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

Sustainability: Formative Assessments Across the Curriculum

  • University of Wisconsin-River Falls (WI)

Formative Assessments are the cog in the wheel of the educational assessment cycle. These assessments drive daily instruction, before, during and after instruction, informing the teacher of student understanding and ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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The Mindful Praxis of Education for Sustainable Development

  • University of Wisconsin-River Falls (WI)

This longitudinal inquiry involving 250 teacher candidates per year for five years, explores methods that motivate teacher candidates to create and integrate mindful sustainability curriculum in practice. Elementary and secondary ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Using Contemplative Practices to Cultivate Resilient Students and Social-Ecological Systems

  • Michigan State University (MI)
  • University of North Carolina, Asheville (NC)

This joint session will offer two presentations on the uses of contemplative practices and mindfulness-based pedagogy for teaching about environmental sustainability. Topic 1 (Goralnik): If sustainability is the effort to ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Best Practices Incorporating Sustainability into the Curricula/ Dallas County Community College District

  • Dallas College (TX)

The 7 colleges that are part of the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) signed the ACUPCC/ Second Nature President's Climate Commitment and have set dates for carbon neutrality ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Re-generation: Regenerate, Renew, and Refresh - Preparing Our Students to Lead

  • Montana State University (MT)

Our graduates, coined the Re-Generation, has the responsibility to lead the world to a economical and ecological balance. To do this, they will draw on their campus experience to help ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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How a New Learning Lab Becomes a Continuous Career Fair and Sustainability Jobs Hub

  • Sacramento City College (CA)
  • Trane (TX)

The Sacramento City College Mechanical Electrical Technology (MET) Program has been in place for decades. In recent years, enrollment has leveled off but local industry still has a relative high ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Featuring the Chemistry Department in Campus Sustainability Initiatives: Best Practices in the Lab and Curriculum

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
  • My Green Lab (CA)
  • Beyond Benign (MA)

Chemistry laboratories have a long-standing reputation of being energy, water, and waste intensive. The emergence of high standards of environmental and social responsibility have lead to a particular need for ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Sustainability Competencies: What are They, how to Address Them in Sustainability Courses, and how to Assess Students' Learning

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Portland State University (OR)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

This workshop introduces the following set of sustainability competencies: systems, future, values, and strategic thinking as well as interpersonal competence. The workshop explores how to use these competencies to design ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Taking Sustainability to the Basement: Indoor Campus Growing Solutions for any Room, any Size and any Budget

  • Missouri State University (MO)
  • Compass Group (NC)

A student driven initiative to create a year-round, hyper-local, on-campus food source that is run by students and funded by the campus dining partner. This model can be adapted to ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Faculty Learning Communities for Sustainability

  • Oregon State University (OR)
  • State University of New York at New Paltz (NY)

In this session, State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY NP) and Oregon State University (OSU) will share their unique sustainability learning community designs as well as successes ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Sustainability and the Capstone Experience: Lessons from 5 Years of Applied Sustainability at Southwestern University

  • Southwestern University (TX)

For the past five years, the Southwestern environmental studies capstone experience has allowed students to engage with salient social, economic, and environmental sustainability issues on their campus. Each year, environmental ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Connecting Community Partnerships with Curriculum to Strengthen Sustainability Education

  • University of St. Thomas (MN)
  • Virginia Tech (VA)

This session will discuss the role of community partnerships (CP) for strengthening sustainability education at the University of St. Thomas (UST), a liberal arts university, and Virginia Tech (VT), a ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Finding the Sustainability Sweet Spot: Where Operations and Education Converge

  • Portland Community College (OR)
  • University of Calgary (AB)

Education for sustainable development requires an interdisciplinary approach. Yet, few organizations are ready to embrace the dynamism that breeds collaborative academic success. Like academic disciplines, college operations are too frequently ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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A Relay-Race, not a Sprint: Advancing Campus as Lab in Solidarity

  • Johnson County Community College (KS)
  • Princeton University (NJ)
  • University of Calgary (AB)

Campus as a Living Laboratory' is a rapidly evolving strategy for deploying innovative and utilitarian sustainability strategies. Presenters from diverse geographic locations and institution types examine the differences and similarities ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Supporting Students' Sustainability Learning and Emotional Resilience with Reflection and Contemplation

  • Peninsula College (WA)
  • Evergreen State College, The (WA)
  • Western Washington University (WA)

How do we foster the cognitive complexity, ethical development, and personal resolve required for this 'sustainability century?' Tackling complex, systemic problems requires nuanced interdisciplinary understandings and the ability to engage ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Catch: A Face-to-Face Dynamic Simulation Game for Teaching About Renewable Natural Resource Management and Sustainability

  • Western Michigan University (MI)

Catch© is free, fun and innovative, face-to-face systems dynamic simulation game that responds to the need for new, core-competency based pedagogical resources for teaching about the challenges of transformative change ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Building Our Capacity for Taking Action Together

  • Daemen University (NY)
  • Green Mountain College (VT)

Sustainability education needs more emphasis on developing skills necessary for students to engage in effective collective action (CA). This presentation will showcase coursework and projects at Green Mountain College and ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Longitudinal Sustainability Literacy and Culture Assessment for Students, Faculty, and Staff - Lessons Learned and Results

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Michigan State University (MI)
  • University of Michigan (MI)

As more institutions increase their focus on sustainability both academically and operationally, the need for measurement increases. Currently, there is no common tool for measuring sustainability literacy, the culture of ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Breaking Boundaries in Sustainability Education

  • University of Minnesota, Duluth (MN)
  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

What brings together faculty in Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Sports Management and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies? A new cohort-based fellowship program, hosted by the University of Minnesota's Institute ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Teaching Climate Change Across the Curriculum

  • Southwestern University (TX)
  • Trinity University (TX)

The complexities of climate change can only be understood through multiple disciplinary lenses. Faculty at Southwestern University and Trinity University have developed curricula that promote interdisciplinary student learning about this ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Prioritizing Sustainable Learning

  • Loyola University Chicago (IL)
  • University of South Alabama (AL)
  • University of Texas at Austin (TX)
  • CannonDesign (NY)

Many of today's colleges and universities have prioritized sustainability and, as a consequence, highly sustainable buildings and landscapes. And, without a doubt, both prospective and current students have expressed ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Advancing ESD Curriculum Development & Faculty Development through a Consortium Approach

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)
  • Ramapo College of New Jersey (NJ)
  • Sustainability Curriculum Consortium (MD)
  • Green Whys Consulting (TX)

At AASHE 2015, we convened a dialogue to identify sustainability educators' challenges and recommendations to address critical needs. That successful workshop informed the launch of the Sustainability Curriculum Consortium. At ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Incorporating Sustainability in Traditional Writing and Humanities Courses

  • Texas A&M University-Texarkana (TX)
  • University of Arkansas (AR)
  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX)

In this session, participants will learn about two different approaches to incorporating sustainability in First-Year Composition courses. The first presentation will report on a pilot project that aimed to model ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Multiple Approaches to Successfully Sustaining Your Campus as a Teaching and Living Laboratory

  • Duke University (NC)
  • Furman University (SC)
  • North Carolina State University (NC)
  • University of North Carolina, Charlotte (NC)
  • University of Georgia (GA)

The concept of using campus buildings, grounds, infrastructure, resources, and systems to support research and learning in sustainability is widely accepted and recognized by assessments like STARS. This workshop will ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Engaging Tech-Savvy Students in Curricular and Co-Curricular Sustainability Programs for Social and Environmental Change

  • Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)
  • HTS Enterprise, LLC (GA)

Sustainability education can meaningfully build and enhance relationships with diverse stakeholders while engaging students in learning that promotes social and environmental change. Leaders from Georgia Tech will share their experiences ...

  • Posted Dec. 1, 2017
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Sustainability Academic Programs Database

  • AASHE (PA)

AASHE’s academic programs listing is among the largest and most comprehensive public databases of academic programs in sustainability and related fields. It includes everything from professional certificates to doctoral ...


Implementing Sustainability in the Curriculum of Universities: Approaches, Methods and Projects

This book presents sustainable development themes across universities and introduces methodological approaches and projects to the teaching staff.

It has been prepared against this background, to identify ways to better ...

  • Posted Nov. 30, 2017
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Sustainability: Designing Interdisciplinary Opportunities for Teaching

  • Dallas College (TX)

The workbook is not just about sustainability, in and of itself. It is part of a larger sustainability process that: 1) illustrates how sustainability correlates with current courses; 2) provides ...

  • Posted Nov. 30, 2017
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Spreadsheet: Publications related to the role of access to nature in education

  • Princeton University (NJ)
  • University at Buffalo (NY)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • Dallas College (TX)

Response to a 11/6/17 GreenSchools listserv request for Academic literature concretely linking access to the natural environment and enhanced educational outcomes (e.g., an evidence-based assessment of correlations ...


The impact of development education and education for sustainable development interventions: a synthesis of the research

  • University of Limerick

The Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations advocate that all learners will have the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development. Development education, education for sustainable ...


Is students’ energy literacy related to their university’s position in a sustainability ranking?

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

University rankings are increasingly important internationally, and in the UK include a sustainability ‘Green League’. However, there is little evidence about experiences of studying in ‘sustainable universities’. We report an ...


Art and Science Collaboration: The Key to a Sustainable Future

  • Antioch College (OH)
  • Pacific Northwest College of Art (OR)
  • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Camden Campus (NJ)
  • AASHE (PA)

This webinar is dedicated to art and science collaboration. As this topic has increased in importance to both artistic and scientific communities, Art and Science Collaboration: The Key to a ...

  • Posted Nov. 2, 2017
  • Videos & Webinars
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Learning Our Way Toward Resilience

  • Island Press (DC)
  • Post Carbon Institute (OR)

This is an excerpt of Chapter 14 from The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval. Resilience education is about building our individual and community capacities to ...


Engaging Stakeholders in Education for Sustainable Development at University Level

This book discusses the role of ESD stakeholders at university level, involving civil society and the private sector and public sectors (including local, national and intergovernmental bodies). In particular, it ...


Education for Sustainable Development

  • AASHE (PA)

Article recaps a survery co-sponsored by Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), that found that 75 percent or more believed strongly that the curriculum should include coursework on environmental sustainability ...


Handbook of Sustainability Science and Research

This multidisciplinary handbook explores concrete case studies which illustrate how sustainability science and research can contribute to the realization of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It ...

  • Posted Oct. 23, 2017
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Handbook of Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development

  • University of Malta (Northern Harbor District)

This book focuses on lifelong learning for sustainable development, an aspect that has been rarely explored in great detail. It also discusses methodological approaches and experiences deriving from case studies ...

  • Posted Oct. 23, 2017
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Handbook of Sustainability and Social Science Research

In this handbook social science researchers who focus on sustainability present and discuss their findings, including empirical work, case studies, teaching and learning innovations, and applied projects. As such, the ...

  • Posted Oct. 23, 2017
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Three Views of Systems Theories and their Implications for Sustainability Education

  • University of Maine (ME)
  • University of London

Worldwide, there is an emerging interest in sustainability and sustainability education. A popular and promising approach is the use of systems thinking. However, the systems approach to sustainability has neither ...

  • Posted Oct. 20, 2017
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Teaching sustainability in a global MBA: insights from the OneMBA

  • Erasmus University Rotterdam

This paper reports on a module designed to deliver education for sustainability within the framework of the new generation of global executive MBAs. The module described was taught as part ...

  • Posted Oct. 20, 2017
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Sustainability Science and Engineering:  The Emergence of a New Metadiscipline

  • American Chemical Society (DC)

A case is made for growth of a new metadiscipline of sustainability science and engineering. This new field integrates industrial, social, and environmental processes in a global context. The skills ...

  • Posted Oct. 20, 2017
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Overcoming Silos: The Role of an Interdisciplinary Course in Shaping a Sustainability Network

  • California State University, Northridge (CA)

In fall 2009, seven faculty members from different disciplines partnered to develop and teach a 15-week undergraduate course on sustainability. These disciplines are family and consumer sciences, geography, management, political ...

  • Posted Oct. 20, 2017
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Public-Public Partnerships for a New Paradigm in the Civic Role of the University

  • California State University, Chico (CA)

Recognizing the need to proactively prepare engaged citizens for the dynamic socioeconomic and environmental conditions of the 21st century, the Institute for Sustainable Development at California State University (CSU), Chico ...

  • Posted Oct. 20, 2017
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Concordia Sustainability Action Fund and the Faculty of Arts & Science Sustainable Curriculum Project

  • Concordia University (QC)

Sustainability Curriculum Co-Creation Teaching & Learning Festival


The Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program at Fleming College, Lindsay, Ontario

  • Fleming College (ON)

The Fleming College Salmonid Hatchery aims to ensure the future sustainability of Atlantic salmon in Lake Ontario by maximizing genetic diversity in stocked fish. The Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program has ...


Sustainability in the Curriculum at Humboldt State University

  • Cal Poly Humboldt (CA)

Humboldt State University is among the first institutions to be recognized in STARS for sustainability course designation in standard course catalogs or listings. A committee of faculty and staff first ...


Leadership in Environmental Stewardship E-badge at Central Community College, NE

  • Central Community College (NE)

Speech faculty Brent Adrian showing students the campus bee hives.


Leadership in Environmental Stewardship E-badge at Central Community College, NE

  • Central Community College (NE)

Leadership in Environmental Stewardship E-badge at Central Community College on campus Central Community College in Grand Island, NE


Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): The turn away from ‘environment’ in environmental education?

  • Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

This article explores the implications of the shift of environmental education (EE) towards education for sustainable development (ESD) in the context of environmental ethics. While plural perspectives on ESD are ...


Core Concepts for Teaching Sustainability: Using “Tips” to Deepen Learning across the Disciplines, Grade Levels and Cultures

  • Colorado State University (CO)
  • AASHE (PA)

Sustainability is one of those big, complex concepts that defy easy definition or simple responses yet demand attention to our collective well-being. Some Native Americans would judge the worth of ...

  • Posted Sept. 28, 2017
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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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