Education and Curriculum Summary: A primary function of universities is to educate students, and universities are uniquely positioned to prepare students to understand and address climate and other sustainability challenges. Incorporation of sustainability into education and the curriculum helps train future leaders and workers in creating a more sustainable future. Climate change education is critical to raise awareness
and capacity to support climate change mitigation and adaptation. More broadly, sustainability education helps prepare students to support sustainability, including the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and the 16 principles of the Earth Charter, which span major sustainability challenges including climate change, global poverty and inequality, natural resource depletion, and environmental degradation. Having sustainability education incorporated across the University helps ensure that sustainability education is comprehensive, includes diverse topics, and provides students with a broad understanding of sustainability.
Objective: Integrate sustainability and climate change education across the University curriculum, co-curricular activities, and the campus culture to provide students with the knowledge, skills, competencies, and values necessary to shape an equitable and sustainable future.
By 2030: • Provide incentives for faculty to integrate sustainability into the curriculum and provide ongoing multidisciplinary training to support faculty integration of sustainability in the curriculum. • Increase the number of departments offering a sustainability course from 80% to 100%. • Increase the percentage of sustainability courses from 14% to 20% • Increase the percentage of students graduating from a program that requires an understanding of sustainability from 18% to 25% • Develop a Sustainability Center that brings together students, faculty, staff, and the community to collectively advance sustainability knowledge and address critical sustainability challenges. Strategy: Train and incentivize faculty members to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum. This may include program and course learner outcomes, syllabi, modules, or specific lessons. Develop a Sustainability Center to increase experiential and applied learning opportunities, leadership development opportunities, and sustainability programming on campus and in the community, all of which are critical to building sustainability skills, values, and competencies, and preparing future sustainability leaders. Action Steps: Create a faculty-led effort to train and incentivize faculty to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum through professional development opportunities including the Piedmont/ Ponderosa Model, which is a national model for faculty development and curricular innovation around sustainability. The expanded sustainability in the curriculum professional development initiative will aim to increase the number of departments offering sustainability courses, and the percentage of students graduating with an understanding of sustainability. Develop a Sustainability Center that will empower students, faculty, staff, and the community to address critical issues related to sustainability and climate change and provide employment opportunities for students to serve as Sustainability Ambassadors. Department Lead(s): CWU faculty-led Sustainability in the Curriculum Team for sustainability in the curriculum. Sustainability Center for sustainability programming and co-curricular activities. Initial and Ongoing Costs: Sustainability in the curriculum professional development workshops ($20,000/year); Sustainability Coordinator to support sustainability education and programming ($80,000/year); Sustainability Ambassadors to support student peer-to-peer education ($40,000/ year); development and operation of a Sustainability Center.
Funding Opportunities: WA State Legislation, Federal and non-federal grants, CWU Foundation Phasing Plan: Ongoing sustainability in the curriculum professional development workshops will begin in 2024. Hiring of a Sustainability Coordinator and Sustainability Ambassadors by fall 2024 will increase sustainability programming and peer-to-peer education. The Sustainability Center will be launched by fall 2025 or 2026. Equity Considerations: Students from all backgrounds and academic programs are provided with sustainability in the curriculum learning opportunities. Paid student positions through the Sustainability Ambassador programs remove financial barriers to participation in sustainability efforts. Co-Benefits: Educate and train the future generation of sustainability and climate practitioners and leaders. Students are more competitive in the workforce, as many employers are looking for employees with knowledge and competencies in sustainability.
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