Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 73.99
Liaison Mary-Lee Townsend
Submission Date Oct. 20, 2021

STARS v2.2

Western University
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 13.80 / 14.00 Jessica Cordes
Sustainability Coordinator
Facilities Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Figures required to calculate the percentage of courses offered by the institution that are sustainability course offerings:
Undergraduate Graduate
Total number of courses offered by the institution 3,735 2,750
Number of sustainability-focused courses offered 474 136
Number of sustainability-inclusive courses offered 546 109

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
19.51

Total number of academic departments that offer courses:
54

Number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
51

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
94.44

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability course offerings and descriptions:
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

A brief description of the methodology used to complete the course inventory :

UNDERGRAD COURSES
Western's undergraduate courses were examined and reviewed using keyword analysis (keywords included in the attached inventory) to determine if and how each course related to the UN SDGs. This inventory can be accessed online at: https://sustainability.uwo.ca/academics/inventory_courses.html

For the purpose of the STARS review, each course identified as per the UN SDG review, was further reviewed and determined to be either a sustainability focused or inclusive course using one of two methods:

1) It was assumed that any undergraduate courses identified through the UN SDG keyword analysis, AND having the following words in the title AS WELL AS the course description could be considered a Sustainability Focused Course:
Sustainable/Sustainability
Environment/Environmental
Global
Climate
Injustice/Justice
Equity/Inequity
Conservation
Ecology
Wildlife
Women
Earth

Courses with the above listed words in the course description ONLY, were considered to be Sustainability Inclusive.

2) A further line by line review of each course then identified those courses which may not have contained any of the keywords above, but do qualify as sustainability inclusive or focused based on course title, description and/or content.

GRADUATE COURSES
It was assumed that any graduate courses identified as having the following words in the title AS WELL AS the course description could be considered a Sustainability Focused Course:
Sustainable/Sustainability
Environment/Environmental
Global
Climate
Injustice/Justice
Equity/Inequity
Conservation
Ecology
Wildlife
Women
Earth

Courses with the above listed words in the course description ONLY, were considered to be Sustainability Inclusive.

A further line by line review of each course then identified those courses which may not have contained any of the keywords above, but do qualify as sustainability inclusive or focused based on course title, description and/or content.


How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:
Each course was counted as a single course regardless of the number of offerings or sections

A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted:
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Website URL where information about the sustainability course offerings is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.