Concordia College - Moorhead
ER-15: Sustainability Research Identification

Sustainability research is research that leads toward solutions that simultaneously support social wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health. It includes academic research that: • Explicitly addresses sustainability and/or furthers our understanding of the interconnectedness of social, economic and environmental issues; • Contributes directly toward solving one or more major sustainability challenge; and/or • Engages community members with the aim of combining knowledge and action to achieve positive social, economic and environmental outcomes

Conversations were initiated with each department chair. Chairs of smaller academic departments described the current faculty research in their department, with consideration to the adopted definition of "sustainability research." When it was unclear whether or not a faculty member's research would fall into this category, the individual was contacted to share more details about the research, and concerning whether or not (s)he would consider it to be "sustainability research" under the provided definition. For larger academic departments, chairs sent out a call to departmental members, with a definition of sustainability research, and asked to respond in light of their own research interests. In some instances, departmental annual reports were also consulted for an accounting of recent and current research and scholarship.