Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.09
Liaison Jen Crothers
Submission Date Aug. 2, 2011
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.1

University of British Columbia
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Jean Marcus
Associate Director, Teaching & Learning Office
UBC Sustainability Initiative
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Has the institution developed a definition of sustainability in the curriculum?:
Yes

A copy of the institution's definition of sustainability in the curriculum?:

In 2009, the "Academic Programs Working Group" (APWG) of UBC's President's Advisory Council on Sustainabilty developed a framework for identifying UBC's sustainability courses. The APWG comprised 15 members, including 2 students, 1 staff, and 12 faculty members representing nine of UBC's 14 faculties. For membership, see: http://www.sas.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/APWG_MembershipSept09.pdf. The course framework is based on a modified three pillar definition of sustainability (environment, society, economy & technology) and the descriptions for sustainability-related and sustainability-focused courses provided by STARS. For details of the course framework, see: http://www.sas.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/course-framework.pdf. Sustainability courses are those that fall inside the sustainability “box”. Technology is added to the Economy pillar to explicitly acknowledge the role of technology in achieving a future that is both desirable and achievable in ecological, social and economic terms.


Has the institution identified its sustainability-focused and sustainability-related course offerings?:
Yes

A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the inventory:

UBC employed self-identification to create our inventory of sustainability courses. To aid faculty members in self-identifying their courses, the APWG examined ALL UBC courses (undergraduate and graduate) by course title and senate approved course description, and selected over 600 potential sustainability courses based on the course framework described above. Each potential sustainability course was then allocated to one of the following 4 categories: category 1 = overlap of the three pillars (sustainability-focused), category 2 = overlap of two pillars (sustainability-related; categories 2a, 2b, 2c), category 3 = one pillar (sustainability-related), and category 4 = discipline-specific courses outside the "sustainability box". For more details, see: http://www.sas.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/course-framework.pdf. The APWG then emailed all Deans, Department Heads and course instructors with the initial categorization of their sustainability courses and asked for feedback. We received feedback on over 60% of the pre-identified courses, resulting in the current list of over 350 sustainability courses.


Does the institution make its sustainability course inventory publicly available online?:
Yes

The website URL where the sustainability course inventory is posted:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.