Sustainability requires the consideration of multiple dimensions—often categorized as environment, economy, and equity—together with the dimension of time, to ensure that our practices today neither irretrievably damage current environmental and human health and quality of life, nor undermine future systems. This class provides a general introduction to the concept of sustainability, how it is represented in public and academic discourse, and practiced in institutions, businesses and communities.
Sustainability is a unifying approach to society’s problems with a future orientation; it considers how human activity affects the long‐term stability and prosperity of society and the enduring health of the planet. Disciplines from across the humanities, natural and social sciences, and the professions have found common ground in understanding that human society occupies a physical environment, which sets certain limits on the systems—technological, economic, cultural, political—we impose upon it.
Cross listed: ENEC 330