University of California, Berkeley
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

The Office in partnership with faculty from across campus disciplines are offering annual workshops to incentivize other faculty and lecturers to integrate the concept of sustainability into courses. The goal of the program is improving student learning and literacy in sustainability and climate by adding and infusing physical, social and economic environmental topics into the curriculum. The workshop offers time to brainstorm ideas for including sustainability principles in curricula across campus – from art history to design to gender studies to business to environmental science. The workshop focuses on expanding the range and definitions of sustainability beyond traditional disciplines and explores current topical concepts like environmental justice. Teachers leave with creative, concrete ways to help students increase knowledge of sustainability concepts.

Organizers included representatives from the Office of Sustainability; Fung Fellowship; African American Studies; Environmental Science, Policy, and Management; and Italian Studies.

In Fall 2020, the Faculty Sustainability Workshop had over 20 attendees representing a wide range of 15 campus departments, including Anthropology, Haas School of Business, Gender & Women's Studies, and Statistics. The agenda included an intro to sustainability concepts for education, an overview of campus sustainability resources, and a breakout session to brainstorm ways to integrate sustainability into their curriculum. Faculty speakers gave short presentations on the following topics:
- “"Eco Art: Introducing Sustainability in the Curriculum through Art and Architecture"
- “Stories of Sustainability: Interdisciplinary Narrative and Climate Change”
- “Sustainability concepts in the soil curriculum"

Some outcomes/courses impacted from the 2017/18 effort include:
• Twelve participants representing 12 departments participated in this program.
• Five of those departments worked within traditional sustainability fields, including environmental science, engineering and geography, while seven were non-traditional disciplines including social welfare, languages, writing and literature.

Examples of transformed courses
• Jacobs Institute Global Product Development
• GEOG C146, IB C100, EPS C100 Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences
• College Writing R4B Stories of Sustainability
• SLAVIC 172 Topics in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
• HISTART 101 Theories & Methods for a Global History of Art
• SOCWEL 114 Practice in Social Work
• English 31AC Climate Change Fictions
• ESPM 50AC Introduction to Culture and Natural Resource Management
• SCANDIN 100B Intermediate Scandinavian Languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish)
• MSE 120 Materials Production
• MSE 130 Experimental Materials Science and Design

New classes developed out of this program
• HISTART 105 Eco Art: Art, Architecture, and the Natural Environment (Sugata Ray)
• MSE 24 Freshman Seminar (Matt Sherburne)

Number of students reached
• 753

Academic staff are incentivized to learn how to integrate the concept of sustainability into their courses. A toolkit of resources was provided to participants, and the organizing group offered follow-up and check-in's to support collaborative thinking for developing sustainability courses. The workshop was offered free of charge. Through sustainability reporting, academic staff are recognized for their participation in this program. Additional trainings are offered by UC Berkeley and the Office of Sustainability.
• Brainstorm ideas for including sustainability principles in curricula across campus
– from art history to literature to gender studies to environmental science
• Expand the range and definitions of sustainability beyond traditional disciplines
• Leave with creative, concrete ways to help your students explore important
sustainability concepts

This workshop has been held twice before, in Fall 2020 and 2017/18. The attached poster shares outcomes of the 2017/18 workshop.