Florida State University
AC-1: Academic Courses

In gathering data, FSU Institutional Research pulled course information from Campus Solutions, the student information system at FSU. The following key words were used to identify potential sustainability courses and/or courses that included sustainability, pulling from online course catalog: sustainable/sustainability, green, eco, global, conservation, remediation, systems, design, environment/environmental, water, resource(s), energy, ecology, resource/resources, natural, water, contaminant/contamination, coastal, marine, geography, chemistry, hydraulic, social/issues, population, leadership, planning, development, health, collective, community, food, urban, ethics, development, policy, economics, politics, and transportation. Staff from the Sustainable Campus Office then examined each output using the criteria below to determine if a class is a sustainability course or a course that includes sustainability. Sustainability Courses: The main focus of the class is sustainability and/or the course discusses two out of the three dimensions of sustainability. Courses that include sustainability: Class focused on another topic, but includes one of the components of sustainability or focused on one of these areas: social, environment, or economic. Sustainability is inherently about connectivity, specifically between the environment, economic systems, and equity. As such, for a course to be determined a ‘sustainability course’ it must identify and describe the relationship between at least two of the three pillars of sustainability or be focused entirely on sustainability. It is essential for the course to articulate the intersections of the pillars of sustainability, highlighting the relationship and influence one system has on another. A course that is focused on one of the pillars of sustainability, i.e. biology or social justice, and includes a section incorporating another pillar, but does not focus on the concept of sustainability itself is categorized as a course that includes sustainability. I.E. while economic systems are an aspect of sustainability, a typical economics class will only cover one dimension of sustainability. However, an economics class that focuses on the intersection of the environment covers two dimensions and would be considered a ‘sustainability course.’ An economic class that includes a section on environmental economics would be considered a course that includes sustainability. Sustainability course identification is an iterative process and courses may be updated as FSU develops new digital systems to categorize course content. The sustainability course inventory will continue to change and may not be a complete list of all sustainability courses offered at FSU.