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The institution must provide an inventory conducted during the previous three years to identify its sustainability
course offerings and describe for current and prospective students how each course addresses
sustainability. For each course, the inventory must include:
● The title, department (or equivalent), and level of the course (e.g., undergraduate or graduate).
● A brief course description or rationale explaining why the course is included that either
1) explicitly references sustainability OR
2) explores the interdependence of ecological and social/economic systems OR
3) identifies a sustainability challenge
● An indication of whether the course qualifies as sustainability-focused or sustainability-inclusive
(or equivalent terminology).
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Sustainability challenges
A sustainability challenge is an issue or situation that threatens or undermines ecological integrity, racial equity and social justice, or the ability of future generations to meet their needs (e.g., biodiversity loss, poverty and inequality, and climate change), OR a goal or objective that contributes to the resolution of such an issue or situation (e.g., ecosystem health, universal human rights, and renewable energy generation). To identify sustainability challenges, it may be helpful to reference the targets embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the principles outlined in the Earth Charter, and/or the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries.
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Sustainability-focused course – A unit of instruction that has a primary and explicit focus on the integrated concept of sustainability and/or the interdependence of ecological and social/cultural/economic systems. This focus must be demonstrated in the title or high level description of the course. Sustainability-focused courses may include:
● Foundational courses with a primary and explicit focus on sustainability (e.g., Introduction to Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Sustainability Science).
● Courses with a primary and explicit focus on the application of sustainability within a field (e.g., Architecture for Sustainability, Green Chemistry, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Business). As sustainability is an interdisciplinary topic, such courses generally incorporate insights from multiple disciplines.
● Courses with a primary and explicit focus on a major sustainability challenge that requires students to consider the interdependence of ecological and social/cultural/economic systems (e.g., Climate Change Science, Environmental Justice, Global Poverty and Development, Renewable Energy Policy). The focus of such courses might be on providing knowledge and understanding of the problems and/or the tools for solving them, but they should bring a systems thinking approach to the challenge.
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Sustainability-inclusive course – A unit of instruction that is primarily focused on something other than sustainability, but clearly incorporates sustainability content or addresses one or more sustainability challenges. This may include courses that are focused on, for example, ecological integrity or social justice. It may also include courses that:
● Incorporate a unit or module on sustainability or a sustainability challenge,
● Include one or more sustainability-focused activities or readings, or
● Integrate sustainability challenges, issues, and concepts throughout the course.
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