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

International perspectives on the pedagogy of climate change

  • Purchase College - State University of New York (NY)
  • University of Massachusetts Lowell (MA)
  • Prince Sultan University (Riyadh)
  • Universidad de Sonora (Sonora)
  • University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz

Education is key to the advancement of environmental sustainability. Climate change education is a complex topic where a number of factors play key roles. One such factor, namely the ongoing ...

  • Posted April 29, 2019
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Connecting Social and Natural Ecologies Through a Curriculum of Giving for Student Wellbeing and Engagement

  • Australian National University
  • University of Canberra

Using hermeneutic phenomenology to aid the reader ‘experience’ the data collected, this study reports on 18 college students, 4 staff members and the author's trip to a remote island ...

  • Posted April 29, 2019
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On how business students’ personal values and sustainability conceptions impact their sustainability management orientation: Evidence from Germany, Indonesia and the USA

  • University of St. Gallen
  • National University of Singapore
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg
  • University of Sussex (Sussex)

This paper aims to develop and empirically test a framework on how personal values and sustainability conceptions affect students’ sustainability management orientation (SMO). An understanding of this connection gives insight ...

  • Posted April 29, 2019
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Learning Sustainable Cultural Safety in a Crowded, Warming World

  • University of Northern British Columbia (BC)

Among all the pressing needs for educational innovations that we face today, arguably the most imperative is the need to elicit learners’ active collaboration towards a ‘Great Transition’ into a ...

  • Posted April 29, 2019
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Mainstreaming Education for Sustainable Development at a Swiss University: Navigating the Traps of Institutionalization

  • University of Bern

How far have higher education institutions progressed towards integrating sustainable development at an institutional level and are they responding to the societal need for transformation? Can the pace of transformation ...

  • Posted April 29, 2019
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Earth Month Activities

  • University of Scranton (PA)

Earth Day Fair

  • Posted April 29, 2019
  • Photographs
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Tarrant County College Southeast Campus Aquaponics Cultivation Center and Wildlife Development

  • Tarrant County College Southeast (TX)

This is a massive, on-going project that we have been developing as a committee over the past 2 years. Right now, I am in the process of developing 2 miles ...

  • Posted April 29, 2019
  • Case Studies
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Conditions for transformative learning for sustainable development: a theoretical review and approach

  • Örebro University
  • Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and technological advances, but deep and enduring social and cultural changes. The purpose of this article is to contribute a ...

  • Posted April 5, 2019
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Master of Science in Environmental Science and Sustainability

  • Loyola University Chicago (IL)

A changing climate requires a changing professional. The Institute of Environmental Sustainability educates the next generation of professionals - environmental science and sustainability professionals who can apply an interdisciplinary approach to ...

  • Posted April 5, 2019
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Commitment to the Sustainability of Students Within a Responsible Management Education

  • Częstochowa Politechnika

Higher education has always responded to the social needs. Universities can play a critical role in the process of social change that relies on educating new generations of leaders and ...

  • Posted April 4, 2019
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Master of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management

  • Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)

The Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management curriculum is a multidisciplinary program with courses taught in schools across the Georgia Tech campus. These include Public Policy, Business, Industrial and Systems Engineering ...

  • Posted April 4, 2019
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Education for sustainable development through business simulation games: An exploratory study of sustainability gamification and its effects on students' learning outcomes

  • Università della Svizzera Italiana
  • UCS Ulrich Creative Simulations

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is gaining increased attention in tertiary education. According to the literature, ESD affects not only the content of education, but also its process and outcomes ...

  • Posted April 4, 2019
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Sustainably Developing Sustainability Programs and Curriculum

  • University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)
  • AASHE (PA)

The climate is changing in higher education today with unpredictable state funding, evolving student populations and dialog about sustainability of higher education itself. With the urgency for sustainable solutions to ...

  • Posted April 4, 2019
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Impact of environmental knowledge and product quality on student attitude toward products with recycled/remanufactured content: Implications for environmental education and green manufacturing

  • City University of Hong Kong
  • University of Sheffield
  • Monash University Malaysia

This study investigates the impact of environmental knowledge and perceived product quality on purchasing intention and purchasing behavior of recycled products: A4 paper, mobile phones and printers. The intent is ...

  • Posted March 31, 2019
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SEED Center

  • National Council for Workforce Education (FL)

The Sustainability Education, and Economic Development (SEED) Center aims to advance sustainability and clean technology education programs at community colleges by sharing innovative practices to help college administrators, faculty, and ...


Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability (CSRS) Initiatives among European and Asian Business Schools: A Web-based Content Analysis

  • GIFT University
  • University of Rome Tor Vergata

The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which MBA programmes offered by top European and Asian B-schools have a corporate social responsibility and sustainability (CSRS) orientation ...

  • Posted March 30, 2019
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The impact of neoliberalism on higher education tourism programs: Meeting the 2030 sustainable development goals with the next generation

  • George Mason University (VA)

Neoliberal influences can change the role of higher education towards training, which reduces their ability to instill the critical thinking skills needed to sustain the Sustainable Development Goals by future ...

  • Posted March 30, 2019
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Sulitest®: A Mixed-Method, Pilot Study of Assessment Impacts on Undergraduate Sustainability-related Learning and Motivation

  • Pittsburg State University (KS)

A United Nations international collaboration between the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) resulted in the creation of Sulitest® (aka Sustainability Literacy Test ...

  • Posted March 15, 2019
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A sustainable consumption teaching review: From building competencies to transformative learning

  • University of East Anglia

Sustainable consumption (SC) is a growing area of research, practice and policy-making that has been gaining momentum in teaching programs among higher education institutions. Understanding how, in what way, and ...

  • Posted March 15, 2019
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Cognitive and behavioural environmental concern among university students in a Canadian city: Implications for institutional interventions

  • University of Regina (SK)

Informed by Stern and colleagues’ value-belief-norm theory and their earlier empirical work, we examined levels and predictors of cognitive and behavioural environmental concern (EC) of university students in a Canadian ...

  • Posted March 15, 2019
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University Contributions to the Circular Economy: Professing the Hidden Curriculum

  • Cranfield School of Management

In a world dominated by linear economic systems, the road to improving resource use is multi-faceted. Whilst public and private organisations are making progress in introducing sustainable practices, we ask ...

  • Posted March 15, 2019
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Expanding Student Engagement in Sustainability: Using SDG- and CEL-Focused Inventories to Transform Curriculum at the University of Toronto

  • University of Toronto (ON)
  • London School of Economics and Political Science

The Expanded Student Engagement Project (ESE) has developed three comprehensive inventories which aim to increase student knowledge of sustainability-related course content and increase student engagement in on- and off-campus, curricular ...

  • Posted March 15, 2019
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Connecting Sustainability Competences and Pedagogical Approaches

  • AASHE (PA)
  • Tecnológico de Monterrey (Nuevo Leon)

Research into and practice of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) have been increasing during the last two decades. These have focused on providing sustainability education to future generations of ...

  • Posted March 11, 2019
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Sustainability Education and Organizational Change: A Critical Case Study of Barriers and Change Drivers at a Higher Education Institution

  • Kennesaw State University (GA)

Integrating sustainability within institutions of higher education can have a tremendous impact on students, faculty, and the larger community. Sustainability efforts also experience many barriers to implementation within higher education ...

  • Posted March 6, 2019
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Evaluating a dialogue-based approach to teaching about values and policy in graduate transdisciplinary environmental science programs

  • Michigan State University (MI)
  • Oregon State University (OR)
  • University of Dayton (OH)

This article discusses a formal evaluation of new curricular materials and activities designed to foster understanding of three key issues–expertise, risk, and sociopolitical constraints–related to values and policy ...

  • Posted March 6, 2019
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Educating for self‐interest or ‐transcendence? An empirical approach to investigating the role of moral competencies in opportunity recognition for sustainable development

  • Wageningen University

Entrepreneurship education with a focus on sustainable development primarily teaches students to develop a profit‐driven mentality. As sustainable development is a value‐oriented and normative concept, the role of ...

  • Posted March 6, 2019
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Universities responding to the call for sustainability: A typology of sustainability centres

  • University of Helsinki

Universities worldwide are experiencing a growing trend to respond to the need for sustainability. Sustainability centres are one key aspect in the sustainability transitions of universities. Until currently, these centres ...

  • Posted March 4, 2019
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Graduate attribute for minimising environmental harm – Assessing effectiveness in the graduates’ workplaces

  • Monash University (VIC)
  • RMIT University

Over recent times concern about the physical environment has fluctuated. Even after the coverage of environment and sustainability issues in the education of many professions, a decline of community concern ...

  • Posted March 4, 2019
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Higher Education for Professional and Civic Values: A Critical Review and Analysis

  • University of Otago (Otago)

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is generally thought to involve some degree of education for particular professional and civic values, attitudes and behaviours (leading to, as examples, being environmentally, socially ...

  • Posted March 4, 2019
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Management Education and Earth System Science: Transformation as if Planetary Boundaries Mattered

  • Stockholm University
  • Jönköping University
  • Berlin School of Creative Leadership

Earth system science (ESS) has identified worrying trends in the human impact on fundamental planetary systems. In this conceptual article, we discuss the implications of this research for business schools ...

  • Posted March 4, 2019
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How to Measure Procedural Knowledge for Solving Biodiversity and Climate Change Challenges

  • University of Göttingen

To cope with biodiversity and climate change challenges, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) needs to emphasize knowledge that considers multiple perspectives. Optimizing teacher education requires knowledge about the prerequisites of ...

  • Posted March 4, 2019
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Towards a Definition of Environmental Sustainability Evaluation in Higher Education

  • Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Madrid)
  • Universidad de Granada

Sustainability is increasing their presence at universities, so it is convenient to reflect on the impact and effectiveness that university sustainability actions are having. Several authors have recognized mature experiences ...

  • Posted March 4, 2019
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Driving factors for having visibility of sustainability contents in university degree titles

  • Universitat de València

Given the increasing concern about sustainability issues in society, graduates and postgraduates going into the labour market benefit from the inclusion of sustainability contents in university studies. Visibility of these ...

  • Posted March 4, 2019
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Regional Centers of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development

  • University of Texas at Arlington (TX)
  • University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (TX)
  • The University of Texas at Dallas (TX)
  • Dallas College (TX)

Why UT Arlington Deserves the Excellence in Sustainability Award

Under the leadership of Office of Sustainability at the University of Texas at Arlington, North Texas was recognized on Feb 7 ...

  • Posted March 1, 2019
  • Case Studies
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Changes in Pre-Service Teachers’ Values, Sense of Agency, Motivation and Consumption Practices: A Case Study of an Education for Sustainability Course

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

Teacher education has a critical role to play as people around the world strive to reach the Sustainable Development goals. Education for sustainability (EfS) aims to motivate and prepare educators ...

  • Posted March 1, 2019
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Seeking sustainability competence and capability in the ESD and HESD literature: an international philosophical hermeneutic analysis

  • University of Otago (Otago)
  • University of Vechta
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Education for sustainable development (ESD) and higher education for sustainable development (HESD) are complex, multidisciplinary fields of enquiry, drawing on concepts and terms from different disciplines and languages. Although the ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2019
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Social Justice (MA)

  • Methodist Theological School in Ohio (OH)

A 39-hour professional master’s degree. The Master of Arts in social justice (MASJ) offers an interdisciplinary core curriculum combining ethics, theology, public leadership, sacred texts and spirituality. Students choose ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2019
  • Academic Programs
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The Challenges of Sustainability Education

  • St. Thomas University (FL)

Abstract: Sustainability has become a growing imperative in higher education in the United States of America (Calder [HTML_REMOVED] Dautremont-Smith, 2009). This paper examines sustainability education as it continues to emerge ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2019
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Education for Social Justice

  • University of San Diego (CA)

Online Flexibility with Real-World Impact

Offered by the Department of Learning and Teaching. Ph.D. graduates of this program emerge with a rich understanding and experience of how to use ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
  • Academic Programs
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Sulitest: A collaborative initiative to support and assess sustainability literacy in higher education

  • Kingston University London
  • KEDGE Business School (Bordeaux)

This paper highlights the contribution of the Sulitest (the Sustainability Literacy Test) to the global agenda of integrating sustainability into higher education. The Sustainability Literacy Test is an open online ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Creating an academic landscape of sustainability science: an analysis of the citation network

  • University of Tokyo

Sustainability is an important concept for society, economics, and the environment, with thousands of research papers published on the subject annually. As sustainability science becomes a distinctive research field, it ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Sustainability literacy: the future paradigm for construction education?

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

Purpose This paper seeks to analyse the hypothesis that sustainability is destined to become the operating paradigm for construction education in the UK.

Design/methodology/approach An international literature review ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Buddhist Economics

  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)

Clair Brown, an economist at UC Berkeley and a practicing Buddhist, has developed a holistic economic approach, where the economy delivers a high quality of life in a sustainable world ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Experiential approaches to sustainability education: towards learning landscapes

  • Cardiff University
  • KU Leuven

Purpose This paper aims to critically reflect the current specialist discourse on experiential approaches to higher education for sustainable development (HESD). Limitations to the current discourse are identified, and as ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Sustainability Studies (Minor)

  • Muhlenberg College (PA)

The field of Sustainability Studies explores and critiques ways to do this in the context of maintaining ecological and environmental health while generating economic welfare and ensuring social justice. The ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Environmental Science (ASENVS)

  • Washtenaw Community College (MI)

This program is designed to prepare students to deal with environmental issues and concerns from a global point of view. Students will select from two tracks, one focusing on physical ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Bachelor of Natural Resource Science (BNRS)

  • Thompson Rivers University (BC)

This program consists of 120 credits which can be completed in four or five-years on a full-time basis, or up to seven- years on a part-time basis once admitted to ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Geography and Environmental Studies Major (BA)

  • Thompson Rivers University (BC)

The Geography and Environmental Studies program at TRU has strong teaching and research expertise in sustainable urban and rural landscapes, Japan, environmental geography, economic geography, hydrology, climatology, geomorphology and emerging ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Social Movement (MS)

  • Oklahoma State University (OK)

Sociologists study social movements to understand how collective action can transform social order, cultural values and ideologies, economic relations, and hierarchies. Professional sociologists study strategies used to establish connections among ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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Social Inequality (MS)

  • Oklahoma State University (OK)

Social inequality focuses on the structural sources and individual consequences of racism, sexism and economic exploitation in society, as well as the social processes sustaining these inequities. Professional sociologists use ...

  • Posted Feb. 25, 2019
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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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