Exploring just sustainability across the disciplines at one university

Abstract

We examined The University of Vermont’s new sustainability requirement for undergraduates through the lens of just sustainability. We found that sustainability courses are proposed in diverse disciplines. Regardless of discipline, most proposed courses address all three pillars of sustainability (social, ecological, and economic). Discussions of environmental justice are less widespread; only 17% of proposed courses in science, technology, and math departments addressed environmental justice. Our results provide examples for others interested in integrating sustainability across diverse disciplines and in emphasizing environmental justice. We also call attention to the fact that institutions of higher education may need explicit reminders or requirements to adequately include considerations of environmental justice in sustainability studies.

Keywords:

• higher education
• sustainability education
• just sustainability
• environmental justice
• sustainability;
• environmental education

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to research assistance from Isabelle Federico and for the thoughtful revisions from the editorial staff from the The Journal of Environmental Education. This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, McIntire-Stennis project 1003495.

Notes

Notes

1 Including forestry, wildlife biology, watershed science, geology, landscape architecture, and many others.

2 These institutions were members of the National Association of University Forest Resource Programs, and include land grant institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and other types of institutions.

3 The categories of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Science, Technology, and Mathematics, however, had 15 and 23 course proposals, respectively, making consideration of percentages worthwhile.