Academic Programs
Helping Academic Institutions Build Sustainability Education
The Need for Sustainability Education
By 2050, the population will grow from today’s 6.9 billion to 9 billion. To support this growth, preserve the natural environment and improve living standards, will require a 500% improvement in how effectively we use the resources we have.1 This will require rethinking every aspect of how we live and work.
For colleges and universities that means infusing sustainability education into the curriculum. This will provide students with an understanding of the challenges these issues present so that they are prepared with the skills and knowledge to tackle them in their careers.
Do your students understand how sustainability issues will affect their field and how to use their knowledge to develop new solutions for the challenges?
Does your institution have a cross-disciplinary approach to sustainability education that can engage all faculty and students?
If your answer is no to either of these questions, then Environic Foundation International can help.
How Environic Foundation International can strengthen your curriculum
Environic Foundation International (EFI) is a non-profit research and education foundation. Our research focuses on global sustainability challenges and ways to address them. Based on that research, we assist higher education institutions in developing sustainability education programs and build educational resources and learning tools.
To date, our programs have been used at undergraduate, graduate and continuing education levels in the United States and Africa for students of business, environmental studies, natural sciences, life sciences, art, agriculture, engineering and community development.
Our Approach
EFI’s approach is built around an internationally peer-reviewed, classroom-tested, trans-disciplinary pedagogy that combines student-centered learning with a building block process and a 25-issue matrix that engages students and faculty in all disciplines.
Outcomes
The approach increases a student’s value – to their institution, their classmates, their profession and their community – by developing their capacity to apply their education in practical and profoundly meaningful ways.
Students emerge with:
- Heightened awareness and a broad-based understanding of critical global issues
- Understanding of issue inter-relationships and linkages between challenges and opportunities
- Knowledge of strategies being used that successfully tackle the issues
- The ability to develop implementable strategies themselves
Sustainability Education Services
Institutional Leadership
EFI can help define and implement a cross-disciplinary approach to sustainability education by engaging key stakeholders, including administrators, faculty and potential community partners. Services can include defining need, identifying key steps to be taken and designing an educational plan that can be adopted across the University.
Faculty Workshops and Training
EFI can develop and host workshops or faculty learning communities to identify materials for inclusion in sustainability courses or programs, orient faculty to student-centered learning pedagogy or discuss how sustainability issues and best practices can be integrated into the existing curriculum.
Courses and Seminars
EFI can design and deliver sustainability courses either in collaboration with your faculty or on a “turn-key” basis with the option of content, materials and instruction being provided by EFI. Courses can be offered on a stand-alone basis or integrated with an existing curriculum to form certificate and minor programs. Examples include:
GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY
A survey of the full range of global social, economic and environmental sustainability issues and trends, this course results in significantly increased awareness and understanding of global sustainability challenges and the types of solutions being used to tackle them.BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY
These courses are targeted to business students and business professionals who want to understand the impacts and opportunities that the global drive toward greater sustainability will have on business.REGIONAL SUSTAINABILITY
These courses offer in-depth study of sustainability issues in a specific region so that students gain significant knowledge that they can apply in creating locally relevant solutions.Sustainable Societies Africa
Developed in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Sustainable Societies in Africa: Modules on Education for Sustainable Development explores the broad range of the most critical social, economic, and environmental challenges in Africa and develops students’ abilities to design and introduce strategies to address the problems in their local communities.Sustainable Societies Great Plains
Sustainable Societies Great Plains examines the critical sustainability issues and opportunities of the Great Plains – a region of North America bounded by the Rocky Mountains on the west and as far east as the Missouri River, stretching from Texas into the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Testimonials
“I was blown away by the quality of materials I saw.
The pedagogical approach that EFI uses can be applied to any level of student.”
- J. Clifford Fox, Ph.D., J.D., Assistant Director, Center for Environmental Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University
"My students gave it outstanding ratings for content and the interconnectedness concepts found in the 25-module sustainability matrix."
- Robert D. Kuzelka, AICP, Former Director, Environmental Studies Program,
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
“I found it to be the real deal. It is both wide, deep and interactive.
There is nothing that competes with this in the marketplace.”
- Van R. Wood, Ph.D., Professor & Endowed Chair in International Business,
Virginia Commonwealth University
“This program helps students from economic, environmental and social study programs communicate and strive for the same goals.”
- C.T., Majoring in Geology and Environmental Studies
“It provides a framework that can be used to assess issues and develop solutions for all situations.”
- J.W., Majoring in Water Science
"I can bring research to my client using the methodology I learned."
- S.H., Business Sustainability Certificate, Continuing Education
Contact Us
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we might help strengthen your institution’s sustainability education program.
William R. Godfrey, President
Direct: 240-205-4741
E-mail: b.godfrey@environicfoundation.org