Academic Guidance Document
Higher Education’s greatest contribution to combating climate disruption is to reorient its curriculum to formally prepare students and thus society with the knowledge and skills necessary to address the critical, systemic challenges faced by the world in this new century. By providing this knowledge, higher education will better serve its students, institutions, and local communities, thereby meeting its social mandate to contribute to a thriving, ethical, and civil society.
The ACUPCC states that institutions “within two years of signing will develop an institutional action plan for becoming climate neutral, which will include; actions to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum and other educational experience for all students and to expand research or other efforts necessary to achieve climate neutrality.” The strategies for fulfilling the academic requirements of the ACUPCC will be highly institution-specific and should take into account the institution’s particular strengths.
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About
Signatories to the ACUPCC have committed to take “actions to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum and other educational experiences for all students.” Education for Climate Neutrality and Sustainability is intended to give high-level guidance to college and university decision-makers and key staff to clarify the intent of this element of the Commitment, and to provide some resources for signatories to create strategies for fulfilling this commitment
This document is designed to identify some of the best practices across higher education and to provide resources to assist signatories in creating their own strategies. The intended audience is higher education leaders, including presidents, provosts, deans, faculty, ACUPCC Implementation Liaisons and others that are working on the implementation of the ACUPCC.
Contributors
Authors and Leadership Team
- Amy Seif Hattan, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Second Nature
- Anthony Cortese, President, Second Nature
- Michelle Dyer, Vice President, Second Nature
Working Group
- Christopher Blake, President, Mount Mercy College
- Monty Hempel, Director of Environmental Studies, University of Redlands
- Toni Nelson, Climate Program Manager, AASHE
- David Shi, President, Furman University
- Ron Thomas, President, Dakota County Technical College
- Kim Tanzer, Professor of Architecture, University of Florida
- Mitchell Thomashow, President, Unity College
- Bill Timpson, Professor of Education, Colorado State University
- Richard Torgerson, President, Luther College
Advisory Group
- Peter Bardaglio, Senior Fellow, Second Nature
- Zenobia Barlow, Co-founder and Executive Director, Center for Ecoliteracy
- Peggy Barlett, Professor of Anthropology, Emory University
- Lindy Biggs, Professor of History, Auburn University
- David Blockstein, Senior Scientist, National Council for Science and the Environment
- James L. Buizer, Senior Advisor to the President, Arizona State University
- Jack Byrne, Director, Sustainability Integration Office, Middlebury College
- Fritjof Capra, Co-Founder, The Center for Ecoliteracy
- Robert Costanza, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont
- Robert Doppelt, Director, The Watershed Center, Portland State University
- Michelle Dyer, Vice President, Second Nature
- James Elder, Founder, Campaign for Environmental Literacy
- John Farnsworth, Lecturer in Environmental Writing and Literature, Santa Clara University
- James Farrell, Professor of History, St. Olaf College
- Nan Jenks-Jay, Dean of Environmental Affairs, Middlebury College
- Jon Jensen, Assistant Professor of Philosophy & Environmental Studies, Luther College
- Andy Jorgensen, Senior Fellow, National Council for Science and the Environment, Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Toledo
- Tom Kelly, Chief Sustainability Officer, University of New Hampshire
- Robert Koester, Professor of Architecture, Ball State University
- Jean MacGregor, Senior Scholar, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, The Evergreen State College
- Yolanda Moses, Professor of Anthropology, University of California Riverside
- David Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, and Senior Advisor to the President, Oberlin College
- Debra Rowe, President and Higher Education Co-Chair, U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development
- Andy Sheppard, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Southwestern College
- Walter Simpson, Director, University at Buffalo Green Office
- Mary Spilde, President, Lane Community College
- Bill Throop, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Green Mountain College
- Tyler Volk, Associate Professor of Biology, New York University
- John Warner, Director, Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry
- Tom Wessels, Professor of Environmental Studies, Antioch New England
Process
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Overview drafted | November 7, 2008 |
| Working Group selected | November 17, 2008 |
| Advisory Group selected | November 17, 2008 |
| Working Group review of overview | November 25, 2008 |
| Draft 1 available | January 19, 2009 |
| Advisory Group comments on Draft 1 | January 29, 2009 |
| Working Group review of Draft 1 | February 2, 2009 |
| Draft 2 available | March 13, 2009 |
| Advisory Group comments on Draft 2 | March 26, 2009 |
| Working Group review of Draft 2 | March 27, 2009 |
| ACUPCC Steering Committee review | April 10, 2009 |
| Final Draft Completed | April 15, 2009 |
| Dissemination of Final Draft | May 1, 2009 |
Examples of Education for Climate Neutrality and Sustainability
Additional examples and resources are described in Education for Climate Neutrality and Sustainability.
Arizona State University
School of Sustainability
Established in 2007, the School of Sustainability, part of the Global Institute of Sustainability, embodies the design aspirations of the New American University. ASU is addressing some of the most critical challenges of our time, and the knowledge and solutions that are created today will shape our quality of life as well as future generations. The mission of the School of Sustainability is to bring together multiple disciplines and leaders to create and share knowledge, train a new generation of scholars and practitioners, and develop practical solutions to the most pressing environmental, economic, and social challenges of sustainability, especially as they relate to urban areas.
Berea College
Sustainability and Environmental Studies Program
Established in 1999, the Sustainability and Environmental Studies (SENS) Program is an important part of Berea College’s efforts to develop a sustainable campus. SENS links the formal curriculum of the classroom to the many opportunities for experiential learning. SENS is a multidisciplinary program whose goal is to infuse the teaching of sustainability concepts throughout the College curriculum while guiding and supporting the efforts of the College to practice sustainability.
Cape Cod Community College
Natural Sciences and Life Fitness Department Environmental Technology Program
Environmental Technology is a career field that utilizes the principles of science, engineering, communication, and economics to protect and enhance safety, health, and natural resources. Cape Cod Community College is meeting the emerging trends in the environmental technology industry at the technician level by providing the necessary technical knowledge to meet the needs of the growing clean and green economy.
Cornell University
The Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future (CCSF)
CCSF is a campus wide “umbrella” organization designed to bring together many existing programs and to nucleate new efforts in sustainability. The major objective of this new center is to seed and grow collaborations across Cornell and with key external partners that can lead to significant real world impacts and leveraging of Cornell resources.
Dakota County Technical College
The Instructional Action Team
The Instructional Action Team is looking at ways to integrate sustainability into selected aspects of program curriculum. The Instructional Action Team has developed a “Sustainability Across the Curriculum Survey”.
Emory University
The Piedmont Project
The Piedmont Project emerged as a grassroots effort on the part of a group of concerned faculty to strengthen Emory’s engagement with sustainability and environmental issues. Supported by several internal funding sources, it is a curriculum development project that seeks to foster an invigorated intellectual community to address global issues and local environmental awareness. The project has grown from a focus on course development to include a broader group of experiences, both in and outside the classroom, expanding from faculty to graduate students, in ever-widening circles of dialogue.
Goshen College
Merry Lea, Goshen College’s 1,150-acre nature preserve has recently finished construction on Rieth Village, created to house Goshen College’s expanding environmental science program.
Kalamazoo College
Sustainability Guild
The Sustainability Guild will foster connections between the many elements of life at Kalamazoo that strive to encourage sustainable practices (on campus, in the community, and around the globe), and among students, alumni, faculty and staff, and community partners who are interested in promoting the importance of sustainability. These connections will lead to opportunities for professional networking, collaborative action, leadership development, and life-long ties to Kalamazoo College.
Lane Community College
Sustainability and Learning Committee
The Sustainability and Learning Committee is working on a plan to integrate eco-literacy into all discipline areas at Lane with the hope of providing more options for students who want to make these important issues a part of their life’s work.
Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD)
As part of its Green Building Initiative, LACCD has developed the e7 Internship Program providing students hands-on high-tech experience for modern careers in architecture and engineering.
Northern Arizona University
The Ponderosa Project
The Ponderosa Project at Northern Arizona University (NAU) is an interdisciplinary faculty group effort to incorporate environmental sustainability issues into university courses with the ultimate goal of providing future citizens the education and skills necessary to achieve sustainable communities and societies.
Ohlone Community College
The Ohlone College Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology is the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum College in the world.
Unity College
Unity College makes sure that students have the intellectual tools they need to solve the problems of our time through “hands-on” learning. All students must study sustainability before they graduate, and the campus strives to be as sustainable as is physically and fiscally possible.
University of New Hampshire
CORE: Curriculum, Operations, Research and Engagement
At the University of New Hampshire, sustainability encompasses climate and energy, ecology, food systems and culture across what they call the CORE: Curriculum, Operations, Research and Engagement. What and how they teach and research; how they govern their communities with respect to decisions regarding energy, land use, transportation, food, art and politics; and how they respond to the challenges of the larger communities in which they are embedded are all central questions of sustainability.
