University of Colorado Boulder
AC-6: Sustainability Research

Office of Institutional Research performed a thorough search of the University's course catalog using key terms identified by the STARs Leadership team to identify courses based on description and learning outcomes. The keyword search terms were based on the AASHE recommended list and UNSDG's. The data was screened for relevancy and the filtered list was verified by the category lead. Additionally, the Research & Innovation Office used the Academic Analytics Sustainability Works Explorer – Aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals to pull CU Boulder’s sustainability research data from the last 3 years (2021-2023). For those departments not tagged by the tool, an additional manual read was conducted by our Research Development Specialist to ensure the tool didn’t miss any faculty that should have been included. This manual read included data pulls from our Institutional Awards Database and a manual search of Articles, Chapters, and Conference Proceedings. To identify sustainability challenges, we referenced the targets embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

There are several incentives for academic staff to conduct sustainability research at CU Boulder, including: 1) Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Innovative Research Program: a competitive funding opportunity to support novel, unconventional or fundamental environmental research. Recent awardees include research on climate risks in CO mobile home parks, Antarctic's weather as a predictor of precipitation in the western U.S., climate mental health, and others; 2) Research & Innovation Seed Grant Program: aim to stimulate inter- and multidisciplinary research, scholarship and creative projects with high potential for innovation and/or impact. Awards support research involving biodiversity, climate change, energy storage. While a sustainability focus is not required, the awards in every given year include sustainability-centered projects, thus incentivizing sustainability research; 3) Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship Grants: fund work that connects research, teaching and creative work with public needs and interests. Again, while a sustainability focus is not required, the awards in every given year include sustainability-centered projects, thus incentivizing sustainability research.

Global Sustainability Scholars – brings together the brightest undergraduate students and young professionals from under-represented groups to work with leading scientists on critical sustainability challenges that face communities and environments in the future. This effort spans cultures, borders, and disciplines. Includes 3 programs for funding/incentivizing student sustainability research.  Several additional programs incentivize student research on sustainability, including 1) Environmental Studies - undergrad and grad degrees use courses across Arts and Sciences to give a broad education in environmental issues and real world problem solving requiring sustainability research; 2) Environmental Design – includes research and education themes of greater sustainability of buildings and cities, global needs for housing, responsible resource management, and adaptation to the impacts of climate change; 3) Masters of the Environment – a professional degree designed to research and address sustainability challenges around food systems, energy, policy, urban resilience, and recreation; 4) Leeds School of Business has an MBA program in sustainability and social responsibility including sustainable research; 5) The Schools of Engineering and Law have courses, programs, and centers that focus on sustainability research; 6) INVST Community Studies is a two-year cohort program for undergraduate students in community action, eco-social solutions, and climate justice, including research; 7) Inside the Greenhouse offers courses and student support for research; 8) NEST Studio for the Arts provides graduate summer fellowships to students from the arts and sciences while they work together on a sustainability based project; 9) The Mortenson Center in Engineering promotes the role and skills of engineers in identifying and addressing unequal and unjust access to basic services such as water, sanitation, energy, food, transportation and shelter while placing an emphasis on identifying the drivers, determinants and solutions favoring equitable access; as well as many other Arts & Sciences departments (GEOG, GEOL, EBIO, etc.) include coursework and research projects in sustainability; 10) Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) -- An innovative approach to undergraduate education in which students conduct novel research in a course, current research course offerings on sustainability include: Environmental Psychology, Introduction to Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Research, Restoration Ecology, and Environmental Literature.