Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 69.67
Liaison Julie Newman
Submission Date Sept. 30, 2021

STARS v2.2

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 10.20 / 14.00 MIT Office of Sustainability
Director
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Sustainability course offerings

Figures required to calculate the percentage of courses offered by the institution that are sustainability course offerings:
Undergraduate Graduate
Total number of courses offered by the institution 1,616 1,868
Number of sustainability-focused courses offered 122 94
Number of sustainability-inclusive courses offered 82 68

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
10.51

Part 2. Sustainability course offerings by department

Total number of academic departments that offer courses:
30

Number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
27

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
90

Documentation

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability course offerings and descriptions:
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

A brief description of the methodology used to complete the course inventory :
The listing of undergraduate and graduate classes offered during the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters was reviewed. The first step was to flag classes whose titles indicated sustainable content. Those were identified as "sustainability-focused" classes. The second step was to review class descriptions for all the environmental classes to identify those classes that were oriented toward sustainability; that is, would a student taking this class necessarily be engaged in learning why and how to help society pursue pathways toward a future that was both environmentally and socially sustainable? These were identified as "sustainability-inclusive" classes.

How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:
Each offering or section of a course was counted as an individual course

A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted:
The discrepancy in the number of courses between the number submitted and those found on the documenting material is reflective of the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability that leads to classes that are cross listed in multiple departments and therefore satisfying the requirements as outlined by different majors at MIT.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the sustainability course offerings is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.