SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT

This course will begin by clearly defining what sustainability management is and determining if a sustainable economy is actually feasible. Students will learn to connect environmental protection to organizational management by exploring the technical, financial, managerial, and political challenges of effectively managing a sustainable environment and economy. This course is taught in a case-based format and will seek to help students learn the basics of management, environmental policy and sustainability economics. Sustainability management matters because we only have one planet, and we must learn how to manage our organizations in a way that ensures that the health of our planet can be maintained and bettered. This course is designed to introduce students to the field of sustainability management. It is not an academic course that reviews the literature of the field and discusses how scholars thing about the management of organizations that are environmentally sound. It is a practical course organized around the core concepts of sustainability.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Steven Cohen
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 21 Info
• 3 points

SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT

This course will begin by clearly defining what sustainability management is and determining if a sustainable economy is actually feasible. Students will learn to connect environmental protection to organizational management by exploring the technical, financial, managerial, and political challenges of effectively managing a sustainable environment and economy. This course is taught in a case-based format and will seek to help students learn the basics of management, environmental policy and sustainability economics. Sustainability management matters because we only have one planet, and we must learn how to manage our organizations in a way that ensures that the health of our planet can be maintained and bettered. This course is designed to introduce students to the field of sustainability management. It is not an academic course that reviews the literature of the field and discusses how scholars thing about the management of organizations that are environmentally sound. It is a practical course organized around the core concepts of sustainability.

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• 3 points

Innovative Sustainability Leadership

This course will prepare students to be leaders in developing innovative sustainable frameworks and solutions. We will analyze the characteristics of innovative sustainability leaders, including common themes (if any), how they have grappled with success and failure, and how these individuals become effective leaders who inspire their teams and organizations to act as catalysts for change. Through guest speakers, in-depth discussion, and by using a variety of examples and case studies from the non-profit, profit, and public sectors, we will examine the impacts that innovative sustainability leaders have on organizational success and failure. 

Against the backdrop of a world transformed by climate change, we will then expand our view to assess the significance of collaboration both within and beyond the conceptual boundaries of organizations, considering the pivotal roles that diverse stakeholders play in driving advancements in sustainable innovations. Ultimately, we will evaluate the role and responsibility of innovative sustainability leaders to effect transformational change on a societal level. By the end of the course, students will have developed actionable tools, strategies, and critical thinking skills for leading transformational change in their organizations and beyond.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Sara Goddard
  Info
• 3 points

SUSTAINABLE CITIES

This course prepares students to understand, analyze, and develop policies and procedures to address sustainability issues faced by urban centers in the developed and developing world, their decision-makers, and inhabitants. Enrolled students are assumed to have had no previous in-depth exposure to sustainable urban development and urban planning. By the end of the course, students will have learned the following skills necessary to develop strategies and related actions to enhance sustainability of cities: identify and support good practices in green and efficient urban development and planning; develop policies and foster technologies used to promote energy efficiency and reduced GHG emissions from buildings and transportation; develop policies and foster technologies necessary to ensure access to clean water; develop policies and foster technologies necessary for the effective collection, disposal, and possible re-use of waste; create approaches to climate change adaptation measures undertaken by cities; develop, track, and analyze sustainability metrics and indicators for urban centers. This course can also be counted toward Area 1: Integrative Sustainability Management.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Jitendra Bajpai
  Info
• 3 points

SCIENCE OF SUSTAINABLE WATER

Climate Change and Sustai

Through this course, students will learn about what makes the water cycle a cycle: how water is circulated through its components, and what drives these circulations. We will explore the roles of humans as an integral part of the water cycle: how we use our water resources and how our actions help shape the water cycle. In every lesson, students will be encouraged to think about how climate change will affect both us and the other components. Ultimately, students will gain insights on the world’s water resources and how to manage them in a sustainable way.

A novel aspect of this course is the introduction of paleoclimate (particularly, information from
tree rings
) into the study of water resources. We will learn from the painful lesson of the Colorado River Basin, where water management decisions based on a short instrumental record, which happened to be taken over an abnormally wet period, led to water over-allocation and the severe water stresses today. We will also cover other case studies from all over the world. With help from tree rings, we will gain a much better understanding of long-term changes in the water cycle, and manage our water resources better.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Shannon Marquez
  Info
• 3 points

ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT

ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABILITY MG

This course builds on core economics courses and addresses issues of environmental, resource and sustainable economics. It focuses on the interaction between markets and the environment; policy issues related to optimal extraction and pricing; property rights in industrial and developing countries and how they affect international trade in goods such as timber, wood pulp, and oil. An important goal of the class is to have students work in groups to apply economic concepts to current public policy issues having to do with urban environmental and earth systems. The use of the worlds water bodies and the atmosphere as economic inputs to production are also examined. The economics of renewable resources is described and sustainable economic development models are discussed and analyzed. Some time will also be devoted to international trade and regulation, and industrial organization issues. Students not only learn economic concepts, but they will also learn how to explain them to decision-makers. The instructor will tailor this course to the skill level of the students in order to most effectively suit the needs of the class.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Amin Mohseni-Cheraghlou
  Info
• 3 points

Reversing the Biodiversity Crisis

Course Overview

Often described as “twin crises,” climate change and biodiversity loss are among the most urgent sustainability challenges to be addressed in our modern era. While much focus has rightfully been placed on climate change mitigation actions at local, regional, and global scales, biodiversity loss is less often addressed by governments, institutions, industries, and individuals as a critical piece of the sustainability puzzle. In 2021, COP 15, the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, received far less media attention than COP 26, the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change. Yet climate change and biodiversity loss are inextricably linked, and without biodiversity and the associated ecosystem services and biospheric resilience upon which human society relies, a sustainable world is not possible. Moreover, certain climate change mitigation actions can actually be to the detriment of biological diversity.

 

Unlike a traditional conservation biology course geared towards ecologists and biologists, this course will be taught through the lens of sustainability management, equipping sustainability managers with the knowledge and direction needed to begin integrating biodiversity conservation and restoration into their professions. This course will illuminate the critical importance of biodiversity to sustainability and human well-being, the science and politics behind the current biodiversity crisis, and proposals, policies, and actions for bending the curve of biodiversity loss to create more sustainable and equitable outcomes for both humans and the non-humans with which we share our planet.

 

Students who seek to deepen their understanding of ecological sustainability and address the biodiversity crisis through the lens of sustainability management are encouraged to take this course. This course is an on-campus (or Hy-Flex) elective offered during the Fall semester and fulfills 3 credits within the Physical Dimensions of Sustainability Management curriculum area in the Master of Science in Sustainability Management program. Cross-registration is available to students outside of the Master of Science in Sustainability Management program, space permitting.

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Amy Karpati
  Info
• 3 points

PRAC-INNOVATV SUSTAIN LEADRSHP

This course deals with a fundamental question of sustainability management: how to change organizations and more complex systems, such as communities, industries, and markets, by integrating sustainability concerns in the way that they operate. The course poses this question to a dozen leading sustainability practitioners, who answer it by discussing management strategies that they use in their own work. Through these guest lectures, extensive class discussion, readings, and writing assignments, students identify and simulate applying practical ways for transforming how organizations and complex systems work. The practitioners, who work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and in a wide variety of organizations, make presentations in the first hour of the course. Students then have time to ask questions and speak informally with the guest practitioners, and will participate in an instructor-led class discussion, geared toward identifying management strategies, better understanding their application, and considering their effectiveness. By the end of the course, the students gain an understanding of management tools and strategies that they, themselves, would use to integrate sustainability in organizations.

The course complements the M.S. in Sustainability Management program’s required course, Sustainability Management (SUMA K4100). In that course, students study management and organization theory. In the Practicum, students learn directly from leading practitioners, who confront sustainability management issues daily.

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• 1-3 points

Practicum on Environmental Research

EARTH INST PRAC ENV/POL/SUS/MG

This course provides students with an overview of environmental research, covering the conceptualization of research projects, the grantmaking process, and article writing. Throughout the semester, students will attend lectures from Columbia researchers and professionals from other organizations. These lectures will cover their current projects and how they communicate their findings in various settings, communities, cultures, and industries. The lecturers will also discuss different aspects of the research process and the practicalities of project development. Students will learn the basics of grant writing and research methodology, write an academic research paper, and participate in a colloquium, with the aim of providing them with tangible transferable skills.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Louise A Rosen
  Info
• 1-3 points

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS

This course is about cost-benefit analysis and the economic evaluations of policies and projects. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) consists of a comprehensive set of techniques used to evaluate government programs. It is now routinely applied in such program areas as transportation, water projects, health, training and education, criminal justice, environmental protection, urban policy and even in the international arena such as foreign direct investment. Many of the techniques of CBA can also be applied to private sector decision-making. The objective of CBA is to determine whether the benefits of a particular program, policy or decision outweigh its costs. The techniques used to determine this are sometimes quite simple, but on other, increasingly frequent occasions are highly sophisticated. Sophisticated cost benefit studies are based on a framework that utilizes the basic concepts of economic theory. In addition, statistical and econometric analyses are often needed to estimate program effects from diverse available data. The course has two parts: methodology and practice. The goal is for students to be practically adept to undertake an independent cost-benefit analysis.

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Alexander Heil
  Info
• Instructor: Amin Mohseni-Cheraghlou
  Info
• 3 points

THEORY & PRACTICE OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSME

THEORY & PRAC LIFE CYCL ASSMNT

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a methodology to assess the environmental impact of products, services, and industrial processes is an increasingly important tool in corporate sustainability management. This course teaches both the theoretical framework as well as step-by-step practical guidelines of conducting LCAs in companies and organizations. Particular emphasis is placed on separating the more academic, but less practically relevant aspects of LCA (which will receive less focus) from the actual practical challenges of LCA (which will be covered in detail, including case studies). The course also covers the application of LCA metrics in a companies’ management and discusses the methodological weaknesses that make such application difficult, including how these can be overcome. Product carbon footprinting (as one form of LCA) receives particular focus, owing to its widespread practical use in recent and future sustainability management.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Christoph J Meinrenken
  h-index: 15 Info
• Instructor: Kim Matsoukas
  Info
• Instructor: Adriana B Kliegman
  Info
• 3 points

CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AND S

CORP SUST REPORTING & STR

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of trends and best practices in corporate communications relating to sustainability, with a particular focus on global sustainability reporting frameworks and green marketing communications. It is designed for those who hold/will hold positions in organizations with responsibilities for communicating the sustainability goals, challenges and achievements, as well as accurately and honestly communicating the environmental aspects of an organization's products and services. Increasingly, large corporations are creating c-suite roles or dedicated departments to oversee this function. More typically, multiple functions contribute information such as: Corporate Communications, Marketing, Community Affairs, Public Policy, Environmental Health & Safety, R&D, Facilities, Operations and Legal. Benefits of reporting range from building trust with stakeholders, and uncovering risks and opportunities; to contributing to stronger long-term business strategy, and creating new products and services.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Celine S Ruben-Salama
  Info
• Instructor: Suzanne M Klatt
  Info
• Instructor: Carl A Otto
  Info
• 3 points

GHG EMISSIONS: MEASURING AND MINIMIZING

GHG EMISSIONS CARBON FOOT

Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are now at a record high, and the world’s scientific community agrees that continued unabated release of greenhouse gases will have catastrophic consequences. Many efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, both public and private, have been underway for decades, yet it is now clear that collectively these efforts are failing, and that far more concerted efforts are necessary. In December 2015, the world’s nations agreed in Paris to take actions to limit the future increase in global temperatures well below to 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C. Achieving this goal will require mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors, both public and private. Critical to any attempt to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions is a clear, accurate understanding of the sources and levels of greenhouse gas emissions. This course will address all facets of greenhouse gas emissions accounting and reporting and will provide students with tangible skills needed to direct such efforts in the future.

Students in this course will gain hands-on experience designing and executing greenhouse gas emissions inventories for companies, financial institutions and governments employing all necessary skills including the identification of analysis boundaries,  data collection, calculation of emissions levels, and reporting of results. In-class workshops and exercises will complement papers and group assignments. A key component of this course will be critical evaluation of both existing accounting and reporting standards as well as GHG emissions reduction target setting practices.

This course will introduce many of the challenges facing carbon accounting practitioners and will require students to recommend solutions to these challenges derived through critical analysis. Classes will examine current examples of greenhouse gas reporting efforts and will allow students the opportunity to recommend improved calculation and reporting methods.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Jonathan C Dickinson
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Ryan A Meinke
  Info
• Instructor: Anthony M Guerrero
  Info
• 3 points

ESG-ALIGNED CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

ESG-ALIGNED CORP GOVERNANCE

Environmental, social and governance issues (‘ESG’) are moving to center stage for corporate boards and executive teams.  This elective course complements management and operations courses by focusing on the perspective and roles of the board and C-suite of corporations, financial institutions and professional firms in addressing ESG risks as well as promoting and overseeing governance aligned with ESG principles. The course focuses on the interchange between the external legal, competitive, societal, environmental and policy ‘ecosystems’ corporations face (which vary around the world) and a company’s internal structure, operations and pressures. We will use the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the UN Global Compact Principles (which incorporate all aspects of ESG) as the central frameworks to explore the concept of a corporation’s responsibility to respect and remedy human rights and environmental harms.  We will also examine the Equator Principles and other frameworks that spell out good practices for project finance and other investment decisions, and reference a wide range of the myriad indices, supplier disclosure portals and benchmarks that exist in this inter-disciplinary field.  Relevant regulations, corporate law regimes and court cases will be discussed from the point of view of what business managers need to know. While most of the course will deal with companies and firms serving global, regional or national markets, several examples will deal with the question of how the ESG ecosystem affects or offers opportunities to start-ups.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Jessica M Wasser
  Info
• 3 points

CRITICAL URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SUSTAI

What are urban infrastructures that promote sustainability? Such infrastructure must reduce environmental pollution at all scales, provide necessary urban services efficiently and enhance urban resilience to multiple potential crises. Sustainable infrastructure also must promote social and economic equity and environmental justice. And sustainable infrastructure must be economically feasible. This class will use these concepts to evaluate urban infrastructure and identify challenges to making urban infrastructure sustainable. Importantly, the course will use theories of urban transitions to help identify the drivers of potential change in infrastructure development and envision the emergence of sustainable infrastructure. This class will examine these notions across the energy, transportation, water supply and waste water treatment, buildings, health and open space urban sectors.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Peter J Marcotullio
  Info
• 3 points

SUSTAINABLE FASHION AND STARTUP STRATEGY

SUST FASHION & STARTUP ST

Fashion’s consistent ranking among the top 3 global polluters has become a decades old fact struggling to gain a proportionate response among the brand startup and sourcing community. With industry revenues set to exceed $1 trillion, there is an opportunity to critically address existing revenue models predicated on traditional metrics, such as constant growth, and singular bottom lines. The course attempts to create a nexus between the fashion entrepreneur and systems thinker to explore strategic solutions that address sustainability though an environmental, social and economic lens. The aim is to foster a mindful, yet critical discourse on fashion industry initiatives, past and present, and to practice various tools that help transition existing organizations and incubate new startups towards sustainable outcomes.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Ammar Belal
  Info
• 3 points

ANALYSIS FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Energy Management is the cornerstone of any sustainability initiative. The generation, distribution, and use of energy has a profound, continuous, and global impact on natural resources, societal structure, and geopolitics. How energy is used has significant repercussions on an organizations cash flow and profitability. For these reasons, energy issues tend to be the fulcrum upon which sustainability programs hinge.

The ability to identify and articulate organizational benefits from energy savings tied to efficiency improvements and renewable energy projects is a requisite skill set for all sustainability managers.

This course will provide real-world information on energy management issues from a practitioner's perspective. Through lectures, problem sets, and readings students will learn how to manage energy audits, analyze building energy performance, and evaluate the energy use and financial impacts of potential capital and operations improvements to building systems. The class will focus on understanding energy issues from a building owner’s perspective, with discussions also examining energy issues from the perspective of utility companies, energy generators, and policy makers.

Best practice in energy management will always involve some level of complex engineering to survey existing conditions and predict energy savings from various improvement options. Sustainability managers need to understand how to manage and quality control these analyses and to translate to decision makers the opportunity they reveal. This course seeks to empower students to do that by providing an understanding of building systems and methods for quantitatively analyzing the potential benefit of various energy improvements.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas Sahagian
  Info
• 3 points

SUSTAINABLE FINANCE

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Bruce Kahn
  Info
• 3 points

ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

ENERGY AND SUST DEVELOPMENT

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• 3 points

Climate Finance and Sustainable Developm

Climate Finance & Sust De

The course provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges of transnational financing from public and private sources that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation investments intended to address climate change. Although there is increased and widespread commitment to taking climate action on the part of corporations, financial institutions, countries and sub-national actors, there remains a paucity of examples where a just transition has been furthered. The conditions engendered by the advent of widespread pandemics have exacerbated global differences in capacity and access to solutions. Nevertheless, the emergence of new financial mechanisms and global cooperative responses to the pandemic have revealed potential methods to finance enhancements in mitigation and adaptation in the regions where these are most lacking. We examine current capital and trade flows and their relationship to flows of embedded carbon, methods of carbon pricing and the implementation of low-carbon pathways, with an evaluation of decentralized co-benefits that can advance sustainable development. We combine analysis of carbon accounting and financial structuring to design potential investments in example decarbonization projects which integrate additionality in mitigation and adaptation, co-benefits and poverty alleviation.

• F 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Satyajit Bose
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

RESPONSIVENESS AND RESILIENCE IN THE BUI

RESPONSIVENESS & RESILIENCE

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Lynnette Widder
  Info
• 3 points

Sust Metrics: Data, Construction and Use

Sustainability Metrics

The urgency to tackle sustainability-related global problems has revealed the growing need to create, maintain and analyze data on environmental and social issues with robust methodologies. The availability of nascent sustainability datasets and advanced data tools such as GIS, machine learning, and blockchain has expanded our capabilities for quick and agile decision-making in the sustainability space. However, compared to real-time economic data, timely and reliable environmental and social data are very much lacking. Sustainability indicators are able to transform a vast amount of information about our complex environment into concise, policy-applicable and manageable information. There is a very large universe of indicators to measure the sustainability performance of an entity, but the critical question is what to use and how many indicators should be evaluated. Sustainability indicators are either presented in a structured framework that can be used to isolate and report on relevant indicators, or aggregated towards a composite index or score/rating. The number of indicators used for assessing sustainability have proliferated, with hundreds of sustainability related indices around the world, including the Ecological Footprint, the Human Development Index, green accounting, Sustainable Development Goals, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) co-developed by Columbia University and Yale University, the Urban Sustainability Ranking System that I helped develop, and various carbon indices.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Dong Guo
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainability Metrics: Driving Urban an

SUSTAINABILITY METRICS

Over the past two decades, public and private institutions have set clear targets for environmental, economic, and social performance and they are increasingly using analytical tools to assess problems and measure progress.  The advent of “Big Data” has accelerated this work – and opened up new possibilities and challenges. This course will examine the use of data and metrics to shape and implement sustainability policies and programs and to assess and communicate their outcomes.

The course will survey a range of real-world sustainability challenges and evaluate the choices confronting public officials, private companies, NGO’s, advocates, and citizens – and the data that can be used to diagnose problems, develop solutions, and measure success. Particular focus will be given to urban sustainability efforts and corporate sustainability.  We will explore how data can be used and misused in each of these domains.  Throughout we will emphasize the importance of context, comparability, and completeness of information. 

Students will be required to critically evaluate what they read and hear. In addition, the course will give students an opportunity to learn how to express their ideas verbally and in written form and conduct a critical analysis of how environmental data is used to develop and implement public policy. Assignments will give students the opportunity to use their technical and analytical skills while understanding the real-world applications that will be important to their future work as planners, policymakers, advocates, architects, environmentalists, or other professions. The course will feature guest lectures from speakers who are leaders in their fields. Lecture topics may be moved to accommodate speaker travel and availability. Notice will be provided to students in advance of any schedule changes.

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Adam Freed
  Info
• 3 points

SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Vance Merolla
  Info
• 3 points

ACCOUNTING, FINANCE, AND MODELING OF SUS

ACCT FIN & MOD OF SUS INV

This course is designed to provide students with working knowledge on how to make successful investments in sustainable companies and to prepare students to be conversationally literate in financial reporting. As you leave the school and become leaders of organizations financial literacy will be a skill set that will be vital to success no matter what career path you go down. It starts with a strong foundation in accounting and corporate finance, then moves on to ESG/Impact screening of potential investments, along with valuation techniques used to arrive at a purchase price. It will explore financial models that can aggregate multiple variables used to drive investment decisions.

To understand and lead a transition to a sustainability-aware business, managers must first be familiar with the terminology, practices and consequences of traditional accounting and finance. Students will learn traditional financial and accounting methods and tools. We will examine how these methods and tools are changing to improve product and service design, resource efficiency and allocation, employee productivity and sustainability performance outcomes. Students will learn how value is created in a company and the different methods employed to create that value, conduct due diligence, discuss optimal capital structure to finance a transaction, execute a transaction, and implement a Sustainability-based value-added operating plan to the target company. The course will conclude with students preparing a persuasive investment memo and accompanying financial model to the investment committee of an impact investing asset management firm. The course also provides a practical introduction to selected non-financial accounting topics including sustainability reporting standards, ESG corporate performance indicators and corporate social responsibility report (CSR Reporting).

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Brad Schwartz
  Info
• 3 points

FINANCING THE CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY

FINANCING CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Leslie Rich
  Info
• 3 points

The Sustainable Transportation Economy

Course Overview

Transportation accounts for about 25% of global GHG emissions.  Significantly reducing emissions in this sector is fundamental for addressing climate change.  Historically, the technical and commercial tools for tackling emissions in this sector have lagged other sectors (for example, electricity production).  But over the last several years, this dynamic has changed and there is now unprecedented capital and brainpower focused on transportation decarbonization. The course focuses on capturing the key elements that will speed the scale-up to low- and no- carbon transportation (“sustainable transportation”) across the breadth of transportation sectors.  In doing so, this scale-up will create new industries and business models – and has the potential to benefit a wide group of people, including those who in the past have been disproportionally affected by poor air quality caused by existing transportation sources.  The course is designed for any student who wishes to understand these elements in a deeper way.

 

The course will explore the decarbonization opportunities and challenges across the various transportation sectors, including light duty, commercial fleets, public transportation, aviation, and marine sectors – as well as areas that cut across all sectors, such as battery adoption, the supply chain for materials, fueling/charging. and the impact of hydrogen.  Because the carbon content of propulsion fuels is dependent on other sectors (for example, the transition to renewable electricity), the course will examine the energy transition in transportation in the context of broader decarbonization trends.  In exploring each transportation sub-sector, the course will focus mainly from the commercial perspective, but will incorporate the external factors (e.g., innovation, policy, macro-factors) that affect commercial success.

 

The course is intended for anyone wishing to further their knowledge or their career in the areas of sustainable transportation – especially in areas related to electric transportation.  The course will rely on lectures and discussions, both led by the professor and guest lecturers.  There are no prerequisites for the course.  The course assignments will include a combination of problem sets, financial modeling, and case studies/written assignments.  No previous financial modeling experience is required; the professor and/or TA will provid

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Scott Fisher
  Info
• 3 points

INTEGRATIVE CAPSTONE WORKSHOP

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Kizzy M Charles-Guzman
  Info
• Instructor: Thomas Abdallah
  Info
• Instructor: Susanne E Desroches
  Info
• Instructor: Robert A Cook
  Info
• Instructor: Chandler I Precht
  Info
• Instructor: Dubois Akeen Akeen
  Info
• Instructor: Ralph C Schmidt
  Info
• Instructor: Shaun A Hoyte
  Info
• Instructor: Chanda Burrage
  Info
• 3 points

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATIONS SYSTEMS (GIS) FO

GIS FOR SUST MGMT

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Antoinette V Wannebo
  Info
• 3 points

Climate Technology and Innovation

This course is designed to furnish students with a conceptual framework for understanding climate tech innovation and an overview of practical ways to professionally engage in it. We focus on climate tech because the current global rate of decarbonization is not sufficient to limit warming to 1.5°C. To accelerate the rate of change and stabilize our planet’s climate, innovative technology development and diffusion is required. Beyond the moral imperative, rapid decarbonization represents an unprecedented economic opportunity. To realize the promise of a low-carbon economy, new practitioners must join the innovation ecosystem and drive it forward. This course will prepare students to do so.

The course starts by framing what climate tech means (i.e., all technologies focused on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the impacts of climate change) and how climate tech innovation will occur (i.e., as a complex process including co-evolution of technology, regulations, infrastructure, and consumer behavior). It then provides an overview of the innovation value chain including various stakeholders and avenues for professional involvement. It concludes with a survey of sectoral innovation opportunities. Considerations of equity and just transition are covered throughout.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Jason Prince
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainability in Sports: Theory and Pra

The global sports industry is substantial, encompassing various aspects such as sporting events, merchandise, broadcasting, and more. In 2022, the industry's revenue amounted to nearly $487 billion. By 2027, the global sports market is expected to surpass $623 billion.
1
However, the influence of sports extends far beyond the field. Fans are both dedicated and passionate supporters who contribute to the industry's success and have a massive following across continents. From local matches to international tournaments, fans engage through attendance, viewership, merchandise purchases, social media interactions, and so much more.

As the market continues to grow, the sports industry has made significant progress toward embracing sustainability practices. Brands are increasingly transparent about their sustainability efforts, businesses are looking to partner with sustainability-focused organizations that have reputable certifications and initiatives, real estate developers and investors are designing environmentally friendly facilities, and athletes and their fan bases are demanding climate action, just to name a few. Despite some progress, there's ample room for growth within emerging sustainability practices in sports. Continued innovation can lead to eco-friendly materials, sustainable event management, ensuring sustainability across supply chains, and greening stadiums, venues, and event infrastructure, which can further minimize resource consumption and pollution and contribute to a healthier planet.   

This course introduces the concept of sustainability and its relevance to the sports industry. It examines the environmental, social, and economic impacts of sports activities, events, and organizations and explores the strategies and practices that can enhance the sustainability performance of the sports sector. The course covers topics such as the definitions and dimensions of sustainability and how they relate to sports; the drivers and challenges of sustainability in sports (climate change, stakeholder expectations, governance, and innovation); frameworks and tools for assessing and reporting on sustainability in sports; best practices and case studies of sustainability in sports; and opportunities and benefits of sustainability in sports (fan engagement, athlete activism, business development, and social impact).

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• 3 points

THE EARTH'S CLIMATE SYSTEM

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Benjamin I Cook
  CULPA: 3 h-index: 56 Info
• 3 points

Building a Sustainable Detroit: A Case

Once known as the arsenal of Democracy, the birthplace of the automobile assembly line, and the model city of America, 21st Century Detroit was emblematic of deindustrialization, decay, and insolvency.  Following the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history, Detroit is now being reframed in both local and national media as a comeback city with opportunity and possibility for all - urban pioneers, global investors, a creative class of new professionals, and suburbanites seeking a return to urban grit.

Despite these narratives, Detroit remains highly segregated - racially, geographically, economically, and socially.  While downtown is prospering, neighborhoods are still largely blighted and contaminated with legacy uses that remain unremediated.  Over 30,000 houses and other structures have been demolished in the past 8 years, a process that is under-regulated and contributes to both environmental and infrastructure harm.  To the extent new investments are improving the condition of housing and infrastructure in some strategic areas, these investments are displacing long term residents who remain at risk of eviction or foreclosure from their homes. Detroit remains one of the poorest big city in America and the poverty that remains is seemingly intractable.  At present, only 36% of residents earn a living wage.

Detroit’s present condition  is rooted in a protracted history of racist laws, policies, and practices that deny full citizenship to Black Detroiters, undermine Democracy, and position the city as a poor colony within a thriving metropolis.  Racism has disfigured the social, physical and economic landscape of Detroit to produce profound levels of neglect, abuse, and exploitation of its residents, resulting in wealth extraction, housing insecurity, healthy food and water scarcity, educational malpractice, and environmental destruction, all within the framework of wealth attraction, tax incentives, subsidized growth and capital accumulation in the greater downtown.

Through this course, we will examine the thesis that sustainability and racism cannot co-exist; that sustainability is rooted in inclusive social wellbeing now and in future generations, whereas racism is rooted in hoarding of power and resources for one dominant group. This hoarding of resources for a favored population impairs preservation for future generations.   Furthermore, environmental racism disconnects the consequences of environmental destruction from its beneficiari

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Donna Givens Davidson
  Info
• 3 points

DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION IN SUSTA

DATA ANALYSIS & VIS IN SU

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Tavis M Barr
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• 3 points

Digital Product Development for Sustaina

In April 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that global efforts are unlikely to reduce carbon emissions in line with COP21 targets of 1.5o C above preindustrial levels.  This finding underscores the urgency around decarbonizing the economy and sustainably managing natural resources.  A so-called “big, hairy, audacious goal,” it requires that similarly ambitious solutions be implemented across countries and industries.

It is only by measuring resources that stakeholders can manage them and ensure that they are available in sufficient quantities for future generations. Web tools provide up-to-date analyses of aggregated data; distill complex issues into accessible visualizations; enable users to drill down to answer questions; offer insights into complicated and interdependent issues; and display changes in performance over time.  For example, Sustainable 1/S&P Global’s ESG Scores are valuable because they expose patterns in data related to environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities.

This elective course will introduce students to the digital product management role in the context of sustainability.  Students will get a strong understanding of what it means to be a product manager and its role in the organization.  The course will demonstrate how to define a product vision; identify a product strategy; create product roadmaps; design a customer experience; enable data-driven decisions; understand the development process; manage for results; and, by “leading through influence,” coordinate cross-functional teams of business analysts, developers, data providers, marketing, users, customers, senior management and other stakeholders.  The course is about product strategy and how to innovate and launch new products and features.  Students will be prepared for product management roles in companies; though many of those skills are applicable to entrepreneurship, the course is not geared toward start-ups or new ventures.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Teri Mendelsohn
  Info
• 3 points

INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

INTL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

International Environmental Law is a fascinating field that allows students to consider some of the most important questions of the 21st century – questions that have profound ramifications for the quality of life for our generation as well as future generations. Global environmental problems are real and urgent. Their resolution requires creative and responsible thought and action from many different disciplines. 

 

Sustainability practitioners must understand global environmental issues and their effects on what they are charged to do. At one level, this course will consider the massive challenge of the 21st century:  how to alleviate poverty on a global scale and maintain a high quality of life while staying within the bounds of an ecologically limited and fragile biosphere -- the essence of sustainable development.  From a more practical perspective, the course will provide students with an understanding of international environmental policy design and the resulting body of law in order to strengthen their ability to understand, interpret and react to future developments in the sustainability management arena.

 

After grounding in the history and foundational concepts of international environmental law and governance, students will explore competing policy shapers and the relevant law in the areas of stratospheric ozone protection, climate change, chemicals and waste management, and biodiversity. The course satisfies the public policy course requirement for the M.S. in Sustainability Management program.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Richard Horsch
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

IMPACT FINANCE FOR SUSTAINABILITY PRACTI

IMPACT FINANCE FOR STNBLT

This survey course examines a range of sustainable and impact investing fixed income and equity products

before transitioning to the asset owner perspective on sustainable and impact investing. Each class session

includes elements of financial analysis, financial structure, social or environmental impact, and policy and

regulatory context. Brief guest lectures, podcasts, and three experiential exercises bring these topics to life.

At the end of the course, each student will be able to (i) construct a diversified portfolio of impact

investments based on the range of products tackled in class, (ii) integrate ESG into debt and equity valuation,

(iii) develop an impact investing product that an asset manager or investment bank could launch, (iv) develop

an impact investing strategy for an asset owner, and (v) lead either side of the investor-corporate dialogue on

sustainability. The lectures are designed to prepare students for both the impact investing product

development exercise and the impact investing asset owner strategy exercise, and these two exercises are

designed to prepare students for impact investing leadership over the course of their careers.

As an early innovator in social finance, dating back 24 years, the instructor provides students with a practical

toolkit, honed by making mainstream financial institutions and products more beneficial to a broader range

of stakeholders and making specialist impact investment firms more relevant to and integrated with

mainstream markets.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Bhakti Mirchandani
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• 3 points

Sustainability Value Creation in Private

This course provides an overview of the way sustainability (environmental, social and governance) factors are analyzed in private markets. It focuses on preparing students to implement their understanding of the financial and societal risks and opportunities within the investment making process. In private markets, limited partners (pension funds, endowments, high net-worth individuals) have pushed the sustainability imperative and social consciousness of private equity funds and asset managers by seeking greater clarity around how their money is invested in both a responsible and financially meaningful way. Alongside this trend, an evolving regulatory environment globally has propelled the need to systemize evaluation frameworks for stakeholders within investment functions and advisors who support them.Unlike public markets, sustainability information is harder to glean in private markets and requires a skilled extraction and evaluation process. During this course, we examine a traditional ESG due diligence process embedded within the wider investment lifecycle (sourcing, diligence, hold and exit) through the lens of changing geographic regulatory landscape in financial investing and the market leading frameworks that quantify ESG factors for evaluation. The course culminates with a deal due diligence process that mimics an investment committee (IC) comprised of private equity leaders that understand the commercial and purpose-driven viability of an investment.

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Angela Jhanji
  Info
• 3 points

WRITING OP-EDS, SMALL PERSONAL ESSAYS AN

WRITING OP-EDS, ESSAYS &

This class is designed to give students exercises and guided experiences in producing and marketing publishable opinion essays. In the last two decades, newspapers, magazines and websites have opened up their pages to reader contributions. This development provides an unprecedented opportunity for students and faculty to connect with the general public about policy issues—and also to their personal passions. Op-eds provide a relatively new pathway to communication and advocacy. This course aims to teach journalistic writing so that our students can gain a larger forum on matters like climate mitigation, conservation biology, green roofs, urban farming, ecologic waste disposal, environmental justice, and pandemic prevention.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Claudia Dreifus
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

CIRCULAR ECONOMY FOR SUSTAINABILITY PROF

Throughout history, societies have discovered resources, designed and developed them into textiles,

tools and structures, and bartered and exchanged these goods based on their respective values.

Economies emerged, driven by each society’s needs and limited by the resources and technology

available to them. Over the last two centuries, global development accelerated due in large part to the

overextraction and use of finite resources, whether for energy or materials, and supported by vast

technological advancements. However, this economic model did not account for the long-term impacts of

the disposal or depletion of these finite resources and instead, carried on unreservedly in a “take-make’-

waste” manner, otherwise known as a linear economy. Despite a more profound understanding of our

planet’s available resources, the environmental impact of disposal and depletion, and the technological

advancements of the last several decades, the economic heritage of the last two centuries persists today;

which begs the question: what alternatives are there to a linear economy?

The premise of this course is that through systems-thinking, interdisciplinary solutions for an alternative

economic future are available to us. By looking at resources’ potential, we can shape alternative methods

of procurement, design, application, and create new market demands that aim to keep materials,

products and components in rotation at their highest utility and value. This elective course will delve into

both the theory of a circular economy - which would be a state of complete systemic regeneration and

restoration as well as an optimized use of resources and zero waste - and the practical applications

required in order to achieve this economic model. Achieving perfect circularity represents potentially

transformative systemic change and requires a fundamental re-think of many of our current economic

structures, systems and processes.

This is a full-semester elective course which is designed to create awareness among sustainability

leaders that those structures, systems and processes which exist today are not those which will carry us

(as rapidly as we need) into a more sustaining future. The class will be comprised of a series of lectures,

supported by readings and case-studies on business models, design thinking and materi

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Danielle Azoulay
  Info
• 3 points

SOLAR PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

TBA

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Daniel J Giuffrida
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainability Ethics and Financial Capi

The World Bank has estimated that the global cost of corruption is at least $2.6 trillion, or 5% of the global gross domestic product (GDP). Businesses and individuals pay over $1 trillion in bribes annually, which does not account for billions of dollars of both humanitarian and development aid that pass clandestinely from public to private hands, billions lost to tax evasion, and billions funneled to and from illegal trafficking. In addition, it does not account for billions enmeshed in conflicts of interest, ranging from campaign donations to regulatory loopholes and in general, “private gain from public office”. All such transactions occur in globally widespread arenas of corrupt practices. In this money-based environment, “what is just” in the distribution of programmatic goods and services needs continually to be determined, and depends upon whose participation will be allowed, counted and verified in decision processes. Some voices are heard, others are unheard, and the difference often depends upon the existing distribution of wealth, including the access wealth facilitates to these processes.

 

In this complex situation, which results significantly from unethical practices, the process and success of sustainability, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), depend upon the positive inroads and disruptions made by ethical practices. What are the features of these practices? What kinds of ethics are necessary and integral to the process and success of sustainability? Many new practical ethics, framed by scholars and practitioners since the 1980s, are promoted today by individuals and organizations, including national and international governmental organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs, also called NGOs), corporations, and even loosely structured grassroots movements. In what forms and at what levels of sustainability management are the new ethics to be adopted and pursued? This course seeks to identify, explain and consider such “sustainability ethics” and the ways in which sustainability managers can activate them, largely through issue-framing, agenda-setting, and policy, program and project design, inspection and review.

 

The course material is divided into three sections: challenges, pathways and practices. Challenges include the worldwide dimensions of ethical problems today; and the three particular problems of corruption, conflict and climate, which undercut economy, society and ec

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Adela J Gondek
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

WATER GOVERNANCE

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael J Puma
  h-index: 23 Info
• 3 points

POLICY AND LEGAL CONTEXT FOR SUSTAINABIL

POLICY & LEGAL CNTXT FOR

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Seth Kerschner
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainable Management of Forests

The course intends to give an overview of forests – how they function, and how they can be managed sustainably. The course addresses both the ecology and economics of forests. Combining the study of these two disciplines is necessary to understand and develop management actions and solutions to deforestation.  The emphasis in integrating ecology and economics is going to be on learning tools and techniques for managing forests. The course accounts both for North American and forests in other countries, including tropical ones. Current typical conceptions of forests are somewhat paradoxical: forests are considered marginal in sustainability, and yet they connect with many issues of central concern such as biodiversity, climate change, household energy for the poor, homelands for indigenous people, water and human shelter, to name a few. More specifically, forests provide a fruitful line of inquiry into many environmental issues, such as the complex balances within ecosystems, global cycling of elements, such as carbon, the nature of sustainability, and interactions between economic development and the conservation of nature.  For example, we will study biodiversity in forests. Much biodiversity is found outside of forests, but our study will provide an understanding of the ecological dynamics involved with biodiversity, the possible management options, and its importance for human survival. The course is going to emphasize the role of forests in the carbon cycle and the contribution of deforestation to climate change.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Ralph C Schmidt
  Info
• 3 points

Geographies of Environmental Justice and

The origin of the American Environmental Justice Movement can be traced back to the emergence of the American
Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and more specifically to the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964. These historical
moments set the stage for a movement that continues to grow with present challenges and widening of economic,
health and environmental disparities between racial groups and socioeconomic groups. The environmental justice
movement builds upon the philosophy and work of environmentalism, which focuses on humanity’s adverse impact
upon the environment, entailing both human and non-human existence. However, environmental justice stresses the
manner in which adversely impacting the environment in turn adversely impacts the population of that environment.

At the heart of the environmental justice movement are the issues of racism and socioeconomic injustice.
This course will examine the intersections of race, equity, and the environment – focusing on history and the
growing role and impact of the environmental justice movement in shaping new sustainability discourses, ethics,
policies, and plans for the twenty-first century. Environmental Justice embeds various disciplines into its analytical
framework ranging from human geography and history to urban studies, economics, sociology, environmental
science, public policy, community organizing, and more. Drawing from these disciplines, as well as from recent
policies, advocacy, and regulations, students will develop a deeper understanding of equity, sustainability, social
impact, and environmental justice in places and spaces across the nation.

Building on the broadness of environmental justice and sustainability, this course will use the geography lens and
frameworks, building on the concept that geography brings together the physical and human dimensions of the
world in the study of people, places, and environments. Geography will set the stage for us to explore a variety of
environmental justice topics and issues in different regions across the nation, from the Black Belt South to the Rust
Belt to Cancer Alley, New Orleans, and Atlanta; then back to New York City and the metropolitan area, introducing
students to initiatives, policies, stakeholders, research, community groups, and advocacy involved in the
development and implementation of environmental laws, policies, practices, equity-based solutions, and sustainable
infrastructure.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: John E Williams
  Info
• 3 points

Internship In SUMA

N/A

• Instructor: Gonzalo Miranda Madrigal
  Info
• 3 points

INDEPENDENT STUDY

Independent Study is a one- or three-credit course that can count toward the curriculum area requirement in Integrative Sustainability Management, Economics and Quantitative Analysis, Physical Dimensions, Public Policy, General and Financial Management, or Elective, with the approval of the faculty advisor. A final deliverable relating to the Sustainability Management curriculum is required at the end of the semester, and will be evaluated for a letter grade by the faculty advisor and reported to the SUMA program office.

• Instructor: Maria L Gray
  Info
• 1-3 points

INDEPENDENT STUDY

• Instructor: Maria L Gray
  Info
• 3 points

Environmental Law and Policy in New York

New York City has positioned itself as a global leader in the fight against climate change, often serving as a model for other jurisdictions to follow. This course explores the development and implementation of environmental legislation and policy in New York City during the past two decades. It includes discussions about historical context, environmental policymaking considerations, political processes, outcomes, and the role of stakeholders such as advocates, business, industry, labor, government actors, and community. Students will gain broad knowledge of key legislation and policies related to sustainability, resiliency, energy, emissions, waste and the circular economy, transportation, water and air quality, and green space. Furthermore, students will consider how environmental justice and equity play a role in the development of legislation and policy, and assess best practices for providing equitable treatment and engaging all communities. While the focus of the class will be on New York City, students will also learn about environmental policies implemented in other jurisdictions.

Introduction to Environmental Law and Policy in New York City is available to students in the Graduate Program for Sustainability Management. It is designed to provide future sustainability practitioners and others with a fundamental understanding of how legislation and policy is made, what influences this development, and how legislation and policy seek to address climate change in New York City in urban environments like New York City. Students will be able to use this knowledge to help government and public and private organizations achieve more sustainable solutions.

This is a semester-long elective class that will be taught on campus. Specific competencies or prerequisites are not required. This course will be interactive and discussion-intensive, engaging students to utilize and reflect critical and analytical thinking about how environmental legislation and policy is developed and how they can create innovative environmental legislation and policy in the future. Students will participate in class discussions, think critically about policy development and assigned readings, write a reaction essay on environmental justice and equity, and present their analysis to classroom colleagues. For the final project, students will write a research report and present their report to the class, focusing on a particular environmental policy topic, identifying areas where policymaking can be improved upon and/or expande

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Laura Popa
  Info
• 3 points

SUMA PS6120 Equity, Policy, and Sustaina

Public policy shapes how our environment, both natural and built, is managed and regulated. Policy not only creates the infrastructure and regulatory frameworks needed to support sustainability goals, but is also critical in establishing an equitable foundation that supports individual and collective change in pursuit of those goals.

This course will serve as an introduction to equity in sustainability policy: We will survey federal, state, and local policies and proposals to understand how we use policy to enhance urban resilience, mitigate environmental impacts, and also promote social and economic justice. Using an interdisciplinary approach that draws from economics, sociology, urban studies, critical theory, and more, students will develop their capacities to read and interpret policy, enhance their understanding of current policy frameworks, and strengthen their ability to engage with emerging policy developments.

Building on contemporary efforts in public policy, we will use an equity lens to focus on the human dimension of sustainability. We will explore policy frameworks and dialogues that foster more equitable outcomes, increase engagement of people most impacted, and contribute to sustainability goals. As an entry point, the course will focus on policies related to climate adaptation and urban sustainability transitions, setting the stage for students to explore equity in urban resilience efforts and to examine intersections of race, class, and other social factors with access to resources.

The course will be discussion-based and center participatory activities (e.g., student-led discussions, paired analyses, team exercises) designed to encourage students to consider policy issues from multiple perspectives—including identifying disparities and assessing opportunities for increasing equity in the sustainability policy sector. The course will also invite scholars and practitioners to share expertise and experience from the field. Students are not expected or required to have any previous experience with policy or law.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Dan Mathis
  Info
• 3 points

FASHION POLICY AND THE POLITICS OF GOVER

The fashion industry is an ideal case study on how governments, citizens and international institutions attempt to limit the environmental and social impacts of complex consumer industries with global supply chains. Historically, apparel and textiles have been at the center of some of the most consequential government actions under liberal Western democracy, including the abolition of slavery and the passage of the first workplace safety and labor laws in the United States. In recent years, fashion has returned to the center of dynamic policy debates within the sustainability and social impact space.

 

The $2.5 trillion global fashion industry’s social and environmental impacts often evade regulation. Major brands leverage long and opaque supply chains for raw materials and cheap manufacturing costs with very little accountability. Private regulation and voluntary commitments have policed fashion for the better part of four decades, an approach that arguably has ended in failures to protect human and environmental rights. The industry’s lack of accountability has cost lives, including the notorious Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013 where 1,132 garment makers died, and now contributes to a sizable percentage of annual climate change. Profits have been pushed to the top of the supply chain while garment makers consistently toil for poverty wages, and the pollution and environmental degradation of fashion is a burden almost exclusively carried by low-and-middle income nations and communities of color that manufacture clothing and produce raw materials.

 

But the tide is turning. Governments are being asked to step in and regulate the fashion industry. Can effective fashion policies police international supply chains and achieve their intended aims? Might they unleash unintended consequences and in what ways? This course is an introduction to the fast-evolving space of modern environmental and labor policy as it intersects with fashion, and which seeks to incentivize more responsible business behavior in the realm of social, environmental and governance impacts. The class will use recently passed and proposed fashion social and sustainability policies as our case studies, including the New York State Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act; mandatory human rights due diligence in Europe; California’s Garment Worker Protection Act and Congress’s FABRIC Act; the FTC Green Guides and the UK CMA’s Green Claims Code; and Europe&rsquo

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Elizabeth Cline
  Info
• 3 points

MANAGEMENT OF SEC CLIMATE COMPLIANCE

Management of SEC Climate

This course will teach students how to develop the organizational capacity and management skills
necessary for compliance with the new SEC Climate Disclosure Regulations. This course will introduce
regulated ESG reporting, emphasizing climate disclosure. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) Climate disclosure will serve as the basis for the discussion and could be used as a case study to
illustrate the best practices for administering a sustainability reporting regime and sustainability reporting
more broadly within an organization. By the conclusion of this course, students will be able to design,
manage, and implement new processes and procedures within their organizations to respond to the new
SEC Climate Disclosures and other forthcoming regulated and mandatory disclosures.
To increase comparability, relevancy, and accuracy of the environmental data and sustainability
information reported by companies on climate and human capital matters, the SEC prioritized climate
change and ESG regulations throughout 2022, promising new rules to better inform and protect investors
and other stakeholders. This unprecedented action paves the way for disclosures that were previously
voluntary to become required. The evolution of the ESG landscape will considerably transform ESG from
a reputational risk concern to a regulatory-driven activity, thereby increasing the ESG lens/scrutiny at the
level of financial statements.
Due to the complexity of this SEC Climate Rule, this course will focus on the SEC Climate Disclosures in
their first year of implementation so that students can interpret, acquire a deeper understanding of the new
rules, and develop a Year 1 implementation strategy. To prepare the next generation of sustainability
leaders to respond to this new regulatory regime, the intended audience of this course consists of
sustainability leaders from a diversity of industries responsible for climate reporting.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• 3 points

UNDERSTANDING THE SEC RULE: DISCLOSURE L

Understanding the SEC Rule: Disclosure Law for Non-Lawyers

Due to the complexity of the SEC Climate rule, several new courses have been proposed to aid interested students in gaining a deeper understanding of the material.

This course will be designed to translate the legal aspects of disclosure law to our students who do not have a background in law. This course will span topics from voluntary to mandatory disclosures and address both the SEC rule and the EU regulations to prepare students to conceptualize these requirements for multinational, global organizations.

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Taylor Pullins
  Info
• 3 points

SUMA PS6135 Art & Sustainability

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, artists have increasingly addressed ecological issues in their work. This trend has magnified greatly in the past two decades. Around the globe, artists are creating artwork that addresses the impact of loss of biodiversity, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, plastic pollution, and the fragility of our shared ecosystems. Their art raises awareness of the need to act collectively, suggesting frameworks for replacing anthropocentric and colonial approaches to nature, and amplifying the urgent need for environmental justice. In this pivotal moment of climate change, artists inspire by cultivating new narratives and giving form to the invisible or unimaginable, demonstrating how art can help awaken resolve and shape our next steps. They invite viewer participation and action, and suggest ways to make a difference. In the process, they expand our potential for empathy and agency.

The cultural sector has an important role to play in shifting attitudes that would lead to developing more sustainable and equitable global futures. Artists focus on both local and global environmental issues, expanding the field of climate change communication and at times offering out-of-the-box solutions. The artists covered in the course are cognizant of the need for systemic social change in order to achieve policy change. Blurring the boundaries between art and activism, many are working collaboratively across disciplines and with various communities to address both the physical and ethical dimensions of sustainability. Others work independently to provide new visions for the future. The course is designed for people who are interested in the contribution that art can play in creating fresh paradigms.

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Julie Reiss
  Info
• 3 points