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Sustainability in the Curriculum

List of Sustainability Focused/Related Courses (from 2011 STARS inventory)

Faculty Sustainability Learning Community

During the 2011-2012 academic year, twelve faculty met monthly to work on integrating sustainability into their teaching. As a result of this work, the faculty developed new sustainability focused lessons, courses, and programs. Below are some resources from this learning community.

Click here for a list of participants, a description of their work, and samples of syllabi, lesson plans, etc.

A definition of sustainability in three parts:

1. The Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development in 1987 as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

2. More recently the sustainable business community has endeavored to replace business’s traditional focus on profit with an alternative logic balancing three Es: Environment, Equity and Economy.

3. Informing all these ideas about sustainable practice is an overarching commitment to equilibrium. Sustainable systems of any sort balance inputs with outputs, and achieve a reproducible condition in a durable, balanced cycle.

Characteristics of Quality Sustainability Education:

· Builds awareness of implications beyond the self

· Interdisciplinary

· Empowering not overwhelming

· Action oriented

· Focuses on long term not short term

· Emphasizes systemic thought

· Considers intergenerational equality

· Provides tools for thoughtful living