Sustainability at Penn State

Take a look at what sustainability resources Penn State has to offer!

SUSTAINABILITY

Penn State’s Contribution

 

As an institution, Penn State is broadly supportive of incorporating sustainability content and competencies into the classroom. We benefit from the abundant resources of the Sustainability Institute to aid us in sustainability-themed engaged teaching, and several colleges and departments have named sustainability as a theme or goal. Recently, the Faculty Senate produced the Student Sustainability Literacy Project report on how Penn State can improve student literacy in sustainability—instruction that students desire. Indeed, a survey from the report notes that “88% of students agreed that climate change is happening; 62% of students agreed that PSU has not prepared them well to meet the challenge of climate change; and 74% of students agreed that PSU should do more to address climate change.”  

Where to start?

The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals

What are we talking about when we talk about sustainability? Participants in any classroom might have widely varying assumptions about the very idea of sustainability or how broadly it can be interpreted. That’s why the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a useful framework for students and instructors to determine what we mean when we talk about sustainability. The goals also reflect the interlocking nature of these issue areas. Yet, while the capaciousness of the SDGs bring forth complexity, they also ground the classroom community in specifics, which can be helpful as a starting point for establishing a shared lexicon and understanding.

Adopted by member nations in 2015, the 17 SDGs are part of The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Carefully crafted and widely agreed upon globally, the SDGs are as generative as they are credible and authoritative.

 

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What are we teaching?

 

While the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals deal with content, what are the skills or competencies associated with sustainability education? A study by Penn State faculty developed five key sustainability meta-competencies to integrate in course work and critical engagement:

  1. Systems Thinking
  2. Temporal Thinking
  3. Interpersonal Literacy
  4. Ethical Literacy
  5. Creativity/Imagination

These competencies can be directly shared with students and used as touchstones throughout the course. Students can also reflect on their own growth and engagement with each of these key competencies as part of any course’s curriculum. Below is a table developed by Peter Buckland and Elyzabeth Engle for a faculty workshop that further explains the five sustainability meta competencies.

Sustainability in General Education Courses

Systems Thinking

Description

Ability to analyze complex systems across multiple domains and at different scales.

Justification

Necessary for understanding complexity of sustainable concepts; ubiquitous in sustainability competencies literature.

Temporal Thinking

Description

Ability to draw upon and anticipate states and narratives of past and future societies and environments.

Justification

Emphasizes the ability to extract and apply lessons from the past and to envision the needs of people in the future and the effects of current actions on those needs.

Interpersonal Literacy

Description

Ability to comprehend, motivate, enable, relate to, and communicate across diverse individuals, political systems and organizations.

Justification

The societal and policy changes necessary to deal with issues of sustainability require that individual sustainability advocates have the skills to negotiate complex personalities, networks, assumptions and political/power systems.

Ethical Literacy

Description

Ability to identify and assess ethical issues and controversies (related to sustainability), and to discuss, respond to, and reconcile them, applying personal and societal values and goals.

Justification

Sustainability issues are inherently value-laden and must be analyzed through an understanding of ethics.

Creativity/Imagination

Description

Ability to envision, develop and apply innovative and strategic solutions, frameworks, etc. in order to adapt to changing and challenging situations.

Justification

Identified by research participants as necessary for addressing unforeseen outcomes and scenarios; not addressed in other categories.

For more details on sustainability competencies, faculty can turn to Brundiers et al’s ‘Key Competencies in Sustainability in Higher Education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework” and Penn State faculty’s study, “Developing a framework for sustainability competencies,” by Engle et al.

Who can help?

Sustainable Communities Collaborative

“The Sustainable Communities Collaborative at Penn State facilitates partnerships between Penn State classes and partners from across Pennsylvania. Students engage in applied, real-world projects and research that increases the community’s capacity to make better, more informed decisions to address its sustainability challenges. Student projects do not replace the work of professionals, but act as catalysts to begin new work.”
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For more information, CONTACT…

Ilona Ballreich

Program Manager, Sustainable Communities Collaborative

Email: ixb20@psu.edu
Peter Buck

Peter Buck

Academic Programs Manager at the Sustainability Institute

Email, peterbuck@psu.edu ,for help with incorporating sustainability into your classroom.

See more of Peters work HERE