U Nebraska-Lincoln Pilots Campus Energy Audit Course
The first-time class allows students to work with the university's energy projects engineer to interview building users, review energy usage data, and document building conditions during a series of walkthroughs. The collected information will be used to generate a final report that includes a list of possible improvements.
Arizona State U Convenes Educational Task Force on Sustainability
The university's new National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy educational task force for sustainability aims to bring teams of elementary, middle and high school teachers from across the nation together to focus on solutions-based curriculum with an emphasis on urban systems. University sustainability scientists and scholars will help coach and lead hands-on sessions on solutions surrounding food, water, energy and climate.
California State U Monterey Bay Opens New Sustainable Degree
The new bachelor of science in sustainable hospitality management provides students with local, regional and global perspectives on current and pressing sustainability issues and problems within the hospitality industry. Concentrations exist in sustainable hotel, resort and event management, and sustainable ecotourism management.
Georgia Tech Selects Sustainability-Centered Undergraduate Focus
As part of the university's accreditation process, Serve, Learn, Sustain has been chosen as its newest Quality Enhancement Plan, which seeks to improve undergraduate education by developing academic courses and experiences that combine community involvement with sustainability, and by focusing on global challenges in critical areas of energy, environment, water resources, food security and global health.
Portland State U Launches Graduate Certificate in Public Design
The university's School of Architecture's new certificate in Public Interest Design aims to prepare students in sustainability, community development and architecture to aid underserved populations through sustainable, human-centered design methods via in-classroom studies and hands-on field experience, working directly with communities in need.
U Maryland Offers Free Sustainability Classes to Students
Called Sustainable Tuesdays, the series combines a pre-existing class with weekly guest speakers from the architecture, planning and preservation school that students can attend. The two semester-long classes about sustainable living can be attended without adding extra credits to their course load.
U Alberta Launches Sustainability Scholars Graduate Program
(Canada): Supporting the university’s Sustainability Plan 2012-2016, the new programs' objectives are to create opportunities for sharing information and ideas between graduate students and the city professionals, to advance professional development opportunities for graduate students at the university in the area of sustainability, and to inspire graduate students to apply their learning to real world city challenges.
Boston U Offers Energy & Environmental Concentration
Offered as part of the university's MBA program, the purpose of the new Energy and Environmental Sustainability concentration is to provide students with an understanding of sustainability-related challenges that businesses face, how business can adapt to these challenges, and how to identify, evaluate and act upon the opportunities created by these changes.
Pace U to Unveil Environmental Policy Graduate Program
The new two-year masters program beginning in fall of 2015 aims to provide an understanding of the complex relationships between natural science, law and management, and how to use the tools of these disciplines to develop appropriate responses to complex environmental issues.
U Alberta Commences New Sustainability Certificate
The newly offered Certificate in Sustainability is a new student credential for undergraduates that aims to transfer historical literacy, educate about the systemic nature of sustainability challenges, and enable application of sustainability literacy at a personal, academic and professional level. Students are required to take 15 hours of courses from specified areas.
Indiana U South Bend Incorporates Sustainability Studies Degree
The university is now offering a Bachelor of Art degree in Sustainability Studies, designed to introduce students to the basic concepts of sustainability, offer a wide variety of ways to practice sustainability, and give them hands-on experience that will prepare them for jobs in the emerging green economy. The curriculum includes internships, opportunities for research, and a seamless transition from the classroom to the workplace or graduate school.
Cedar Valley College Commences Living Lab Initiative
Utilizing the sustainability learning opportunities available to students on campus, the new initiative, with four focus areas: buildings, energy, transportation and community, will give college students hands-on work skills complementing their academic and technical programs.
College of Charleston Launches New Diversity Major
The university's Office of Institutional Diversity helped manifest the new African American studies major, the goal of which is for students to gain not only understanding and knowledge of African American history and culture, but comprehend the African American experience in the context of American and Western history.
CUNY Brooklyn College Launches Major in Urban Sustainability
(U.S.): The college's new Bachelor of Arts program examines the dynamics between social and natural systems as well as the trade-offs among environmental, social and economic sustainability, and offers concentrations in economics, environmental science and sociology.
Coastal Carolina U Releases Fracking Brief
Students created reports that analyze federal and state laws and their impacts on various communities. A recent report looked at fracking in North Carolina in an effort to best prepare students for sustainable leadership and public service.
Florida A&M U Introduces New Initiative
The university is focused on advancing the research, teaching and application of innovative solutions to global socio-economic, ecological and energy sustainability issues in which the new Sustainability Initiative will play a pivotal role toward helping the university to achieve this mission throughout the 2014/15 school season.
Concordia U Hosts Exchange Students
(Canada): An exchange student program between Fulda University of Applied Sciences in Germany and the university provided an opportunity for German students to explore sustainability through compost and edible garden site visits, conducting research and writing reports for three weeks this summer.
U Pennsylvania Program Advances Sustainability in Curriculum
A student selected to participate in the Penn Green Campus Partnership's Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum recently spent eight weeks with two professors to examine sources from which to include relevant supplemental readings and conducted research for a joint paper on business contributions toward environmental protection.
Technical College of Lowcountry Adds Solar Program
To help people find jobs in the solar industry, the college now offers a certificate course that will teach students how to install and maintain two types of solar technology systems, photovoltaics and solar thermal.
Lock Haven U to Offer Sustainability Degree
(U.S.): Attempting to connect with the state's growing green jobs industry, the university's new Associates of Arts degree in Sustainability Studies is developed from its Environmental Studies minor and will include courses in conservation law, business, social work, economics and environmental justice.
U Haifa Launches New Sustainability MBA Program
(Israel): The university's new Global Green Masters of Business Administration program focuses on the environmental, social and governance issues at the heart of business managers' responsibilities.
Green Mountain College Introduces New Graduate Program
Beginning in 2015 with a residency featuring Bill McKibben, the college's new online, two-year Master of Science degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities incorporates land-use planning, economic development, energy production, food systems, and resource management, while developing skills in leadership, group organization and conflict resolution.
HKUST Course Teaches Positive Social Impact
(Hong Kong): The newly offered course through The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Business School allows students to work with a dedicated philanthropy fund to identify and invest in sustainable social businesses that positively impact the community.
U Colorado Boulder Expands Energy/Water Professional Degree Prog
(U.S.): A new educational partnership at the university allows qualified students to earn both a Master of Engineering (ME) degree and a Professional Certificate in Renewable and Sustainable Energy or a Professional Certificate in Water Engineering and Management, which can be earned either via distance education or in campus classes and may be pursued either part- or full-time.
Penn State U to Offer Clean Energy Certificates
To prepare for the future of low-carbon energy generation, the university is launching four online graduate certificate programs: bioenergy, solar energy, wind energy, and sustainability management and policy. The certificates are aligned with the green energy and sustainability management sector helping build skills in such areas as project development, sustainability assessment, systems engineering and strategic planning.
Harvard U Offers Climate Change Secondary Field
(U.S.): Offered to any undergraduate students regardless of their course of study, the new energy and environment field is designed to allow students to explore issues surrounding energy and the environment from the perspective of their primary discipline.
U Wisconsin Madison to Offer New Sustainability Certificate
The new certificate to be offered through the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies with support from the university's Office of Sustainability will allow students to diversify their major course of study with interdisciplinary coursework in sustainability principles and application to real-world challenges. Through the certificate program, students will learn about links between natural and human systems, life-cycle thinking, value-generation for energy and other natural resources, and the role of public policy.
Montgomery County CC Honors Sustainable Food
A new focus of a Honors Colloquium, students spent time learning about sustainability issues of the modern agriculture and food system and were asked to provide possible solutions such as policy changes.
UC Santa Cruz to Develop Campus-as-Lab Academic Plan
The provost's sustainability intern is working with the university's Campus Natural Reserve staff to develop a curriculum of field activities that will be offered to undergraduate students accessing the on-campus outdoor classrooms and living laboratories.
Tompkins Cortland CC to Devise Farm to Restaurant Program
(United States): As part of the community college's new Sustainable Farming and Food Systems degree program, the farm-to-bistro curriculum will combine food from an on-campus farm with educational opportunities for students and engage community through a downtown restaurant.
U California Berkeley to Offer Food Systems Minor
In an effort to bring more attention to sustainability issues and experiential learning in food systems education, the Berkeley Food Institute has begun to form a committee to develop plans for a minor in food systems and sustainability.
Dickinson College Joins The Eco League
The college recently accepted an invitation to join The Eco League, a consortium of six universities and colleges that focus on experiential education through semester exchange programs to allow students access to varying ecosystems.
San Francisco State U Offers New Sustainability Courses
After winning funding from the California State University's Campus as a Living Lab Grant Program, in spring 2014 the university will be offering courses in sustainable transportation, supply chain management, geography and environmental science. The winning proposals were developed with the aid of the university's Physical Planning & Development and were awarded $38,207.