Cal Poly Humboldt
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

Sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.* The relevant dimensions to examine include the environment, society, and economy and their interconnections. Sustainability Courses Defined: A course is related to sustainability if any part of it explores the relationship between the environmental and the social and/or economic needs among different generations (i.e., past or current in relation to future generations). This may include using sustainability examples to illustrate core course concepts. A course is focused on sustainability if a significant part of it explores the interplay between all three dimensions. *Wording comes from the core definition created by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, convened by the United Nations to create a report on sustainable development into the future.

The lists of sustainability-focused and sustainability-related courses began with a keyword search of course descriptions in the Humboldt State University catalog. Our Sustainability Steering Committee used a total of 42 search terms, chosen to relate to the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social (search terms included: forest*, ecosystem*, energ*, econom*, financ*, justic*, socio*, politic*, communit*, etc.). An initial list of courses whose titles or descriptions contained search terms from at least two dimensions was refined with a course-by-course examination of catalog descriptions. The committee then published a draft list to the department chairs, asking for confirmation, additions, and/or subtractions from the lists. After reconciling the revisions, the final version was sent to the departments at the end of the 2012 Spring Semester.