New York University
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

NYU's definition of sustainability strives to synthesize "triple bottom line", "limited resources" and "future generations" models, applying these principles to both academic and operational environmental performance in a flexible and pragmatic way.

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Only a small number of years ago, "sustainability" was a term discussed primarily in academic and policy circles. The UN Brundtland Report (PDF) was an early adopter, referring to sustainability as "meet[ing] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Since then, the term has entered the mainstream of national discourse, becoming a buzzword in the popular press and capturing the imagination of a broad spectrum of society. This journey has brought inevitable soul-searching about what sustainability really means. Working to define sustainability is an important way to avoid the unfortunate trend toward "greenwashing" environmentally harmful activities that seek to claim an environmentally-friendly mantle.

Though there are many definitions of sustainability in circulation, a few common principles seem to unite them effectively:

* The first is the conviction that meeting present needs should not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

* The second is that there are limitations to nature's capacity, and these limitations must be respected, or even embraced.

* The third is that nothing is isolated, but rather, the world is interconnected across social, economic, and environmental boundaries.

NYU has the remarkable opportunity to contribute to sustainability on three distinct scales of impact:

* The first is by directly preventing or reducing the adverse environmental impacts that result from the operation of such a large institution; the scale and influence of NYU can result in extraordinarily potent actions, which can shift patterns of consumption throughout New York City more broadly.

* The next means of impact is less direct, but even larger in scale: by infusing every aspect of the university's activities and operations with sustainability education, we can alter the perceptions of the thousands of students, faculty and administrators that call NYU home every year. Over the course of our lives, members of the NYU community can carry the message of sustainability far beyond the campus and city.

* The third opportunity for advancing sustainability is broader yet in scale: as a major research university that is uniquely embedded in the urban fabric of New York City, NYU can not only develop resources, ideas, and practices that further university sustainability efforts; it can also export its knowledge to cities and urban centers all over the world.

The institution identifies courses on an ongoing basis through the Sustainability website.

In addition, the institution received information from a comprehensive list of Fall and Spring Courses from the 2009-2010 Academic Year., through the University Registrar (http://www.nyu.edu/registrar/listings/). This inventory is attached to the ER-6 and ER-7 credits.

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Data for this submission was provided by NYU’s Office of the University Registrar for Academic Year 2009-2010. In picking out classes that are sustainability-focused or sustainability-themed, NYU asked multiple researchers to independently review a master list of course titles and affiliated programs, supplementing their review with content and syllabi posted on academic programs’ websites.

NYU removed duplicative recitations, distance learning courses, academic journals, and non-credit bearing workshops and clinics from this list.

Courses designated as sustainability-focused or sustainability-related addressed one or more of the following topics:

** Discussion of issues of collective action in relation to policy, economics and resource use;
** Concern for issues of preservation and environmental regulation;
** Integration of multiple disciplines to analyze human-environment interactions;
** Cost-benefit analysis of issues relating to the social, economic, and ecological welfare of future generations in relationship to resource use;
** Discussion of solutions to socioeconomic and environmental challenges, including energy, technology, social enterprise, ecosystems, social transformations, food systems, policy, law, education, and governance.

Some courses listed as requirements for sustainability-focused degree programs were included as sustainability-related courses on that basis. Due to the multiple-disciplinary approach to tackling global problems, the courses included in the inventory reflect some of the broader skill set needed to both analyze and apply solutions in an ever-shifting environment.

This "screen" deliberately did not include many potentially-relevant but "borderline" courses in subjects such as economic policy, social work, environmental health, biology, chemistry, urban policy, world cultures, global affairs, or political science, if these courses did not appear to substantively address these issues in contact with one another or from the perspective of systems (or relational) thinking.

A broader screen may be applied in the future, and this methodology will be revised as NYU's academic infrastructure adapts to more formally tackle the challenge of sustainability in higher education.