgary (AB)
  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)
  • Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) (ON)

Transdisciplinary research is an emerging new normal for many scientists in applied research fields, including One Health, planetary health, and sustainability. However, simply bringing highly skilled students (and faculty members ...

Integrating Green and Sustainable Chemistry into Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories: Closing and Assessing the Loop on the Basis of a Citrus Biorefinery Approach for the Biocircular Economy in Brazil

  • Universidade Federal de São Carlos
  • University of York

One of the keys to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education is to introduce novel pedagogical strategies into university curricula in order to promote an ...

The assessment of graduate sustainability attributes in the workplace: Potential advantages of using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB)

  • RMIT University

Sustainability in higher education aims to educate learners, as both citizens and future professionals, to build capacity to bring about a more sustainable future. As such, sustainability education can be ...

Analysing the factors affecting the incorporation of sustainable development into European Higher Education Institutions' curricula

  • Gävle University College

There has been an increase in sustainable development (SD) integration into Higher Education Institutions' (HEIs) curricula. Several tools have been developed to assess SD in HEIs; however, only a few ...

Teaching Urban Sustainability: A Study Abroad Perspective

  • Ohio University (OH)
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Exeter (Devon)

Since 2011 more than 100 students from Ohio University have travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland, to study history, urban planning, and sustainability. In this paper we recount the genesis of this ...

The End of Simple Problems: Repositioning Chemistry in Higher Education and Society Using a Systems Thinking Approach and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as a Framework

  • University of Bristol
  • Technical University of Crete

The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways that a chemistry course could reposition itself by adopting interdisciplinary approaches based on systems thinking and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs ...

Organizational hypocrisy in business schools with sustainability commitments: The drivers of talk-action inconsistency

  • University of Bath

Business schools are criticized for not walking-the-talk given their sustainability rhetoric and the expectation they educate future managers to act responsibly, balancing economic aims with the social and environmental impacts ...

Including aspects of sustainability in the degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics: An evaluation based on student perceptions

  • Universidad del Pais Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (Bizkaia)

Education is progressing towards having a more sustainable outlook. Numerous approaches to sustainability teaching have been conducted at different educational stages, but few studies have used quantitative methods to measure ...

Bridging sustainability science, earth science, and data science through interdisciplinary education

  • Colorado State University (CO)
  • University of Texas at Austin (TX)
  • University of Texas at El Paso (TX)
  • University of Vermont (VT)

Given the rapid emergence of data science techniques in the sustainability sciences and the societal importance of many of these applications, there is an urgent need to prepare future scientists ...

Systems thinking approaches for international green chemistry education

  • University of York

This overview outlines the recent progress made in addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through educators incorporating systems thinking approaches within green and sustainable chemistry education. A blend of ...

Integrating the Molecular Basis of Sustainability into General Chemistry through Systems Thinking

  • Iowa State University (IA)
  • Dalhousie University (NS)
  • The King's University (AB)
  • Imperial College London

The flow of materials and energy through society is an integral but poorly visible element of global sustainability agendas such as the Planetary Boundaries Framework and the UN Sustainable Development ...

Perspectives of scholars on the nature of sustainability: a survey study

  • Michigan State University (MI)

Purpose This paper aims to investigate different ways in which faculty members of sustainability-related departments in universities across the world perceive, understand and define sustainability and how these definitions are ...

Preaching to the choir or composing new verses? Toward a writerly climate literacy in introductory undergraduate biology

  • Cornell University (NY)
  • University of Michigan (MI)

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing society today, yet a wide range of misconceptions exist in society about whether or why climate change is happening, what ...

Professional Aspirations as Indicators of Responsible Leadership Style and Corporate Social Responsibility. Are We Training the Responsible Managers that Business and Society Need? A Cross-national Study (Las aspiraciones profesionales como indicadores del estilo de liderazgo responsable y de la responsabilidad social corporativa. ¿Estamos formando a los directivos responsables que necesitan las empresas y la sociedad? Un estudio entre países)

  • Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Madrid)

The relationship between responsible leadership (RL), identified from achievement expectations, and the importance attached to corporate social responsibility (CSR) was analyzed. In a survey of 1,833 business management undergraduates ...

Using research methods courses to teach students about sustainable development – a three-phase model for a transformative learning experience

  • Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart/University of Applied Sciences (HFT) (Stuttgart)

Purpose Learning about sustainable development in dedicated curricula can be beneficial for students’ personal and professional development and societies alike. However, for various reasons the implementation of sustainable development modules ...

Circular Economy Competencies for Design

  • Technische Universiteit Delft

This study addresses what competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) designers need in order to successfully design products and services for a circular economy. Existing literature, though sparse, has identified a ...

Are the sustainable development goals being implemented in the Portuguese higher education formative offer?

  • Polytechnic Institute of Santarém
  • University of Aveiro

Purpose The study aims to examine the vertical integration of the sustainable development goals (SGDs) in Portuguese public higher education institutions, namely, at the level of undergraduate and master’s ...

Teaching Sustainability in Fashion Design Courses Through a Zero-Waste Design Project

  • Illinois State University (IL)
  • University of North Texas (TX)

With the increased importance of learning about sustainability in fashion design curriculum, this article reports the teaching zero-waste design in existing fashion design courses that teach skills needed to create ...

Greenhouse Gas Footprints for Physicists

  • University of Hawaii at Hilo (HI)
  • University of New Hampshire (NH)
  • University of Virginia (VA)

Our aim in this paper is to describe an opportunity for physics students and faculty to learn about an environmental issue of much current interest: the quantification, or footprint analysis ...

Integrating perspectives from indigenous knowledge and Western science in secondary and higher chemistry learning to contribute to sustainability education

  • Universität Bremen
  • Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa (Banten)

In this paper, we suggest integrating perspectives from indigenous and Western science into chemistry learning. Doing so is suggested to enhance students' views on sustainability issues. Integrating indigenous and Western ...

A fragility approach to sustainability – researching effects of education

  • Wageningen University
  • University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz
  • WSB University in Wrocla (Wrocław)

Purpose Management education trainers are increasingly called upon to train students to devise interventions for sustainable development in business settings. Due to the dominant reductionist paradigm, these interventions may lead ...

Developing Students’ Action Competence for a Sustainable Future: A Review of Educational Research

  • National Taiwan Normal University
  • Taichung Municipal Dali High School (Taichung County)

The goal of education for sustainable development is to develop future citizens who can make informed decision and take responsible action to solve the problem. The concept of action competence ...

Achieving and Monitoring Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship: A Systematic Review of the Literature

  • University of Hawaii Honolulu Community College (HI)
  • Waseda University (Tokyo)

This paper presents the results of a systematic review of literature (56 studies) related to Sustainable Development Goal 4.7. The goal of the research reported on here is to ...

Insertion of Photovoltaic Solar Systems in Technological Education Institutions in Brazil: Teacher Perceptions Concerning Contributions towards Sustainable Development

  • Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
  • Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
  • Electric Energy Research Center (CEPEL)
  • Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN) (RN)

Teaching spaces are seen as institutions presenting relevant power to promote sustainability. Thus, in addition to knowledge (re)producers, they must also assume ethical obligations to incorporate daily sustainability-oriented actions ...

Assessment of the Development of Professional Skills in University Students: Sustainability and Serious Games

  • Universidad del Pais Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (Bizkaia)
  • Camara Bilbao University Business School (Vizcaya)

In this study, we analyze the development of key professional skills for sustainability (KPSS) in university students using serious games (SG) from a sustainability perspective. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were ...

Implementing the UN SDGs in Universities: Challenges, Opportunities, and Lessons Learned

  • RMIT University

The education sector is one of the few sectors that can support, promote, and contribute to achieving all of the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Universities, in ...

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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