University of Calgary
ER-15: Sustainability Research Identification

Sustainability Defintition The University of Calgary’s Sustainability Policy, and the Institutional Sustainability Plan (draft), have both adopted the following sustainability definition after committee and faculty review: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” ~Brundtland Commision (1987)

The University of Calgary course calendar were reviewed by a team of students and staff, who evaluated each course for sustainability content based on its course description. This preliminary list was then sent to each faculty for review. Research was evaluated according to the Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainability as well as further sustainability criteria established by a broad international and collaborative effort to define a common sustainability education framework. This effort has been captured in part through the Campus Earth Summit, the Essex Report and Second Nature's literature on sustainability learning outcomes. Further sustainability criteria includes: The topic of sustainability includes environmental, social and economic dimensions, and involves both complexity and scale: • As a system of complexity, sustainability involves the interconnections in environment, society and economy. • As a system of scale, sustainability addresses the short to long term impacts of human activity (time), and the local to global effects of human impacts (geographic).