GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY COURSE

Overview: This Global Sustainability course explores local to global interdependencies between ecosystems, human societies, and how we collectively create the constructed environment and our stuff. Understanding these inextricable relationships, and imagining new possibilities, is urgent and essential for everyone in this time of dramatic change.

The planet’s human population has doubled in 50 years to over 8 billion people. The UN projects an increase to 9.8 billion by 2050 and over 11 billion by 2100. More humans need more of everything—fresh water, food, shelter, energy, education, jobs, joy, natural matter and social systems of all sorts. Multiplied by bad decisions and a growing and unsustainable per-capita rate of consumption, the result is climate change and a long list of problems: CO2 emissions, pollution, forever chemicals, mountains of waste, human health threats, biodiversity loss, species extinction, malnourishment, rapid urbanization, homelessness, increasing economic inequality, failing states, climate migration, loneliness, lack of beauty… According the UN Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022, “cascading and interlinked crises are putting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in grave danger, along with humanity’s very own survival.”

Rather than deny or hide from all these current realities, this transdisciplinary course prepares students to understand, innovate and act—as individuals and as part of the collective. Providing foundational knowledge on the multifaceted aspects of current conditions and new ways forward, the course helps students to deepen their understanding of sustainability from the local to global scale.

Structure: The study of sustainability involves every discipline and requires a transdisciplinary approach. Thus, the course is structured both to reveal complex connections across disciplines and to introduce distinct disciplinary knowledge and methods. While the course is designed and taught by Prof. Crisman, a diverse range of sustainability-focused faculty from disciplines across UVA and beyond are an integral part of the course. The semester is divided into 3 parts: Part 1 builds a holistic framework of foundational concepts and methods. After Fall reading days, Part 2 examines themes such as water, waste, energy, food, mobility, architecture, policy, and business. After Thanksgiving, Part 3 speculates on what’s next.

Learning Objectives:  After completing this course, student should have learned to:

1. Understand a broad range of finite matter constraints on the quality of human lives.

2. Connect local problems to global challenges, personal experiences, and current practices and policies.

3. Cultivate a commitment to work toward sustainable change and to develop a self-image as a change agent.

4. Improve conceptual, research and writing skills needed to identify, structure and synthesize knowledge and organize action.

The Big Picture

Foundational Concepts + Methods

Ethics

Environment

Economy + Policy