Oregon State University
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

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Sustainability Course Review

Background
OSU became a member of the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in 2010. As a member of AASHE, OSU began participating in the voluntary assessment known as STARS (Sustainability Tracking and Rating System). One component of STARS is to maintain an updated and comprehensive list of “sustainability related” and “sustainability focused” courses offered by OSU. This list is available at http://oregonstate.edu/sustainability/courses. This list also supports the Sustainability Dual Degree program as it directs students to related courses. The evolution of the Sustainability Course Review has also sparked interest in utilizing this tool as more than just a means for identifying sustainability courses for STARS. The hope is to also encourage the creation of more sustainability courses at OSU and to guide existing sustainability courses in their subject matter. Current definitions and criteria are listed below and have been endorsed, informed and developed by multiple OSU staff, student and faculty stakeholders including the Sustainability Course Review Committee and the Sustainability Advisory Council. Building from work done in 2009 by the Institute of Natural Resources (INR), this assessment uses those definitions to guide this assessment along with other respected research and resources.
Course Identification

Using the guide on page four of this document, course syllabi will be evaluated to determine whether courses are “Sustainability-related” or “Sustainability-focused.” The following definitions below have been adapted from STARS.

• Sustainability Related courses incorporate sustainability as a distinct course component or module, or concentrate on a single sustainability principle or issue.
• Sustainability Focused courses concentrate on the concept of sustainability consistently throughout the entire course. This includes connections between environmental, social, and economic dimensions. It also examines an issue or topic using sustainability as a lens.
Reviewers will use the following criteria when evaluating whether a course is either sustainability-related or sustainability-focused.
• Inclusion of content related to sustainability as defined under “Sustainability Defined”
• Incorporation of “Sustainability Learning Outcomes” in syllabus
• Incorporation of principles listed under “Sustainability Principles”

Sustainability Defined
Although sustainability is defined in many ways, the INR report offers this general description from the 2001 Oregon Sustainability Act:

‘Sustainability’ means using, developing and protecting resources in a manner that enables people to meet current needs and provides that future generations can also meet future needs, from the joint perspective of environmental, economic and community objectives.

One common framework separates sustainability into three realms sometimes known as the Three E’s. Those realms can be defined as seen below:

Environmental Equity: Equity is extended beyond the human realm to all living beings and no one group is made to bear a disproportionate share of environmental hazards or pollution.
Economic Equity: Apportionment of resources and goods is considered fair.
Social Equity: Implies fair access to livelihood and resources, full participation in the political and cultural life of the community and the self determination to meet one’s own needs.

Within the sustainability movement, there is often the human-influenced intersection between the three realms that is critical in teaching the concept of sustainability. A further refined definition might be:
Sustainability is the point where human endeavors reflect social equity, political stability, and economic development that is balanced with the capacity of ecosystems to absorb impacts without declining ecosystem structure and function.

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Sustainability Learning Outcomes
Adopted and adapted from OIT, the learning outcomes align with OSU Mission, Core Values and Learning Goals for Graduates.

Awareness
1. Understand and be able to effectively describe a concept(s) of sustainability.
2. Recognize and explain ethics with respect to a particular discipline.
3. Know that sustainability is not a single discipline, therefore requires a transdisciplinary perspective

Understanding
4. Extend sustainability to make connections to major or specific subject matter/other courses.
5. Comprehend whole-systems approaches to problem solving.
6. Explain that human systems and natural systems are linked and that there are cascading effects with intended and unintended consequences of human policies, decisions, and actions, all of which have implications for sustainability.
7. Describe how solutions involve tradeoffs; there are rarely perfect solutions with no costs, and there are often winners and losers.

Application
8. Develop technical skills or expertise necessary to implement sustainability solutions that are dynamic, multi-faceted and change over time.
9. Apply knowledge of sustainability and sustainability concepts/principles to contribute to practical solutions to real-world health, social, economic, political, and/or environmental challenges.
10. Utilize principles of critical thinking to examine problems and solutions that are locally relevant and culturally appropriate at multiple scales of governance.

Analysis, Synthesis and Critical Thinking
11. Analyze and synthesize understanding of the interconnections between health, social, economic, political, and environmental systems.

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Sustainability Principles
The Sustainability Principles below have been adopted and adapted from the Western Australian Sustainability Principles.
1. Long Term Economic Health
Sustainability recognizes the needs of current and future generations for long-term economic health, innovation, diversity and productivity of the earth.

2. Equity and human rights
Sustainability recognizes that an environment needs to be created where all people can express their full potential and lead productive lives and that significant gaps in sufficiency, safety and opportunity endanger the earth.

3. Biodiversity and ecological integrity
Sustainability recognizes that all life has intrinsic value and is interconnected and that biodiversity and ecological integrity are part of the irreplaceable life support systems upon which the earth depends.

4. Settlement efficiency and quality of life
Sustainability recognizes that settlements need to reduce their ecological footprint (e.g., less material and energy demands and reduction in waste) while they simultaneously improve their quality of life (health, housing, employment, community)

5. Community, regions, 'sense of place' and heritage
Sustainability recognizes the significance and diversity of community and regions for the management of the earth, and the critical importance of 'sense of place' and heritage (buildings, townscapes, landscapes and culture) in any plans for the future.

6. Net benefit from development
Sustainability means that all development, and particularly development involving extraction of non-renewable resources, should strive to provide net environmental, social and economic benefit for future generations.

7. Common good from planning
Sustainability recognizes that planning for the common good requires that planning for the common good requires equitable distribution of public resources (like air, water and open spaces) so that ecosystem functions are maintained and a shared resource is available to all.

8. Systems Thinking and Interdependence
Sustainability uses systems thinking to acknowledge the inextricable links among ecological, economic and social systems. Decisions consider upstream and downstream considerations. 

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Syllabus Evaluation Form: Sustainability-related or focused course

Course Name__________________________________________________________________________
Course Number ________________ Review Date _________________ Reviewer _________________

Instructions: Review the criteria below and fill in the requested information in the corresponding boxes. Refer to the section above on Defining Sustainability for more context.

Section A:
Sustainability Related Courses incorporate sustainability as a distinct course component, module or concentrate on a single sustainability principle or issue.

Criterion: Course must cover at least one Sustainability Principle as a distinct course component or module. In the box below list the corresponding number of all Sustainability Principles that apply:

Justification: If necessary, briefly note how the above criterion is applied in the course.

Section B:
Sustainability Focused Courses concentrate on the concept of sustainability as a consistent theme throughout the entire course. This includes teaching about the connections between environmental, social, and economic dimensions. Sustainability focused courses should also examine an issue or topic using sustainability as a lens.

Criteria: Course must concentrate on at least one Sustainability Principle consistently or intermittently throughout the entire course and at least two Sustainability Learning Objectives. In the first box below list the corresponding number of all Sustainability Principles that apply. List the corresponding number of all Sustainability Learning Objectives in the second box:

Justification: If necessary, briefly note how the above criteria are applied in the course.

Once the committee of faculty developed the definition above, a four step process was used to identify and categorize the courses:

Stage 1: Utilize curriculum proposal system to identify all new course for FY12
Stage 2: Evaluate course title
Stage 3: Evaluate course description
Stage 4: Evaluate syllabus
Stage 5: Complete form
Stage 6: Separate "focused" and "related" courses

Information was processed by Sustainability Office staff, and when unclear, courses would receive a final review from Sonja Mae, Sustainability Program Specialist and Sustainability Instructor.

This year's evaluation process was updated from FY11 with the help of the Sustainability Course Review Committee, which was comprised of staff, faculty and students. Our hope for this year's evaluation form is to make the Sustainability Course Review process more manageable have a tool to help encourage faculty to develop new or revise current courses to include aspects of sustainability.