Sustainability-focused and -related courses at UM 

In Spring 2013, the Sustainable Campus Committee (SCC) approved UM's definitions of sustainability-focused and sustainability-related courses in response to students' requests that sustainability courses at UM be labeled. While collecting data on research and curricula for UM's first STARS (Sustainability Tracking Assessment & Rating System) submission, interns realized that courses at UM that address sustainability concepts or focus on issues of sustainability were not necessarily being promoted to students. UM faculty were surveyed and interviewed to determine which courses meet these two categories. Courses are identified as sustainability-focused or -related by the faculty who teach them.

Sustainability-focused courses at UM concentrate on the concept of sustainability, including its social, environmental, and economic dimensions or examine an issue or topic using sustainability as a lens. To be a sustainability-focused course, students must be able to fulfill at least one of the learning objectives below:

1. Understand and be able to effectively communicate the concept of sustainability.

2. Develop and use an ethical perspective in which they view themselves as embedded in the fabric of an interconnected world.

3. Become aware of and explore the connections between their chosen course of study and sustainability.

4. Develop a greater understanding of various sustainability challenges (such as climate change or poverty).

5. Develop technical skills or expertise necessary to implement sustainable solutions.

6. Understand the way in which sustainable thinking and decision-making contribute to the process of creating solutions for current and emerging social, environmental, and economic challenges.

7. Contribute practical solutions to real-world sustainability challenges.

8. Synthesize understanding of social, economic, and environmental systems and reason holistically.

See a full list of courses by clicking on the links to the left.

If you teach sustainability-focused or -related courses at the University of Montana but do not see your courses listed on these pages, please contact the ASUM Sustainability Coordinator so that we may add them!