Furman University
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

Sustainability explores the dynamic relationships among social, economic, and environmental systems in order to enhance the long-term quality of life. Sustainability-related courses address the relationship between at least two of these systems as a significant component of the course. Sustainability-focused courses make the relationships between these systems the focus of the course, or use sustainability as a guiding framework for the entire course.

Courses were identified by their catalog descriptions to be sustainability-related or sustainability-focused. The reliance on catalog descriptions necessitates an undercounting of the total classes which are sustainability-related or sustainability-focused; there are likely a number of courses which include a focus on sustainability in practice, though this may not be clear from the official catalog description (these generally range from one to four sentences). Additionally, some courses which are taught by multiple faculty members may include a focus on sustainability when taught by one faculty member, but not when taught by another faculty member. The list of sustainability-related and focused courses was then used to determine the number of such courses offered in the 2011-2012 academic year. Each course offered was counted only once, regardless of the number of sections offered. The inventory includes for-credit courses offered in the fall, spring, summer, and May Experience terms. Note: the list of courses posted on the website below lists all courses offered by the university that are sustainability-related or focused; the list is not restricted to those courses offered last year (which were the only courses counted in the inventory numbers provided above).