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Sustainability focuses on the integration of environmental health, social wellbeing, and economic prosperity.

Environmental: land, air, water, climate, materials, energy, habit, ecosystems, biodiversity

Social: human rights, health and wellbeing, cultural diversity, peace and conflict, justice, education, governance and policy, technology, news, lifestyles, faith and beliefs

Economic: jobs, trade, business, growth, money, efficiency, consumption, wealth and poverty, working conditions

Here are some examples of questions that integrate the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainability:

Use this guide to learn about how to integrate sustainability competencies – such as systems thinking, strategic thinking, and values thinking – into your course. For each competency, the guide offers relevant learning outcomes, curricular and pedagogical resources, and relevant examples of the scholarship of teaching and learning in this field.

Teaching Resources for Sustainability

Use this guide to search for curricular resources and the scholarship of teaching and learning in your discipline or topic area.

1. Integrate into your introductory math, computer science, and engineering classes and natural science labs.
2. Introduce and assign a .
3. Have your students research how social entrepreneurs are addressing sustainability challenges, starting with the work of ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½’s .
4. For a course about organizations, management, institutions, or education, have students analyze ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½’s Sustainability Strategic Plan. What are its main strategies for enlisting stakeholders to enact change throughout the university?
5. Have your second language students translate famous texts about sustainability, especially from the cultures in which the language is used. Or have them translate a page of the website or .
6. Have your art and art history students analyze how artists’ (or their own) choice of materials and subject matter is motivated by their vision of nature, culture, and the funding or market for their art.
7. Ask your literature students to analyze poems and novels about sustainability -- by Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, or Langston Hughes, for example. Have your writing students analyze and produce examples of non-fiction, professional, and creative writing on sustainability (poetry slam, anyone?) Inspire your dance, theatre, and music students to choreograph, perform, and compose works on sustainability themes.
8. Challenge students in any discipline to find a recent news article related to your course and analyze how it reflects common ways in which the news media cover sustainability. Does the article address all three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social? Or compare and contrast coverage of the same issue in a mainstream news outlet and an environmental news outlet (such as or the ).
9. Ask your students to calculate their carbon footprint, using the or the ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ Markkula Center’s calculator, and then have them explore policy options for addressing climate change in California using the Cool Climate Network’s . What are the underlying assumptions of these calculators and modeling tools? Which climate mitigation strategies could students contribute to most effectively?
10. Have students analyze (or compare) comprehensive plans for achieving sustainability, such as Pope Francis’ encyclical ’, the United Nations , Project Drawdown’s , Second Nature’s university , the , or the GoodElectronics/ICRT .  What roles for your discipline are envisioned in these plans?
11. Draw on the ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ Markkula Center teaching module on Laudato Si’  or its environmental ethics short course and other resources for lesson plans and assignments on ethics and sustainability -- not just in courses on ethics and religious studies but also on the natural sciences, business, or technology.
12. Have your students use environmental justice screening and mapping tools -- such as the EPA’s or CA EPA’s -- to identify which communities are most exposed to hazards, especially by income and race.
13. Assign case studies of environmental justice controversies from the global . Or have your students research and write their own case studies.
14. to take your class on a campus sustainability tour.  As a response, have students write or make a video about the sustainability of a campus space where they spend a lot of time or that is especially meaningful to them.
15. Assign projects to students from the Center for Sustainability’s Applied Learning Database, which contains many project ideas that will help our campus become climate-neutral and zero-waste.
16. Assign videos from and ask students to write reflections on the impacts of products students use or will design in your course. Or have them do a more formal life-cycle analysis of the product’s impact.
17. Arrange a class visit to the Forge Garden, a unique outdoor classroom for experiential and reflective learning about the natural sciences, psychology, religious studies, philosophy -- any course that relates to the natural world. Have students run experiments, reflect on the food system and their own eating habits, practice reflective thinking or observational writing, find artistic inspiration, and so on.
18. Have students prepare a presentation about how human consumption patterns affect an animal species or a habitat. Encourage students to research relevant federal and state policies, such as the .
19. Offer students extra credit to attend one of the many campus talks, screenings, performances, or events on sustainability and write a reflection in which they apply a concept from your course to the experience.
20. Have students create sustainability-themed pieces for ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ student media, including writing, recording, or filming profiles of community members, faculty, staff, projects, or issues.
21. Have your students research and prepare a class presentation on current sustainable practices in your field, such as green building, green chemistry, and so on.
22. Assign your Education or Child Studies students to design developmentally-appropriate lesson plans on any of the ideas proposed here. Find inspiring resources, research, grants, and professional development on the website of the .
23. Search the AASHE website for , or for , in your discipline. ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ is a member of AASHE, so you can use your ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ email to create a free account. Ask an ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ subject librarian to identify sustainability-related films and other resources relevant to your field in our library holdings.

Hackworth Grants: ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Hackworth grants for faculty members provide up to $5,000 to support research on applied ethics. Hackworth grants for students offer up to $2,500 for research and projects on applied ethics.

Undergraduate Fellowship in Environmental Ethics: Encourage your undergraduate students to apply for this Fellowship offered by ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, which explores the ethical dimensions of sustainability.

: Encourage your undergraduate juniors to apply for this fellowship offered by ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½’s Miller Center for Global Impact, which supports action research with a social entrepreneur organization abroad.

Jean Donovan Summer Fellowship: Encourage your undergraduate students to apply for this fellowship offered by ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½’s Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, which supports summer community-based learning experiences about social justice with non-profit organizations locally, domestically, or abroad.

Immersions: Encourage your students to apply for an immersion trip to learn about issues such as immigration, homelessness, and sustainable community development. Offered by ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½’s Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education.

In which areas do universities excel in sustainability? How can ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ improve? How should ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ prioritize to achieve an even better STARS rating?

Find a project in the campus Applied Learning Database:

• The Forge Garden located at the corner of Benton and Sherman Streets is an ideal location for a lecture on natural processes or sustainable business and agriculture.
• Take a walk around campus with students to point out sustainable choices the administration at ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ has made.
• A discussion of LEED-designed buildings or conscientious purchasing in Benson Memorial Center would help students see their campus in a new way.

ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ is a member of AASHE, a professional organization that recently awarded ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ a Silver Rating for the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System. The site offers many ideas regarding how to incorporate sustainability into all facets of higher education.

An association of university leaders which supports sustainable research, teaching, operations and outreach; offers links towards other resources and publications offering practical tips like how to save money by going green.

Second Nature, a non-profit organization that provides technical assistance to help universities become more sustainable.

You can incorporate or adapt these slides to teach the concept of sustainability briefly in your course and to help you design lesson plans, modules, or courses.

Examples of sustainability syllabi, assignments, and lesson plans developed by faculty in multiple departments at ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½. Most resources are available to anyone at our . A few resources can only be viewed in our by ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ members of the ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ community logged into their ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ Google accounts.