Curriculum for Applied Sustainability Degree

Students will explore the history of US environmental policy and its role in forming domestic and international laws. Students will examine the history and global impacts of globalization to develop a nuanced understanding of it. Environmental policies, the role of international institutions, corporate actors, and civil society movements will be investigated as contributors to either environmental degradation or sustainability transitions, with particular attention to climate justice, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the governance challenges of a rapidly changing planet.

Students will engage in a place-based approach to understanding our relationship with the environment. Applied examples of innovative sustainability initiatives and policies will be investigated through field trips, readings and guest speakers. Students will gain a deeper understanding of local issues and solutions and how they fit into national and global contexts and how they can be implemented to work for change.

Students will learn about environmental justice (EJ) history, theory, framework, and practice through an interdisciplinary approach that will focus primarily within the United States and select global examples. Students will examine how environmental impacts are inequitably experienced by those of varying race, class, gender, and region and make connections between race, power, and access. Additionally, students will analyze historical and contemporary national/state governmental and policy responses and institutional and community strategies of EJ in practice.

Students will study the multidisciplinary approaches necessary for successful investigation of environmental, social and economic issues and how they pertain to sustainability. Topics such as food systems, energy, water use and community management of resources are explored and evaluated through social and natural sciences Students will discuss and investigate past and current efforts aimed at addressing complex problems to examine potential solutions. Students will explore systems thinking and develop their own personal credo of sustainable living.

Ecological economics is an emerging discipline that seeks to reconcile traditional economics with biophysical limits. We will explore the differing worldviews of neoclassical and ecological economics, and reevaluate the relationship between the human economy and the economy of nature. We will examine mainstream economic issues through an ecological economic perspective and apply economic concepts to environmental issues to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how to propose solutions to solve economic and social problems that promote human and environmental resilience.

How do we make good decisions for sustainability - and who gets to decide? In this course, students will build a practical toolkit for sustainability decision-making, exploring approaches including technical analysis, cost-effectiveness, benefit/cost analysis, risk assessment, alternatives assessment, environmental impact analysis, and ethical analysis. Students will apply these frameworks to a real sustainability policy question and develop recommendations and policy based on decision making models.

Students examine the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms, the interactions among organisms, and the interactions between organisms and the transformation and flux of energy and matter through the lens of the local bioregion. Students explore the six ecological levels and analyze the effect of human interactions with these systems. Emphasis will be placed on interdependent relationships between and within ecological communities. This course includes two laboratory hours per week.

Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? provides a survey of the development and conceptualization of ecotourism, as well as an exploration of the possibilities and pitfalls of 21st century ecotourism. Building on specific global case studies, including the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, South Africa and close to home here in the United States and Vermont, our course will take a balanced both/and approach to ecotourism to deepen our understanding of ecotourism as a global phenomenon. We will also consider the future of ecotourism, in light of our 21st century Age of Limits and new emerging technological and political possibilities for human civilization grappling with emerging environmental realities like climate change and peak oil.

Central to effective conservation and management of ecosystems is a deep understanding of the ecological needs and life histories of the wildlife that inhabits these landscapes. This course focuses on the ecology, life history, conservation, management, and study of wildlife, with particular attention to Vermont's vertebrates and their habitats. The course provides a survey in the scientific techniques used by wildlife biologists (e.g. camera traps, tracking, etc.) to detect, gather data, study, and understand wildlife. Students will explore the impact of legal, cultural, and scientific management tools used at the local, state, and federal level to control human-wildlife interactions. Topics discussed include symbiosis, foraging patterns, plant-animal interactions, reproduction, habitat assessment, population abundance and density estimates, disease and parasite management, and endangered species restoration.