University of Minnesota, Duluth
AC-1: Academic Courses

A small team from the Institute on the Environment @ UMD, overseen by a faculty member, were charged with evaluating the listings in the current course catalog (Fall 2023, Spring 2024) for their alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as their level of sustainability content (focus or inclusive). This team methodically reviewed every course listing, analyzing the course description to identify its objectives, learning outcomes, and topics covered. If determined to embody one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals, the course was added to a spreadsheet and then the relevant SDGs were listed.

From this list of UN SDG inclusive courses, the team identified which courses were Sustainability Focused or Sustainability Inclusive for the purposes of this report. The number of SDGs associated with a particular course does not necessarily correlate to whether it was listed as sustainability focused or inclusive, that designation is still based on the analysis of the course description. For example, ANTH4652 Cultural Theory for Wicked Problems, maps to nine of the 17 SDGs, however it is listed as sustainability inclusive, not sustainability focused, because the primary and explicit focus of the course is on a topic broader than sustainability, but sustainability challenges, issues, and concepts (e.g., ecological dynamics) are clearly incorporated into course content.