Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 64.54
Liaison Shane Stennes
Submission Date Oct. 25, 2012
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Shane Stennes
Director of Sustainability
University Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution developed a definition of sustainability in the curriculum?:
Yes

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

Courses fulfilling the University's "environment theme" requirement for undergraduate education are sustainability-focused course offerings. The following is a description of the environment theme objectives and criteria:

Environmental issues are complex. Finding solutions to these environmental issues will have students vigorously debating the myriad of solutions; weighing the costs with the benefits and tradeoffs among alternative policies and practices; exploring the roles of science and technology; learning to become involved, informed, and constructive citizens after graduation. Issues such as sustainability and the ethics of intergenerational equity must be weighed against meeting current needs and wants. The pursuit of solutions to environmental issues is a highly synthetic and interdisciplinary endeavor. Therefore, courses that fulfill this Theme need to connect students, in explicit ways, to solving problems. A broad array of disciplines, from physical and biological sciences, to the social sciences and humanities need to be integrated into the proposed solutions, which must be based on science, but which will be implemented and sustained only if they are consistent with the ethics and values of society.
Courses must meet these criteria:

-The course raises environmental issues of major significance.
-The course gives explicit attention to interrelationships between the natural environment and human society.
-The course introduces the underlying scientific principles behind the environmental issues being examined
-Students explore the limitations of technologies and the constraints of science on the public policy issues being considered.
-Students learn how to identify and evaluate credible information concerning the environment.
-Students demonstrate an understanding that solutions to environmental problems will only be sustained if they are consistent with the ethics and values of society.


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:

A search was conducted of our Electronic Course Approval System (ECAS). Any course that meets the liberal education environment theme requirement was classified as sustainability-focused. Courses not fulfilling this requirement but covering content on one or more of the following terms (as identified through a key word search) were considered to be sustainability-related courses: climate, air, water, biodiversity, efficiency, energy, renewable, photovoltaic, hydro, smart grid, green, biomass, biofuel, soil, poverty, forestry, and life cycle cost.

Courses identified through the key word search were individually reviewed to ensure they were appropriately classified as sustainability-related.


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:

This information only pertains to undergraduate education.

A course search tool is also published on the Institute on the Environment's Sustainability Education site
http://www.susteducation.umn.edu/resources/sustainability-course-search/


This information only pertains to undergraduate education.

A course search tool is also published on the Institute on the Environment's Sustainability Education site
http://www.susteducation.umn.edu/resources/sustainability-course-search/

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.