University of Waterloo
AC-1: Academic Courses

The Sustainability Office reviewed all courses within the 2020/21 Academic Calendar for keywords that were related to sustainability based on keywords developed by SDSN. The subset of identified courses were manually validated to ensure they connected with key sustainability topics or concepts according to the AASHE definitions. Many cross-listed courses are offered given the interdisciplinary approach to the particular issues (i.e. Geography and Earth Sciences, or Planning and Public Health). The inventory of course offerings includes each cross listing as a separate line item and course. The same methodology was followed for reporting total number of undergraduate and graduate courses that did not have sustainability content. In previous years, the Sustainability Office circulated a copy of all identified courses to the relevant department chairs for validation, and made minor adjustment according to department chair feedback. The total number of courses also excluded courses which are not typical for students, including transfer credits, high-school credits, credits from other institutions which co-host some curriculum (i.e. Wilfrid Laurier University), and courses which were not offered until future terms but had already been integrated within the calendar.

Each course was counted as a single course regardless of the number of offerings or sections

Departments included all those listed as course owners within the academic calendar, including Dean’s Offices, Co-operative Education and Career Action, and Graduate Studies. Affiliated and Federated Institutions of Waterloo were excluded.