Certificate in Sustainability

ENV222H1 Pathways to Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary Approach

The foundations course introduces students to environmental studies and provides them with a sustainability lens that integrates sciences, social sciences and humanities. Students will learn the guiding principles of sustainability to support the remainder of their degree and will be introduced to their journal practice for elective courses that they will return to if they take the ENV411H1 Capstone course.

Between the foundation and capstone courses, students must take 1.5 credits from a curated list of existing 200- and 300-level courses. Students may select courses from at least two of the four clusters below:

• Cluster 1 – Environment/Ecology/Climate
• Cluster 2 – Equity/Ethics/Culture
• Cluster 3 – Economics/Development/Resources
• Cluster 4 – Food/Health/Wellbeing

The three electives are selected from a curated list of 42 half courses from 19 different units across the Faculty of Arts & Science that draw connections between multiple dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, political, ethical, cultural, and economic).

Nominating An Elective Course:

Students have the option to nominate a third- or fourth-year credit that is not included in one of the clusters to count as one of their elective credits (0.5 FCE). This course could either be one they have already taken or one they are planning to take. Students must submit the relevant cluster, course code and description, a course syllabus (if the student has already taken the class), and proposal (500 words max) that addresses the following three criteria:

• Why the course belongs to the cluster mentioned.
• How the class addresses connections between at least two aspects of the following aspects of sustainability: environmental, social, political, ethical, cultural, and economic.
• How the student expects the course to fill a specific gap in their personal learning objectives within the Certificate.

The capstone courses require students to reflect on their sustainability education journey, using their guiding principles and journal reflections.

Students must select one course from the three listed below:

ENV411H1 Sustainability Thinking

This course includes a lecture section where students come together as a larger group to explore sustainability theory more deeply. It also includes smaller seminar-style tutorials where students will relate this theory to their past interdisciplinary learning experiences of their degree as well as their future careers and sustainability aspirations.

ENV421Y1 Community Research for Social & Environmental

This research course partners small groups of students (3-5) with civil society organizations to conduct research to support social and environmental justice, broadly defined. This course is restricted to students enrolled in a program or certificate at the School of the Environment, or special permission of the Undergraduate Associate Director.

ENV461H1 Campus as a Living Lab for Sustainability

This experiential learning course puts students into groups of 4-6 and pairs them with partners within the university looking to implement a sustainability solution or test the effectiveness of one they have already implemented. This course has a pre-requisite of 10 FCE and completion of either ENV221H1 or ENV222H1. Students will gain significant perspective through the experience.

ENV463H1 Edible Campus

This course situates students and campuses within the context of broader movements for more ecologically rational and socially-just food systems. Topics include critical food systems pedagogy; the political economy of campus food systems; student food (in)security and health; campus food systems alternatives; campus food growing spaces; student/campus-based food movements; campus-community partnerships. The course is praxis-driven and will provide students with opportunities to engage in change-making on their campus, and beyond, through an action-focused project with a campus and/or community partner.

ENV465Y1 Toronto Climate Summer School

This is an experiential and interdisciplinary course to learn relevant methods, themes, and topics to engage with climate change in and connected to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Guided by place-based pedagogy and environmental justice, experiential learning, and engagement across the physical to social sciences and humanities, this course seeks to equip students with questions, approaches, tools, and community in facing climate change. Students will also gain interdisciplinary research experience by working on faculty supervised projects.