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Equip Carleton students with the interdisciplinary, place-based skills and knowledge needed to advance sustainability and environmental justice, preparing them to engage for change where they live now and in their future communities.

Sustainability Across the Curriculum

Integrate sustainability across the curriculum and provide resources and support for high-impact, experiential student learning in sustainability, climate action, and environmental justice.

Raise the visibility of sustainability across the curriculum, and support innovation in curricular opportunities.

  • Identify, tag, and showcase courses that include sustainability education for easy discovery during registration and on Carleton’s website, and designate sustainability-intensive and sustainability-inclusive courses.
  • Through time, we will develop more specific opportunities to support students interested in sustainability and environmental studies (e.g., mapped themes or pathways, minors, etc.).

In collaboration with the Carleton faculty, seek to establish an institutional learning goal or graduation requirement related to sustainability, environmental justice, and interdisciplinarity.

  • Carleton students seek to be intersectional problem solvers, and we know that they will graduate into a world where sustainability, equity, and justice are infused into their roles and community responsibilities.

Provide academic support, workshops, and funding to advance the development of Carleton’s sustainability curriculum and build community.

  • Through greater coordination, strengthened academic staffing and resources, and regular annual professional development opportunities, we will invest in our institutional goal of sustainability across the curriculum.
  • We will unite experts across disciplines and offices — including the Center for Sustainability, Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, Center for Community and Civic Engagement, Academic Technology, and the Science Education Resource Center — to support faculty and explore opportunities to pursue funding and create broader networks to deepen our impact and leadership over time.

Establish an annual Climate Action and Justice Week.

  • Building from Carleton’s existing Climate Action Week, mobilize students, faculty, staff, alumni, and local partners for broad participation, and invite reflection on how and where we act for climate action and justice as a community.

Center for Sustainable Futures

Establish a Center for Sustainable Futures that serves as a physical hub for the advancement of sustainability, climate action, environmental justice, and nature-based solutions, in addition to supporting opportunities for Environmental Studies (ENTS) students and all majors.

Unite ENTS, the Sustainability Office, and the Arboretum staff in a centralized Center for Sustainability to strengthen inclusivity, planning, and collaboration.

  • Collaborate with cultural organizations and the Division of Inclusion, Equity, and Community to ensure the physical space and location for the planned Center is inclusive and provides the necessary student cohort and interdisciplinary meeting spaces.
  • The Center might include a centralized space for interdisciplinary teaching, collaboration, and/or student-led initiatives such as a reuse or resale shop, or mutual aid art sales.

Develop new inclusive resources and learning spaces needed for living laboratories.

  • In addition to a Center, consider strengthening the design and resources of existing learning spaces, such as:
    • Educational spaces in the Arboretum
    • A mobile lab at the Student Organic Farm, or
    • An outdoor classroom in support of arts and crafts near the kiln and sawmill