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Sustainability

Sustainability Teaching Resources

What is Sustainability?

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

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Key Terms in Sustainability

Campus facilities and communities can be used as a learning environment and test area for implementing sustainable innovations.

Living Labs for Sustainable campuses have create these values:

  • Engage with campus leaders at the planning stage of new projects to ensure sustainability is incorporated and learning opportunities are maximized throughout the process

  • Campus projects can have long term learning outcomes if monitoring equipment or processes are included

  • Reflect on opportunities for improvement, engaging with internal stakeholders to develop future impacts 

  • A useful tool for increasing engagement and communication between stakeholders

    More information can be found .  

Circular Economy

A circular economy is an economic system that is intended to eliminate waste, and work towards the continual use of resources.听 This is in contrast the traditional linear economy, which features a 鈥渢ake, make,听waste鈥澨� process. See this for additional explanation of circular economy, or visit the for more info.听听

temperature Change Data
Graph data sourced from NASA.

Climate change is the long-term change in the average weather patterns, on a local, regional and global level. The human-produced temperature increases that have been mapped since the early 20th听century听are听commonly referred to as global warming.听

Natural processes can also contribute to climate change, including internal variability from patterns like El Ni帽o, La Ni帽a and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and external听forcings like volcanic activity, changes in the Sun鈥檚 energy output, and variations in Earth鈥檚 orbit. Visit on Weather and Climate change for more information.

Communities of color experience the impacts of fossil fuel pollution and climate change more than others (race is a greater predictor of proximity to pollution than community wealth). 

Key Terms: 

Environmental justice (EJ)鈥痠s the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. -US EPA 

Fair treatment鈥�means no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies. -US EPA 

Intersectional Environmentalism: 鈥淚ntersectional Environmentalism is an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both the protection of people and the planet. It identifies the ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected. It brings injustices done to the most vulnerable communities, and the earth, to the forefront and does not minimize or silence social inequality.鈥� Intersectionalenvironmentalist.com 

Helpful resources:  

Sustainability Donut

The Sustainability Donut is a visual framework for sustainable development, which demonstrates a 鈥渟afe operating space鈥� for humanity. In other words, it shows the boundaries that ensure we meet the needs of society without overshooting the limitations of our planet. For more information on this framework, check out the , or this page on . 

Systems Thinking is an approach that is predicated on the idea that parts of a system will act differently as isolated from their environment than they will in context. It requires examining the linkages and interactions between the elements of the system.

鈥淪ystems thinking in practice encourages us to explore inter-relationships (context and connections), perspectives (each actor has their own unique perception of the situation) and boundaries(agreeing on scope, scale and what might constitute an improvement).鈥�--Learning for Sustainability. For more information visit the , or check out this for an example of systems thinking.

 

The Tragedy of the Commons is an economic problem, in which individuals overconsume a shared resource for their own economic gain, neglecting the overall wellbeing of the resource. It ultimately results in the depletion of the resource. See this for additional explanation, or read the original paper:

Triple Bottom Line

The Triple Bottom Line is a framework that encourages companies to consider the social and economic costs, along with profit margins听when making decisions. This is often explained as the 鈥渢hree p鈥檚鈥�: profit, people, and the planet. More information on the triple bottom line can be found , or check out this brief .

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SDGs

 

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a 鈥渦niversal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030鈥�. 

 

 

There are 17 Goals that range in focus from global access to clean water and healthy food, to clean energy and sustainable infrastructure. This short video illustrates the 17 Goals. The UN SDGs can be found , or track their progress on the . 

 

It is important to differentiate between听weather听and听climate.

Weather refers to atmospheric conditions that occur locally over short (on the order of minutes to several days) time frames.听

Climate refers to the long-term regional average of temperature, humidity, and rainfall patterns over a longer time frame (on the order of seasons, years or decades)听

This offers further information on this topic.听

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Integrating Sustainability Into the Curriculum

 

Sustainability can be integrated into a vast array of subjects, and the content that is included can change based on the context. However, how sustainability is taught is just as important as what is taught. Here are some general tips for incorporating discussions of sustainability into any classroom. 

 

Avoid overload and excess negativity. The rhetoric surrounding sustainability issues often focus on the urgency and immensity of issues facing the planet. Such overload of negativity can leave students feeling powerless to make change, which can lead to disengagement. For this reason, be sure to include examples of success stories, and consider breaking issues down into more manageable pieces to be examined. 

  • A great tool to help with this is , which pulls positive sustainability related new stories from across the globe and news outlets. Educators can create an account to access pre-made story collections with new stories, overview descriptions and discussion questions around a given topic. Users can also design their own story collections, pulling news stories from Solutions U or any other online source, draft your own overview and discussion questions.

 

Embrace the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability. A thorough understanding of the connectivity of issues across aspects of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities helps to contextualize the issues. This can be a challenge, as it can lead to discussions that fall outside of an instructor鈥檚 area of expertise. Consider the resources available as part of the campus community through efforts like team teaching with colleagues from another discipline or organizing guest lecturers from the campus or local community.

 

Be careful with eco-rhetoric. Eco-rhetoric can be ambiguous and confusing for people who are new to the terminology. Establishing a definition in the context of any given subject can help to remove any ambiguity from in-class discussion. Consider the conflicting ways in which terms like 鈥渟ustainability鈥� and 鈥渆nvironmentalism鈥� have been used historically, and promote critical examination of such terms.

 

Incorporate primary data into lesson plans. Allowing students to struggle with empirical data, rather than providing them with an analysis, empowers students to understand the strengths and limitations of current data. It may also help them gain greater insight into how relevant scientific conclusions have been drawn. 

  • Climate Data-  has graphed trends for a variety of data sets, including emissions data and population density.
  • Sustainable Development Goals- is an interactive map of progress for each SDG
  • Population Data- graphs population pyramids for global populations, with over a century's worth of data. 
  • Opinion Data- These show American鈥檚 perceptions on climate change risks, broken down at the state, congressional district, metro area, and county level.
  • Water Data- This contains maps that demonstrate areas of water stress as well as freshwater resources over time, etc. 
  • Food Systems Data- Check out the for a visual representation of the land use, carbon emissions, and more associated with global food production. 
  • Energy Data-The provides energy data from the US broken down by end use and energy source type. For more global data, see from Our World in Data.
  • Economic Data-This from Stanford University shows the projected impact of climate change on economies by country. 

 

Pedagogy Styles that Aid Sustainability Teaching

In small-group learning, students work together to maximize their own and each other鈥檚 learning The hallmarks of 鈥渃ollaborative鈥� learning  are:

  • Mutual trust amongst members

  • Vulnerability

  • Shared vision and values

  • Constant state of interdependence

  • A tight culture 

  • Empowerment

  • Creating new ideas as a group

By turning the subject matter into a problem that needs to be solved, learners become more actively involved with the material, resulting in greater engagement. 

The most common models for this are problem, project, or design based learning 

This came about as a result of concern that traditional learning was too focused on the delivery of information, and not concerned enough with the experience of the learners. 

Experiential learning combines a carefully selected experience with consideration, analysis and reflection 

Kolb鈥檚 Experiential Learning Cycle: 鈥淓ffective learning is seen when a person progresses through a cycle of four stages: of (1) having a concrete experience followed by (2) observation of and reflection on that experience which leads to (3) the formation of abstract concepts (analysis) and generalizations (conclusions) which are then (4) used to test a hypothesis in future situations, resulting in new experiences.

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The key to successful Service learning is that intentionality must be combined with academic learning, to benefit BOTH the learners, and the community partner

People tend to care more about what they are learning when they can connect to it. Using the local community as context for learning can engage learners.

VUSustainability

棉花糖直播 University, as a community of learned and learning scholars, respecting the sacredness of all creation, accepts its responsibility to the integrity of Earth and its biodiversity, to the heritage of future generations, and to the security of nations. By utilizing the Augustinian values of Unitas, Veritas, and Caritas, meaning love thy neighbor, promote community unity, and live life in moderation through our curriculum, work environment, and operations, 棉花糖直播鈥檚 approach to sustainability exemplifies an emphasis on social justice and community service.

For questions regarding campus sustainability email Sustainability@villanova.edu