Spring 2025
Introduction to Sustainability
Michaela Thompson PhD, Lecturer in Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This course explores contemporary understandings and practical implications of the idea of sustainability. Throughout the semester we investigate the meanings and measures that different groups have given to sustainability; explore tools for analyzing the complex social-environmental systems that we seek to develop sustainably; and examine how societies have avoided depleting resources while instituting practical action that advances sustainability effectively and equitably.
Fall 2024
Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Sustainability and Global Development
Michael Mortimer PhD, Director, Graduate Sustainability Program and Global Development Practice, Harvard Extension School - Nazeli Tonoyan MA
The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are socially constructed and subject to multiple interpretations of meaning. Consider that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Human Development Index (HDI) reflect the Washington Consensus and perhaps a western (or global north) bias, driving investment and programming worldwide in particular ways. In other words, there are differing frames by which sustainability and sustainable development can be viewed to define goals, actions, successes, and failures. The tenets and applications of sustainability and sustainable development are not universal and are invariably situational, contextual, and arguable.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. EXPO E-42b or EXPO E-42c are highly recommended.
Spring 2025
Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Sustainability and Global Development
Michael Mortimer PhD, Director, Graduate Sustainability Program and Global Development Practice, Harvard Extension School - Nazeli Tonoyan MA
The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are socially constructed and subject to multiple interpretations of meaning. Consider that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Human Development Index (HDI) reflect the Washington Consensus and perhaps a western (or global north) bias, driving investment and programming worldwide in particular ways. In other words, there are differing frames by which sustainability and sustainable development can be viewed to define goals, actions, successes, and failures. The tenets and applications of sustainability and sustainable development are not universal and are invariably situational, contextual, and arguable.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. EXPO E-42b or EXPO E-42c are highly recommended.
Spring 2025
Design of Renewable Energy Projects
Ramon Sanchez ScD, Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, The Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy
This course helps develop the skills to design, fund, and implement renewable energy projects in the United States and around the world. It is aimed at anyone who would like to understand the relationship between energy and the environment, but is particularly helpful for energy developers and current or future professionals in the practice of renewable energy. Students learn the basics of how to design photovoltaic, wind, biomass, geothermal, small-hydro, wastewater to energy, solid waste to energy, and other large scale sustainable energy operations. Students also learn about the best global practices for engaging rural and indigenous communities in renewable energy projects while maximizing economic development and social equity. They learn how to deal with other important issues like negotiating land rights for renewable energy projects, how to encourage public utilities and private corporations to sign long-term agreements for purchasing renewable energies, how to prepare project proposals for international financial institutions and private investors who fund these projects, how to estimate the basic health and environmental benefits derived from proposed renewable energy projects, how to monetize health effects of renewable energy projects, and how to quantify the social benefits of such projects in the community.
Prerequisites: High school math and science.
Fall 2024
Innovative Technologies and Practices for Climate Change Resilience
Ramon Sanchez ScD, Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, The Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy
Students in this course learn how to analyze emerging innovative technologies and practices comprehensively, how to assess their climate change and health impacts, recommendations to facilitate their implementation, and how to use green and social financial instruments to foster equitable social development while decreasing community vulnerabilities and increasing climate change resilience. Among some of the technologies and practices analyzed are advanced low-energy desalination systems, rainwater traps, advanced sustainable aquaculture systems, sustainable irrigation and soil reforming for sustainable agriculture, techniques to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in meat and protein production, biodegradable solar systems, bladeless wind generation technologies, microalgae farming for food and fuels, biodegradable plastics manufacturing, plasma gasification of agricultural and municipal waste for electricity generation, carbon capture and sequestration technologies in power plants, lithium extraction from fossil saltwater in fracking operations, advanced hydrogen production systems using renewable energies, and advanced electric vehicles and geo-engineering technologies. Students also assess community vulnerabilities and recommend risk reduction technologies and practices to increase resilience. Additionally, students learn how to monetize health, environmental, and social benefits for each technology or sustainable practice to use municipal bonds, green financing mechanisms from banks, carbon offset exchanges, and some government grants to fund their implementation in the community.
Prerequisites: Basic high school math and science.
Spring 2025
Sustainable Ocean Environments
George D. Buckley MS, Consultant
The world's oceans and coastal environments provide vital ecological services such as climate moderation, oxygen, food, energy, habitats, biodiversity, and natural flood control, as well as important services such as fisheries, global transportation, minerals, recreation, and tourism. We study those and other topics and their related environmental impacts such as coastal development and pollution, and related management strategies including the future of blue technologies. We investigate ways to be involved in ocean issues and life-long learning opportunities.
Prerequisites: High school biology.
Spring 2025
International Political Economy of Decarbonization
Juergen Braunstein PhD, Local Affiliate, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Starting with the economic aspects of global decarbonization, this course examines emerging issues raised by the transition to a low carbon economy its impact on jobs, inequality, finance, trade, mobility, and infrastructure for citizens, societies, and nations. Choices about global decarbonization are highly contested in terms of material interests and ideologies, and they raise a set of new questions at the intersection of climate change, geo-economics, national policies, and global politics. These questions include: how does the energy transition affect the global economic order? Will a greener future lead to fewer resource conflicts around carbon resources? Is green the new gold? How does the low carbon transition affect the value of carbon assets? Is the US equipped to sustain its role as global leader in finance? How does the sustainable transition affect international trade flows? Is a carbon adjustment tax a stepping stone towards decarbonized trade? What is the prospect of green trade wars erupting? Students may not take both DEVP E-180 and ENVR E-113 for degree or certificate credit.
Spring 2025
Measuring and Mitigating Indirect Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Michael Macrae PhD, Director, World Resources Institute - Marlon Robert Banta ALM, Director, Product Definition, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corporation - Richard Goode MBA, Partner, PwC
Mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting is now the law in 40 countries across the world, including the United Kingdom, many European Union member states, North America, Australia, Japan and soon South Africa. This course investigates best practices and approaches to measuring and mitigating indirect GHG emissions, also known as Scope 3 emissions. These emissions include all indirect GHG emissions that occur in a value chain and therefore outside the direct control of a typical organization. Supply chain emissions are frequently the largest overall source of an organization's GHG emissions and are becoming an increasingly relevant topic as more companies outsource manufacturing, logistics, and other key functions to third parties. Waste, water use, and GHG emissions are still incurred in bringing products and services to consumers, but they are often not fully accounted for. Proper accounting for these emissions that are known contributors to climate change is coming under increasing scrutiny through major disclosure initiatives including the passage of California Senate Bill 253, The Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act and the European Commission's European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which require businesses to publicly report their GHG emissions. Similar initiatives have also been proposed by the US Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) and other regions around the world. Students in this course learn the foundational skills necessary for organizations to comply with these GHG emission disclosures, including how to gather data from disparate sources, how to calculate or estimate emissions, and how the procurement of supplies, services, and travel can be managed to mitigate or even reduce indirect emissions. The course also familiarizes students with leading measurement and goal setting standards (the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the Climate Registry, Science Based Targets, and the Carbon Disclosure Project or CDP) and investigates indirect emissions reduction efforts that are underway at several leading Fortune 500 companies as well as universities, municipalities, and government agencies.
Prerequisites: ENVR E-116 is encouraged but not required.
Fall 2024
The Carbon Economy: Calculating, Managing, and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Marlon Robert Banta ALM, Director, Product Definition, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corporation - Richard Goode MBA, Partner, PwC
The global economy is undergoing a fundamental transformation to low-carbon technologies from electric vehicles becoming mainstream and large-scale solar, wind, and even battery installations. Many countries and companies understand that this fourth industrial revolution will change everything, and face risks as well as opportunities. Some countries are establishing policies that decarbonize their economy to avoid the worst effects of a two degrees Celsius rise in temperatures. Organizations should start to develop and implement a two degrees Celsius strategy by clearly understanding their exposure to climate-related risks and identifying best practices for adapting to new carbon regulation, along with transforming their businesses by deploying sustainable energy practices. Understanding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including how to calculate them and the importance of reporting them publicly, is vital to understanding how to identify sources of emission and how to reduce them. This course teaches students how to measure, report, and reduce GHG emissions with an eye toward understanding the roles that energy choices and usage play in reducing emissions.
Fall 2024
Sustainability Leadership for the Twenty-First Century
Leith Sharp MEd, Director, Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health - Jack Spengler PhD, Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
To inspire and enable people to lead effective change towards environmental sustainability, this course is designed to enhance individual change agency skills as applied to a variety of organizational contexts (education, business, government, nonprofit, church, and community). The course explores what change leadership for sustainability is and guides students to advance their related capabilities, competencies, and strategies. The personal, interpersonal, organizational, and technical dimensions of change leadership for sustainability are addressed. A variety of specific case studies and examples of sustainability in practice, including everything from green building design and renewable energy to environmental purchasing are explored. Interdependencies between finance, politics, relationships, capacity building, and technology are discussed. Students leave with an experiential knowledge of change management because they are required to complete a project involving a real-life change leadership project of their choice. Students typically find this project to be both deeply rewarding and central to the development of their knowledge and confidence as change managers.
Spring 2025
Decarbonizing the Building Sector
Paul Ormond MS, Efficiency Engineer, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources
It is within reach to decarbonize the building sector within the next few decades. This can be accomplished with a combination of better buildings (such as Passive House), electrification, and a renewably-powered electrical grid. Buildings can also be built with their own on-site renewables to create a net zero energy building. This course provides a comprehensive exploration of our greening grid, zero energy buildings, and Passive House buildings. Topics include grid fundamentals, building energy dynamics, emissions profiles, renewable systems, energy economics, passive architecture, energy budgets, site and source energy, policy, codes, financing, and incentive structures. A variety of assignments, projects, and teaching tools are used in this course, including analysis assignments, a team pitch, weekly report-outs, a textbook and numerous references, live guest speakers, and a guest speaker library.
Fall 2024
Sustainable Cities
Nora Libertun de Duren PhD, Head of Knowledge in Urban Development and Housing, Inter-American Development Bank
More than half of the world's population (54 percent according to the World Health Organization) live in urban areas, and this share is expected to grow in the future (65 percent by 2050 according to the United Nations). However, urban life is currently far from sustainable due to inequality, poverty, poor air quality, high risk of natural disasters and climate change, and lack of access to energy, water, and waste treatment. Faced with these challenges, member countries of the United Nations adopted in 2015 an agenda for 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with one of these goals focused on "making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable." Therefore, the future of urban societies, and thus of most of the world's population, depends on our ability to design, build, and run cities in a sustainable manner. This course aims at contributing to this goal by surveying the scientific principles of sustainability at the urban level, exploring cities and their metabolism as systems of systems. It covers the main challenges that cities of every size are facing: governance, inclusive urban economic development, national/regional development planning, safety, citizen participation, risk and vulnerability reduction, air quality, resource efficiency, and access to universal basic services, housing, and infrastructures. By paying attention to the contextual factors in which these challenges play out for different types of cities, students not only gain a general understanding of the key dimensions of urban sustainability, but they also learn fundamental governance aspects in cities, such as the need to create partnerships and establish radical collaborations between diverse stakeholders to foster urban transformations.
Spring 2025
Sustainable Infrastructure
Cristina Contreras Casado ALM, Founder and Managing Director, Sinfranova LLC - Judith Irene Rodriguez MA, Senior Research Associate, Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Research Specialist, Healthy Cities Lab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Sustainable infrastructure (SI) has been recognized as the central pillar of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Sustainable infrastructure strives to enhance access to basic services, promote environmental sustainability, and support inclusive growth through its endeavor to meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs), while looking for pathways to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This course introduces students to the current landscape of sustainability assessment tools and explores the benefits that sustainable projects bring to public and private entities, local communities, and the planet in general. We ask the following key questions: what is sustainable infrastructure? What are the main features of a sustainable project? How do these features overlap or differ from the SDGs? How can infrastructure and urban development projects align with SI practices and the SDGs? To answer these questions, we use real-world case studies. Considering the mandate of the 2030 agenda, "leave no one behind," specific attention is given to how different stakeholders participate in the process.
Spring 2025
Food and Greed: Implications for Human Health and Sustainability
Jennifer Rivers Cole PhD, Associate Professor, American University of Afghanistan
This course provides a comprehensive exploration of the complex relationship between food and greed, focusing on its implications for human health and sustainability. It examines the dark side of industrialized agriculture and poses simple yet powerful interdisciplinary solutions. The course highlights problems associated with affluence and the resultant expectation of any food at any time. We investigate market distortions, health risks, government subsidies making processed food cheaper than healthy food, fair trade, ethics and equitable distribution of food, alternative farming techniques (integrated pest management and permaculture), corporations and big agriculture (Monsanto and Cargill), climate change and carnivores, factory farming and animal feed, habitat destruction and land use conversion including prioritization based on ecosystem services to humanity, agrochemical and pesticide biomagnification, high density farming techniques (vertical farming), fast food, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Emphasis is placed on US and global food subsidies, including origins and underpinnings. Participants solve a problem within the industrialized food system by critically analyzing how the pursuit of profit, excessive consumption, and unethical practices within the global food system impact both individual well-being and the long-term viability of our planet. By examining case studies, research findings, and policy frameworks, students gain a deep understanding of the multifaceted issues surrounding food and greed, and develop the knowledge and skills necessary to address these challenges.
Prerequisites: ENVR E-131 is recommended, but not required.
Fall 2024
Local to Global Agroecology
Dan Goldhamer MS, Instructor, University of Colorado and Co-research Lead and Director of Programs, Office of Engagement and Extension, Colorado State University
Agriculture is one of humanity's oldest pursuits and yet it is far from perfected. In this time of climate change and ecological degradation, a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions and damage to ecosystems can be traced back to the way in which humans produce food, feed, fuel, and fiber. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that 10-12 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are due to agriculture. Agriculture is also tied to ecological degradation including deforestation, depletion and contamination of water and soil resources, and chemical pollution. However, many individuals and organizations are discovering innovative and tailored solutions to these problems. Addressing the ecological and climate change challenges of agriculture in the next ten years will be essential to ensure a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and to creating resilient production systems. This course provides a broad introduction to the underlying biology and ecology of crop and animal agricultural production systems. We explore how different production techniques including conventional, organic, and regenerative, operate in both a dryland and irrigated setting. Students in this course gain a greater understanding of the realities that agricultural producers must face every day in their quest to feed themselves and the world. The goal of this course is to equip students with a basic understanding of the ecology of agricultural systems, gain applicable vocabulary and concepts related to agriculture, and an understanding of the challenges and opportunities farmers face when seeking sustainable solutions. We explore crop and animal agriculture at scales ranging from kitchen gardens to thousands of acres. We also explore the various tools, techniques, and technologies farmers employ throughout the globe.
Fall 2024
Food Systems and Global Supply Chains
Jennifer Rivers Cole PhD, Associate Professor, American University of Afghanistan
This course is intended for students interested in the supply-chain side of sustainable food. Of all the activities humans engage in on Earth, agriculture has the single biggest environmental impact. This course looks in detail at the supply chain of food production and the impact assessment of global food production. Together we investigate how food passes from production to distribution and consumption and what the sustainability ramifications are, specifically on air, water, soil, energy, mining, and human health. This is a research-based course where participants choose related food scenarios and quantify their impact on greenhouse gases and climate change; energy use; air, water, and soil degradation; and solid waste disposal. Topics include genetic modification of food for increased productivity, meat and dairy, additives for shelf stability, organic and local food, the 2018 Farm Bill legalizing hemp, food subsidies, aquaculture, packaging and transportation, fast food, and food safety. The first part of the course is a series of lectures covering the principles of economics as they pertain to agriculture; agricultural styles and practices; soil resources and problems; and the myriad ways we pollute the Earth's air, soil, and water as we obtain food. The second part of the course is a series of papers and discussion on supply-chain management and simple modeling scenarios designed to quantify the economics and sustainability of common food items.
Fall 2024
How to Decarbonize the Energy Sector: Real-World Implications in Power and Transportation
James Koehler MA, Partner and Renewable Energy Practice Lead, Renewables and Innovation, Daymark Energy Advisors
Climate change cannot be adequately addressed without decarbonizing the energy sector, given that it is the largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) around 50 percent of the total. But what does that entail? How does this transition to renewable sources happen while maintaining system reliability, expanding access, and limiting cost impacts to customers? The goal of this course is to prepare students to work in this sector as it undergoes these rapid changes. Whether you're making a career transition or just embarking on your career, understanding the unique structures, markets, and challenges of this industry is essential to increasing your competitive value in the workforce. This course examines the robust ecosystem of renewable and traditional energy companies, investors, regulators, and customers that comprise the power and transportation sectors. Some of the key questions that are addressed include: what are the unique characteristics of the power sector? How do they differ from the structure, markets, and policy that govern the transportation sector? How do these unique structures, markets, financial risks, and regulatory responsibilities dictate the renewable options available? How can government policy shape this outcome? And perhaps most importantly, how do financial considerations and investors influence this transition?
Spring 2025
Sustainable Business in the Twenty-First Century
Matthew Gardner PhD, Managing Partner, Sustainserv, Inc.
. These three modules (the business case for change, driving change at scale, and purpose driven systemic change) are expanded upon with guest speakers, real world case studies, and in-depth discussions. Each week students analyze examples from companies in a variety of industries to show how sustainability is integrated into their business models and to explore what opportunities still exist for companies to improve. The course uses case studies from publicly traded companies, augmented by links to various forms of information for students to compare and contrast throughout the semester. Information is presented from academic research, white papers published by respected scholars and experts, and the actual disclosures of major multinational companies. The case method is used to provide a participative and realistic forum that enables students to learn about sustainability while also developing the skills to use the information. In addition to receiving course credit, students who successfully complete this course for undergraduate or graduate credit can earn a certificate of completion from Harvard Business School Online.
Spring 2025
Making the Sustainable Investment Case
Graham Sinclair MBA, Senior Investment Strategist, Parametric
Making the sustainable investment case is a crucial skill for every type of professional, whether in the private, public, or not-for-profit sectors. This course takes lessons from the theories and practices of sustainable investment in the professional investment industry, and makes them accessible to other disciplines and fields. Every investment has implicit environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, because every decision made relies upon humans to make, do, buy, or sell something, and relies upon the rule of law to govern contractual relationships between businesses and protect minority investors. In every sector and situation, one is increasingly expected to identify, measure, and report material ESG risks, returns, and impact. Investment decisions are made daily for more than US $100 trillion in assets under management professionally in the global investment industry, and it is projected to grow to US $145.4 trillion by 2025. This course explores capital allocation decisions more broadly, translating the practices from the investment context to other situations of capital allocation. In a world with interconnected decision-making processes and consequences, more stakeholders demand greater transparency, customers have expectations of their vendors, reputation and litigation risks are profligate, and regulators seek to reduce negative impacts on society. Sustainable investment proactively considers themes and issues such as climate pollution, workplace safety, employee health and wellness, local community relationships, diversity, executive compensation, business ethics, corruption, and new markets for zero pollution innovation. Climate is the meta-theme overarching all investment strategies. This course is grounded in industry experience and cross-disciplinary academic and practitioner literature. The course employs the Socratic method. We blend practitioner literature with current academic research to ensure students learn from the most relevant material, including Harvard Business School case studies and case examples drawn from the food and beverage sector. We explore critiques of sustainable investment to better understand the gaps in theory and practice. We provide access to experts from across the spectrum so students may learn from multiple perspectives, and engage with different roles. We promote students' experiential learning by building up components of simulated investment recommendations. Students have many opportunities to explore topics of interest to them, including those drawn from headlines.
January 2025
Natural Disasters in a Global Environment
Jennifer Rivers Cole PhD, Associate Professor, American University of Afghanistan
This course covers disaster preparedness and response, as well as possible prevention and mitigation of: volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, fires, landslides, hurricanes, famines, pandemic diseases, meteorite impacts, and climate fluctuations. The course presents basic science, along with detailed case studies of past and present events. Lectures and discussions highlight the role of science in preparing for and responding to natural disasters. Elements of history, engineering, architecture, land use planning, climate change science, public policy, and emergency management are threaded through the discussions and laboratory exercises. This is a case study-based course, and highlights preparedness and response in developing nations, as part of global development practice.
Fall 2024
Fundamentals of Ecology for Sustainable Ecosystems
Aaron Hartmann PhD, Research Associate, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Conserving and managing biodiversity and ecosystem services in diverse landscapes across the globe is a major sustainability challenge of this century. Solutions critically rest on fundamental concepts and principles in ecology. This course adopts an unusual, holistic approach by embedding understanding and integration of these principles through a series of ecosystem case studies focused on desert, savanna, and mountain ecosystems; wetlands and other aquatic systems; boreal, temperate, and tropical forests; and agroecosystems. These ecosystems and specific sites exemplify different challenges but similar ecological processes at work for successful management, whether the goal is protection of natural systems and biodiversity, ecological restoration, or maintaining ecosystem services in agricultural and other human-dominated landscapes. Through this approach, the fundamental topics covered in typical ecology courses are exemplified. The historical, evolutionary, and ecological processes determining the distribution of ecosystems, habitats, and species are introduced. Evolutionary processes responsible for the adaptations of individuals are examined to understand the diversity of species and their features. Ecological processes of competition, predation, disease, and mutualism help explain the functioning of biological communities and larger ecosystems. Among other activities, teams of students conduct background research on specific ecosystem sites to understand the ecological, economic, sociocultural, and multistakeholder context of sustainability challenges and integrated solutions.
Spring 2025
Evaluating Sustainable Food Systems and Other Enterprises in Rural Areas, With a View from Tuscany
Mark Leighton PhD, Associate Director and Senior Research Advisor, Sustainability, Harvard Extension School
Globally, metropolitan areas have prospered economically while rural areas have been left behind. The course focuses on sustainability opportunities and enterprises in these rural landscapes. Emphasis is on the benefits of regenerative farming and small-scale organic farm enterprises, typically with diverse production systems, common historically and now resurgent in the farm to table and local food movements as alternatives to industrial agriculture. The course focuses on comparisons between New England and Tuscany; in both of these regions, ecological and economic sustainability challenges in the rural landscape include producing food and forest products for niche markets, managing watersheds, conserving biodiversity and other environmental services, such as carbon sequestration, and diversifying income streams with ecotourism. Optimizing this mix of functions while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution addresses sustainability goals. Online required class sessions discuss readings on models and analysis of sustainable food production systems, including organic, permaculture, and forest farming systems. Assignments and readings develop skills in spreadsheet modeling of production integrated with financial analysis of small-scale enterprises. The centerpiece of the course is an intensive and mandatory week long learning experience, May 4-May 11, in residence at Spannocchia, a historical Tuscan farming estate near Sienna. Field exercises and discussions at Spannocchia are augmented with an all-day field trip to a nearby biodynamic winery and onward for the afternoon to the hill town of San Gimignano, and then a half-day trip to Tenuta San Carlo in southwestern Tuscany, a very different agro-ecosystem. Students should not have other work or study commitments during this period. The course involves some hiking and fieldwork on several days over uneven ground; because these are critical course activities, students must be physically able to participate. Students are housed at Spannocchia in either the Fattoria or Villa rooms in the main building; rooms are typically shared doubles, spacious and historical. Meals feature organic products from the estate. View the Spannocchia website for photos and descriptions of accommodations, programs, and the estate property. Students with documented disabilities should contact the Accessibility Services Office no later than two weeks before the course begins. In addition to completing all required assignments for the course, students must attend the entire week at Spannocchia to pass the course (you cannot arrive late or leave early). If you neglect to register with Spannocchia, pay their separate deposit, or miss their deadlines, you may not be able to register, complete, or pass the course. Harvard Extension School (HES) spring term registration, drop, and withdrawal deadlines apply to ENVR E-143. See the calendar. If students drop the course, HES will refund tuition payment according to standard refund policy. HES is not responsible for payments made to Spannocchia, travel, or other expenses that students may incur. In addition to the course tuition, students are responsible for: Approximately $1,000-$1,300 USD paid to Spannocchia by January 10. This includes room and board for May 4-May 11 (seven nights) and educational fees. Course members rendezvous in Siena on Sunday, May 4, and then share taxis to Spannocchia after a group lunch. Note that up to 45 days before the program start date (May 4) at Spannocchia, a student withdrawing from the course will have their prepaid Spannocchia fee reimbursed less a $250 deposit and credit card processing fees. However, cancellations within 45 days of the start date are not refundable. US health insurance that provides coverage outside the United States. Transportation to and from Spannocchia (via Siena). Shared per capita cost of bus/van rental and driver for the field trip, and shared taxi or van to and from Siena or Florence to Spannocchia. (Students also have some miscellaneous individual costs: for example, a $7 hotel tax, meals in Siena and San Gimignano, and a wine tasting fee if students participate). The cost of passports and visas (if the latter is needed). Costs of any required COVID-19 vaccinations, boosters, and tests, both in home country and Italy, depending on regulations at the time.
Prerequisites: No previous courses are required; however, ENVR E-129 (offered previously), ENVR E-129a, ENVR S-129b, ENVR E-129c, ENVR E-140, and ENVR E-210 are relevant sustainability courses providing background. Familiarity with Excel spreadsheets is helpful, but not required. Students must be at least 18 years old.
Spring 2025
Environmental Conservation
Aaron Hartmann PhD, Research Associate, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Preserving and recovering populations, communities, and ecosystems is the core goal of conservation biology. But achieving this goal requires much more than an understanding of biology. It requires that we evaluate humanity's place in nature through numerous lenses, including those seemingly far afield from the natural world. This course integrates evolutionary and ecological theory into resource management, economics, sociology, business, psychology, and law to explore conservation strategies, the value of ecosystem services, evidence-based management, and the challenges of decision making under conflicting interests. As this list underscores, conservation biology is inherently interdisciplinary, and this means that each student's training and perspective is integral as we build a comprehensive understanding of this complex discipline.
Fall 2024
Life Cycle and Supply Chain Sustainability Assessment
Julien Walzberg PhD, Researcher III, Strategic Energy Analysis Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The field of industrial ecology includes advanced tools and methods to assist practitioners seeking to redesign and realign industrial systems and activities to be more ecologically and socially sound. Central within the field of industrial ecology is life cycle assessment (LCA), which involves systems analysis of the full range of environmental impacts, product life cycles, and supply chains. Social impacts are also being addressed in life cycles and supply chains, leading to the definition of life cycle sustainability assessment. This course enables participants to develop a hands-on, in-depth understanding of the frameworks, principles, tools, and applications of life cycle assessment. As part of the course, students learn to use and apply professional software tools and databases that address sustainability-relevant impacts in global supply chains. We also review the state of life cycle practice and current initiatives involving companies, governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). We ground the entire course on the goal of making human activities, from the personal to the global, truly sustainable.
Prerequisites: College math and/or chemistry are helpful, but not required.
Fall 2024
Sustainable Product Design and the Innovation Ecosystem
Ramon Sanchez ScD, Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, The Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy
This course is for anyone who would like to learn how to design and launch a new product with the smallest environmental footprint. Students acquire many tools and skills in the course: how to do market intelligence (technological benchmarking and reverse engineering), how to incorporate real sustainability into new products (and identify green washing), how to use structured tools to enhance creativity and innovation to conceive and develop new products, how to design and implement a new product introduction process, how to do and implement the design of experiments to select the most robust features for products, how to write and submit a patent application to decrease legal costs, how to protect copyrights and trademarks, how to fund intellectual property by using funds from business incubators and accelerators, how to select the right materials and processes to minimize the product's environmental impacts (using green chemistry principles, sustainable sourcing of components, and sustainable certification for raw materials to promote conservation), how to reduce energy use by new products, how to build and test prototypes in an inexpensive way, and how to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging and transportation. Students also learn the basic components of an innovation ecosystem and how high technology hubs such as Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York work.
Prerequisites: High school math.
Fall 2024
Principles and Practice of Climate Change Negotiations
Carol Franco PhD, Senior Research Associate, Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Virginia Tech
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty created in 1992 to jointly limit average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change and its impacts. It provides a platform for multilateral efforts where 198 parties to the convention (197 States and one regional economic integration organization) address the impacts of climate change on people and ecosystems. This course builds capacity in process of the multilateral policy negotiations at the UNFCCC. It includes topics on climate diplomacy, negotiation skills, and international policy formulation and their relationships with national regulations, laws, and policies to guide efforts to adapt to climate change and mitigate greenhouse gases. It also provides an up-to-date summary of the main agenda topics currently being negotiated from the perspectives of parties and observer organizations. The course is designed with the purpose of transmitting scientific-technical language and diplomatic language that reflects the current situation.
Fall 2024
Applied Circular Economics
Manuel Maqueda MS, JD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SUPER.ngo
This course gives students the essential concepts, tools, and skills needed to take part in the transition to a circular economy in a wide variety of economic sectors and areas of human activity. Ecosystems tend toward a stable equilibrium, or homeostasis, and have the ability to regenerate and thrive for thousands of years. Likewise, the circular economy seeks to maintain the value and preserve the stocks of materials, components, and goods, while eliminating waste and pollution and restoring natural capital. The circular economy allows for a better economic and ecological performance than today's prevailing economy which follows a take-make-waste linear model that destroys value, depletes stocks, and degrades living systems. The transition to a circular economy is mandated by the ecological and physical boundaries of our planet. Without an accelerated transition it will be impossible to meet the Paris Agreement targets. At the same time, the transition to a circular economy is a tremendous opportunity that would unleash global economic growth and create an estimated 95 million new jobs worldwide while also boosting economic resilience. The European Union, Canada, China, and other leading economies have outlined aggressive roadmaps towards a circular economy. In the United States, 60 percent of chief executive officers plan to transition to a circular economy framework. This course challenges not only what, but how students think about sustainability. Students are encouraged to think in systems and material flows, while embracing a radical collaboration mindset. Along the way we visit different areas of opportunity that range from biomass management to industrial symbiosis; examine circularity in sectors as diverse as food, electronics, and plastics; outline the role of related disciplines such as biomimicry and permaculture; and discuss innovative business models where products are servitized, dematerialized, and completely redesigned to foster modularity, repairability, upgradeability, and cradle-to-cradle life cycles.
Spring 2025
Regenerative Economics
Manuel Maqueda MS, JD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SUPER.ngo
In this course we examine ways to accelerate the transition towards an economy that enriches, restores, and regenerates the Earth's biosphere at scale while reversing climate change. Although regenerative economics is still an emerging field, this course focuses on praxis rather than on theory, seeking to equip students with ideas and tools to solve real-world problems and to create innovative, regenerative economy initiatives in a variety of sectors. To this effect, we illustrate the topics with case studies and are joined by guest speakers who are leading practitioners in their domains. In this course, we visit different areas of regenerative opportunity that include regenerative agriculture and permaculture, agroforestry, and large-scale ecosystem restoration; as well as labriculture (in vitro food production) and bio-based materials and products (grown instead of made). In addition to the circular economics framework, we discuss the planetary boundary framework and look at several large-scale human-Earth models, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) model. Earth observation, the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain are discussed as technologies to foster, manage, and measure regeneration, both locally and at planetary scale. Other emerging technologies such as synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and geo-engineering are examined with a precautionary, biomimetic, and critical lens.
Spring 2025
Sustainable Fashion
Kelly A. Burton ALM, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, The ESG Shop - Lorenza Wong MS, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design, The New School
The global fashion and apparel industry has changed dramatically in the last 20 years to become an industry that today produces between six and ten percent of the world's greenhouse gases. This course explores the historical, social, and environmental aspects of the global fashion industry and the current tools and methodologies available to improve it. It enables students to understand the connection between sustainable development and the apparel industry; think critically about both the common and less discussed aspects of the apparel industry, including consumption, durability, and sustainable design; appreciate the complexities of the economic impacts of externalities both positive and negative on the industry; and explore the social and environmental impacts and the tools available to monitor and measure positive impact.
Spring 2025
Toxics in Consumer Products
Kathleen Sellers MS, Technical Partner, Sustainable Products and Supply Chain, Environmental Resources Management
Concerned about toxics in consumer products? Join this course to examine the topic from multiple perspectives: the science of hazard and risk, the factors that drive outrage, and the regulations designed to protect us. The course content is designed to demystify underlying scientific concepts. Case studies of headline issues and guest speakers from the industry make abstract concepts come alive. This course provides students with the tools to support effective action to make products more sustainable and to make better choices as a consumer.
Spring 2025
Principles of Natural Resources Management
Joshua Ellsworth MS, Program Fellow, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace
What core knowledge about ecosystem functions helps sustainability and development professionals, no matter where they work? What are the limits of our understandings and when do we need to bring in others to develop site-specific analysis and strategies? Professionals in the sustainability and global development fields often need to work on or assess agriculture, water, and natural resource conservation projects and supply chains across different geographic, ecological, and agricultural regions. While they do not have to be experts in every situation, they do need to be able to learn quickly about complex natural systems in order to work effectively in teams, provide analysis, and make programmatic decisions. Despite the diversity of these natural systems, there are common processes and mechanisms that underpin and connect all of them. There are key questions one can ask in any situation to learn more. If professionals are familiar with these common ecological and physical processes, then they are capable of quickly adjusting their work to new contexts by asking relevant technical questions, recognizing what they do not yet know, and identifying with whom they should consult. This course is designed to cultivate critical thinking as it relates to natural resources management to help each student understand common processes across natural systems and to develop a set of questions that can guide their future work in any given location. The course covers the core characteristics and management of water, soils, forests, pastures, and agricultural systems and how they are interconnected. Specific topics include water resources, river dynamics, and how natural and human-caused ecosystem disturbance such as fire, logging, and grazing factor into the ecology and succession of forests, grasslands, agriculture, and ecological restoration. Students explore these topics through lectures, individual work, and a team assignment focused on a natural resources management and restoration plan in a location of their choice.
Spring 2025
Human Health, Environmental Change, and Sustainability
Yasmin von Schirnding PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Human activity is changing the atmosphere and altering terrestrial and marine ecosystems on a global scale. These changes are already having serious effects on human health, especially for vulnerable people around the world. This course addresses the causes and health and equity consequences of global environmental changes, with particular emphasis on climate change and the loss of biological diversity. It also explores the knowledge and actions that can form the pathways to a more healthy, just, and sustainable world.
Fall 2024
Water Resources Policy and Watershed Management
Scott Horsley MA, Lecturer, Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University
This course presents a comprehensive approach to water resources management by integrating environmental science (geology, soils, and hydrology) and policy (planning and regulatory analysis). It is intended for both students with and without technical backgrounds. We use numerous case studies from the instructor's experience as a consultant to the US Environmental Protection Agency, state and local governments, industry, and nongovernmental organizations. The course examines groundwater, lake, riverine, wetland, and coastal management issues at the local, state, tribal, regional, national, and international levels and relies heavily on practical case studies. We focus on an integrated water management approach that links drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater management seeking opportunities to keep water local and for re-use, balancing hydrologic budgets, and minimizing costs in the face of climate change. A broad range of water resource management strategies is examined including structural/nonstructural, regulatory/nonregulatory, and prevention/restoration approaches. Smart growth and low impact development techniques are presented as effective growth management and climate adaptation techniques. Incentive-based management strategies are presented to modify behaviors and to optimize public participation. Green infrastructure is presented as an innovative and alternative approach to conventional grey technologies and includes shellfish aquaculture, bioretention, reforestation of riparian buffers, ecotoilets, and wetlands restoration.
Fall 2024
Transportation and Sustainability
Eric Plosky MS, Executive Director, MobilityData - Carson Poe MA, Transportation Industry Analyst, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, United States Department of Transportation
Is our current transportation system sustainable from environmental, energy, economic, social, and technological perspectives? In this course, with one eye on current events (such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Biden administration's focus on infrastructure), we focus on the sustainability of transportation. We examine the interplay of transportation and the structure of society, including topics such as the economy, the environment, land use, politics, technology, and history. Changes now occurring on the national and global levels, such as those wrought by the pandemic and by the rising movement for social justice, are explored through lectures, readings, and student work. From a sustainability perspective, the nexus of energy consumption, vehicle emissions, climate change, habitat loss or alteration, and air quality are explored to understand the impacts of various forms of transportation and the potential utilization of emerging technologies and new policies and institutional structures to dramatically improve results. Looking beyond current practices, we also explore how more fundamental shifts, such as in consumer habits, are reshaping transportation networks and the infrastructure barriers that we must address. Finally, we examine the role of legal and regulatory actions on transportation/environmental relationships at the state and federal levels, and how future standards could be utilized to advance sustainability.
Spring 2025
Principles of Natural Systems
Katherine von Stackelberg ScD, Research Scientist, Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
This is a course on the economy in society and in the biosphere focused on supporting planetary health. Even as we recognize that human well-being depends on the natural environment, we are experiencing unprecedented environmental challenges largely as a consequence of unsustainable interactions with nature based on linear systems of extraction to waste rather than regeneration. We are increasingly putting our well-being at risk through the unintended environmental consequences of modern life. Industrialization and development at the expense of natural resources, energy- and pollution-intensive food production, and an economic system that fails to account for natural capital: these are just a few examples of how we are failing to work effectively within a socio-ecological system. In this course we explore the evidence for the ways in which the natural environment supports well-being, talk about the implications for sustainability (of what to whom), identify actionable strategies for sustainability that explicitly recognize the coupled human-natural system, and challenge conventional disciplinary norms by integrating social and natural sciences for more effective decision making. We explore themes related to the essentiality of biodiversity to ecosystem services, working with nature, biophilic design, biomimicry, permaculture and multifunctional agricultural landscapes, and collaborative decision making, and identify quantitative approaches for decision making based on systems thinking and dynamics.
Spring 2025
Renewable Energy Mini-Grids for Rural Community Development
Scott Kennedy PhD, Chief Executive Officer, ClearSky Power
Renewable energy mini-grids are a key technology for extending electricity access to over 500 million people worldwide. Yet, for such a critical infrastructure, the mini-grid sector is far from standardized and faces several challenges. This course takes a deep dive into the rapidly evolving technologies, business models, policies, and project development approaches that are driving innovation in rural electricity access in emerging economies. Students learn the context of energy poverty, how limited energy access underlies numerous development challenges, and the various current approaches for rural electrification. The course then focuses specifically on renewable energy mini-grids, introducing the technology stack generation, power conversion, energy storage, distribution, and metering and their different architectures and business models for service delivery. Students learn specific tools and methods for the mini-grid project development process, including feasibility studies, demand estimation, risk assessment, and project financing. Students learn participatory planning and community engagement techniques that align project design with community expectations and increase community agency. The course draws on case studies and contributions from active practitioners, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. Students completing this course come away with a deep understanding of mini-grid technology, the opportunities and challenges around rural energy access, and the latest tools and methods for mini-grid project development.
Prerequisites: High school math and science. Proficiency in Excel with basic data analysis and plotting. ENVR E-102 recommended.
January 2025
Urban Agriculture
Zachary Nowak PhD, Director, The Umbra Institute
What do gardens in cities do for people? Urban agriculture is a catch-all term that covers community gardens, vegetable plots at prisons, didactically-minded gardens in schoolyards, gardens planted illegally on vacant lots, high-tech hydroponic companies, and farmers' markets. Students develop knowledge about how these spaces differ across variables like legality, goals, and actors. Students in this course learn about how growing food in Global North cities has a long past. We debate whether urban agriculture is an excellent way for city dwellers to reduce hunger and assert their control over urban space, or whether it's just another subtle manifestation of neoliberalism. A core goal of this course, above and beyond the content, is to develop research skills in multiple disciplines that will be useful for other courses.
Spring 2025
Fundamentals of Conservation Genetics
Diddahally R. Govindaraju PhD, Visiting Professor, Institute for Aging, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
This course is designed to provide a general understanding of the interrelationship among biological principles, ecology, and the genetic bases of biological diversity. It also explores their applications in conserving natural resources to meet the challenges of climate change. The primary objectives are to provide comprehensive knowledge of biological diversity, ecological systems, genetic principles, and molecular approaches used to study genetic diversity. We use both quantitative and molecular data to develop conservation strategies in the face of a changing climate. The course involves lectures, seminars, group discussions, and field trips, supplemented by multimedia resources and guest lectures. This diverse and comprehensive learning experience is ideally suited for students in biology, environmental science, agronomy, and related fields. It is also beneficial for professionals interested in the application of ecology, molecular ecology, and conservation biology in relation to global warming.
Prerequisites: The course requires foundational knowledge of biology and genetics and some basic algebra.
Spring 2025
Sustainability Accelerator: Practicing Community Empowerment and Local Leader Development
Justin Newey Allen MBA, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Sustainability Accelerator
As global sustainability crises escalate, the world needs local sustainability leaders who have the capacity to create change. This course teaches skills, introduces tools, and provides experiential learning opportunities that teach change agents how to accelerate local leader development and empower community action. The course begins with an overview of theory and research on community empowerment and a review of successful sustainability initiatives. Then, utilizing an experiential act-to-learn model (rather than a traditional learn-to-act approach), students are assigned to teams and paired with external sustainability practitioners (for example, change leaders working on social justice, climate, education, infrastructure, or health initiatives). Students learn community engagement skills and praxis (creating space for reflection and collective action) with practitioners' target community beneficiaries. After engaging with beneficiaries, students provide partners with a clearer picture of the community's needs and collaborate to co-create an updated community-centric theory of change and a draft a proposed community-led project charter. Throughout the course, students learn practical skills and tools associated with community empowerment and local leadership development. Students also learn and practice reflective coaching and engage in weekly coaching sessions.
Spring 2025
Designing Sustainability Research
Juergen Braunstein PhD, Local Affiliate, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Research projects in sustainability are complex and transcend the boundaries of conventional disciplines such as economics, international relations, and sociology. Sustainability and carbon issues affect and interact with monetary stability, industrial policy, and more; comprise different analytical foci, including human behavior, politics, and power conflicts; and operate across multiple units of analysis such as individuals, groups, organizations, states, and relationships between states. Research designs must integrate distinct components coherently and logically to adequately capture this multidimensionality. A good research project has both good ideas and good design. While good ideas can be hard to pin down, a longstanding set of rules and design principles can help us turn compelling ideas into excellent research. Good design makes ideas more accessible, persuasive, and likely to achieve their aims. This course provides students with the fundamental principles for designing research projects in the sustainability field, including how to link empirical data to concepts, concepts to theory, and theory to research strategy. This includes articulating a problem, question, or research puzzle and providing a rationale for it; reviewing the relevant literature; advancing a hypothesis or argument; constructing a theoretical framework; defining concepts, variables, and relationships; and designing a test of the hypothesis or argument. Once students learn the principles of research design, their reading and comprehension of even the densest academic writing will improve. When one knows what to expect from the research design of an article, report, or book one is better able to distinguish the argument from the evidence, the logic from the information, and the normative issues (that is, what should be done) from underlying and wider practical and theoretical implications. We explore current issues in sustainability research through a number of cases that bring the full array of research design, including cross-sectional, longitudinal, and comparative designs. The particular order in which these designs are introduced throughout the course follows a cumulative rationale (that is, starting with most descriptive designs to most deductive designs). While the methodological focus is on qualitative approaches, we also look at nested designs, deploying qualitative and quantitative analytical tools simultaneously. This involves hands-on practice. By drafting a research design for a sustainability project, justifying their strategy, and examining their work for potential flaws, students' research critical thinking improves. At the same time, students gain further insights through peer and diagnostic review processes and illustrations of common research designs in sustainability studies.
Fall 2024
Environmental Law and Policy
David Mears JD, Attorney, Tarrant, Gillies and Shems, LLP
United States' environmental laws and policies have grown in importance and complexity in response to our increased knowledge of the risks and challenges associated with our present trajectory. We are experiencing the stark challenge of shifting the cultural and economic drivers of unsustainable patterns of living on the land at a time of a deep ideological divide in our democratic institutions. This divide is interfering with the ability of our elected leaders to develop long-term, systemic strategies for change. On the other hand, we have a better societal understanding of the risks of failing to address the unsustainability of the ways that humans are currently living on our planet. In response, local, state, tribal, and national-level leaders are open to new policy approaches, giving rise to the opportunity for environmental professionals to participate in the development of improved systems. In this course, we explore the ways that the United States has made important progress in addressing many environmental problems through its laws and policies. However, this exploration also reveals that those solutions have tended to exist in isolation, not addressing or perhaps masking larger system declines that we can see in the form of climate change, loss of biodiversity, inequitable allocation of the benefits and burdens of environmental degradation, and permanent disruption to the ability of the land, air, and water to regenerate. The fact that these trends are not abating in response to the strategies employed over the past fifty years of the modern American environmental movement suggests a need to explore what has worked, what has not worked, and how we view our current challenges through an ecological lens in order to adjust our strategy in response to that knowledge. Students in this course explore the major areas of US environmental and natural resources law and policy, with a focus on the areas of water quality and quantity, biodiversity, hazardous waste and toxic substances, and land use. Students review examples that demonstrate the interplay of local, state, tribal, and federal governmental decision-making processes. In addition, students gain experience in reading case law, statutes, and regulations, as well as policy analyses. Finally, students are invited to bring their own personal and professional experiences to bear as we explore the importance of collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking to solve complex environmental issues.
Spring 2025
Analytical Methods in Sustainability
Linda Powers Tomasso PhD, Research Associate, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Understanding the dynamics of complex ecological and environmental systems and designing policies to promote their sustainability is a formidable challenge that requires analytical and measurement savvy. Both the practitioner and policymaker must be able to evaluate scientific research, recognizing fundamental pitfalls in research design data interpretation, and contextual relevance. Computational modeling tools have allowed for more dynamic and accurate predictions of complex environmental and ecological systems, though simulation output is only as valid as the quality of the input data. Analyzing the integrity of measurement scenarios is critical; what omissions and limitations might bias an outcome, and how might human behavioral interactions cause scenario modeling to differ from quantitative predictions? To learn these skills, students enrolled in this course conduct practical exercises illustrating a range of measurement and modeling techniques, including statistical analysis of ecological and environmental data and system dynamics modeling. Building on these methods, skill development also includes scientific writing, critiquing primary research literature, negotiating environmental resource rights, and accurately communicating environmental science in non-technical language. Course activities are rooted in core issues of environmental and sustainability sciences, climate change, human population dynamics, population viability analysis of endangered species, economic appraisal of projects that impact natural resources, impacts of built and natural environments on human health, and climate justice. Quantitative techniques are taught at an introductory level; some data analysis and simulation modeling are conducted using Excel spreadsheets.
Prerequisites: Experience manipulating data and algebraic equations on spreadsheets is helpful.
Fall 2024
Analytical Methods in Sustainability
Linda Powers Tomasso PhD, Research Associate, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Understanding the dynamics of complex ecological and environmental systems and designing policies to promote their sustainability is a formidable challenge that requires analytical and measurement savvy. Both the practitioner and policymaker must be able to evaluate scientific research, recognizing fundamental pitfalls in research design data interpretation, and contextual relevance. Computational modeling tools have allowed for more dynamic and accurate predictions of complex environmental and ecological systems, though simulation output is only as valid as the quality of the input data. Analyzing the integrity of measurement scenarios is critical; what omissions and limitations might bias an outcome, and how might human behavioral interactions cause scenario modeling to differ from quantitative predictions? To learn these skills, students enrolled in this course conduct practical exercises illustrating a range of measurement and modeling techniques, including statistical analysis of ecological and environmental data and system dynamics modeling. Building on these methods, skill development also includes scientific writing, critiquing primary research literature, negotiating environmental resource rights, and accurately communicating environmental science in non-technical language. Course activities are rooted in core issues of environmental and sustainability sciences, climate change, human population dynamics, population viability analysis of endangered species, economic appraisal of projects that impact natural resources, impacts of built and natural environments on human health, and climate justice. Quantitative techniques are taught at an introductory level; some data analysis and simulation modeling are conducted using Excel spreadsheets.
Prerequisites: Experience manipulating data and algebraic equations on spreadsheets is helpful.
Spring 2025
Climate Adaptation: Planning and Policy
William Farmer PhD, Acting Drought Science Coordinator, Water Mission Area, US Geological Survey
Climate adaptation is critical to sustainability across social and geographic scales. Through this course, students learn the importance of climate adaptation, its costs and benefits, and how to develop an adaptation plan at whatever scale is needed and for a broad array of communities. Students learn about the steps involved in assessing vulnerabilities and how to take the necessary steps to reduce those vulnerabilities through adaptation planning. Because we cannot adapt infinitely, students learn how to find and implement carbon mitigation opportunities. The implementation and effectiveness of mitigation and adaptation actions necessary to stabilize the climate and create a sustainable environment depend significantly on climate policy. The promulgation of climate policy alone, however, is not sufficient and depends on planning methods capable of fostering actions that meet policy goals. Therefore, students also develop a broad understanding of current domestic and international climate policies and agreements, as well as planning frameworks that help structure actions, hold parties accountable, and create incentives and mechanisms toward climate adaptation. Understanding climate policy is necessary for describing legal standards, regulatory attainment, the terms of treaties and agreements, and how to meet such benchmarks.
Spring 2025
Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for a Sustainable Future
Ahmad Antar PhD, Founder and Executive Director, Digital Emissions
As the world grapples with a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, the need for scalable sustainable technologies has never been greater. Artificial intelligence (AI) is uniquely positioned to tackle complex climate challenges with a focus on climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. AI-infused solutions are already making strides in the field of sustainability. Recent research suggests that Al environmental applications could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.4 gross tonnage (Gt) of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, while boosting the global economy by $5.2 trillion. This course examines the intersection of AI and sustainability, shedding light on the opportunities and challenges presented by this emerging technology. Students gain a deep understanding of a wide array of Al applications spanning sectors such as energy, information technology, transportation, and agriculture. The course also delves into how the new AI wave is accelerating the progress on sustainable development goals (SDGs). It further investigates the potential detrimental consequences of AI in relation to ethical and environmental dimensions. The course draws on case studies and contributions from industry practitioners. Throughout the course, students take part in an immersive learning experience with peer learning opportunities in addition to individual activities.
Fall 2024
Tracking Sustainability Performance: Analytical Approaches and Challenges
Dinah A. Koehler PhD
This course introduces students to the latest developments in the analytical approaches to corporate strategy and investment decisions, integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. The course aims to answer the question of what is a sustainable company, and explores the question with data and analytics. The course takes a hands-on approach to assessing the difference between voluntary and mandatory frameworks that guide corporate sustainability reporting, including Global Reporting Initiative, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board/International Sustainability Standards Board, and Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures, and recent mandatory disclosure requirements in the European Union, California, and other jurisdictions. The limitations of voluntary self-disclosure are debated within the context of greenwashing criticism and increased scrutiny of ESG ratings, green bonds, and net-zero target setting. ESG materiality as part of corporate disclosure is probed with reference to double materiality. The scientific basis for evaluating corporate sustainability is explored via impact measurement, net-zero target setting, and asset-level ESG risk analysis. Students learn about various roles in the sustainability reporting ecosystem, from corporate to auditor and investor perspectives, and the ESG tools and data used by each role along with the potential for artificial intelligence (A) applications. For their final project students working in teams have the choice to develop a corporate net-zero strategy that is scientifically credible and technologically feasible or to develop a sustainable investment strategy that creatively uses data available with a specific sustainability goal (ESG integration, ESG engagement, or sustainable impact). The course is by intention highly interactive with in-class activities and emphasizes teamwork, critical thinking, and peer review. Students are expected to manipulate data using Excel. Templates and explanations are provided.
Fall 2024
Fundamentals of Sustainable Investing
Cary Krosinsky BA, Lecturer, Yale College and Adjunct Lecturer, New York University Stern Executive Education
Twenty-first century businesses and investors face a broadening and deepening array of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. Climate change, water scarcity, community conflict, resource depletion, supply chain breakdowns, worker well-being, and economic inequality pose material challenges that make sustainability an imperative for successful corporations and investors. This course examines the theory and practice of sustainable investing. We explore related investment and corporate strategies, industry trends across all asset classes, future scenarios, industry players, and frameworks and while reviewing the viability of practical investment performance analysis, available ESG data, and impact metrics, as well as diversification, geopolitics, and asset allocation considerations. Students may not take both ENVR E-138 and ENVR E-235 for degree or certificate credit.
Fall 2024
Environmental Entrepreneurship: Start-up Essentials for Success
Alice Nichols MEd, Principal, Integrated Strategies International
In a world where performance and societal and environmental impacts are often seen as at odds, it is hard to imagine having the best of both worlds. This course is not just for students with business backgrounds, nor only for those who have a well-formed idea that they think is worthy of putting forth into a venture plan straight away. This course is for students who would like to breathe life into an eco-opportunity that will environmentally move the needle by creating a venture plan. This is a new venture plan, which is quite different from a traditional business plan. Your idea may feel ill formed, or you may need support in formulating an eco-opportunity that will make social impact, for profit or nonprofit activity. We address questions such as: how do you select an opportunity? How do you take an idea and turn it into a value proposition with a target market? How do you build a model for an enterprise? This is not a conceptual course, but a hands-on, practical, experiential, and interactive course to learn to transpose an idea into an entrepreneurial venture. Students learn how to do customer discovery, thereby avoiding the biggest pitfall of start-up ventures nobody caring or no market.
January 2025
Crafting the Thesis Proposal in Sustainability
Mark Leighton PhD, Associate Director and Senior Research Advisor, Sustainability, Harvard Extension School
This course helps students develop critical thinking, scholarly writing skills, and research abilities while developing their individual thesis proposals. Class meetings feature lectures and discussions on different scientific approaches, group discussions, and intensive, constructive discussion of proposed student thesis research projects and proposals, from definition of research goals and hypotheses through research design and expected data analysis and presentation. Students are encouraged to contact their research advisor well before the required CTP application is due to discuss possible thesis topics and should not register for this course unless they are ready to engage in the entire thesis process. They should consider if this is the right time to start independent research, as the goal of the course is to move from crafting the thesis proposal to thesis registration with no extended breaks. Students should begin the thesis project during the next semester.
Prerequisites: Registration is restricted to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability, who have received CTP application approval. Prospective candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Students must have completed eight courses (32 credits) toward the degree and fulfilled their research methods requirement. All students must be in good academic standing. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course. See application guidelines for details.
Spring 2025
Innovation in Sustainability and Global Development Practice Precapstone Tutorial
Ramon Sanchez ScD, Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, The Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy
This course is designed for Master of Liberal Arts (ALM), sustainability and global development practice capstone track candidates. Course deliverables include a detailed and actionable sustainable start-up business plan proposal or a plan to assess a local innovation ecosystem and a presentation to the class, potential innovation investors, and other stakeholders (including public or private entities like local governments, corporations, nongovernmental organizations [NGOs], governmental agencies, schools, universities, and hospitals). Students work with a client to develop and deliver an innovation/new product development plan or sustainable business plan focused on reducing operating costs, minimizing the environmental footprint, and improving environmental sustainability practices. Class time is devoted to addressing client requirements and developing actionable solutions.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted degree candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability or global development practice capstone track, who are in their penultimate semester. Prospective candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing and in the process of successfully completing all degree requirements except the capstone, ENVR E-599b, which they must enroll in the upcoming summer term as their one and only final course (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone). In addition, candidates must have completed ENVR E-154 or ENVR S-154 at the graduate-level with a grade of B-minus or higher. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the tutorial.
Fall 2024
Consulting for Sustainability Solutions Capstone
Neil Hawkins ScD, President, Michigan Sustainability Associates
This course is a capstone for students earning a Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability degree. Course deliverables include a detailed actionable/measurable sustainability action plan (SAP) as well as a presentation to be given to the class and to client stakeholders. Appropriate clients may include communities, corporations, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), governmental agencies, schools, universities, and hospitals. Students work with a client to develop and deliver a customized SAP focused on reduction of operating costs, minimization of the environmental footprint, brand differentiation and improvement of environmental sustainability practices. Class time is devoted to addressing client requirements and developing actionable solutions. Listings of prior projects may be viewed at the Consulting with Clients for Sustainability Solutions Capstone website.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted degree candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability, consulting track. Candidates must be in good academic standing, ready to graduate in February with only the capstone left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone tutorial, ENVR S-598a, in the previous Harvard Summer School term. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2025
Consulting for Sustainability Solutions Capstone
Neil Hawkins ScD, President, Michigan Sustainability Associates
This course is a capstone for students earning a Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability degree. Course deliverables include a detailed actionable/measurable sustainability action plan (SAP) as well as a presentation to be given to the class and to client stakeholders. Appropriate clients may include communities, corporations, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), governmental agencies, schools, universities, and hospitals. Students work with a client to develop and deliver a customized SAP focused on reduction of operating costs, minimization of the environmental footprint, brand differentiation and improvement of environmental sustainability practices. Class time is devoted to addressing client requirements and developing actionable solutions. Listings of prior projects may be viewed at the Consulting with Clients for Sustainability Solutions Capstone website.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted degree candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability, consulting track. Candidates must be in good academic standing, ready to graduate in May with only the capstone left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone tutorial, ENVR E-598a, in the previous fall term. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Fall 2024
Independent Research Capstone
Jennifer Rivers Cole PhD, Associate Professor, American University of Afghanistan
This course offers students the overview, direction, and support for completing an individual capstone project, creatively engaging their professional and personal interests. Lectures and discussions explore challenges and opportunities in project scoping, boundary delineation, stakeholder inclusion, impact assessment, and sampling design; logical consistency, lateral thinking, and case study analysis; prototyping, benchmarking, and bet hedging; effective writing, editing, graphic presentation, and information search; and public presentation and network building. Students are asked to prepare a poster of their work to present to the wider graduate community at the end of the semester. Listings of prior projects may be viewed at the Independent Research Capstone website.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted degree candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability, capstone track. Candidates must be in good academic standing, ready to graduate in February with only the capstone left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone course, ENVR S-598, in the previous Harvard Summer School term. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2025
Independent Research Capstone
Jennifer Rivers Cole PhD, Associate Professor, American University of Afghanistan
This course offers students the overview, direction, and support for completing an individual capstone project, creatively engaging their professional and personal interests. Lectures and discussions explore challenges and opportunities in project scoping, boundary delineation, stakeholder inclusion, impact assessment, and sampling design; logical consistency, lateral thinking, and case study analysis; prototyping, benchmarking, and bet hedging; effective writing, editing, graphic presentation, and information search; and public presentation and network building. Students are asked to prepare a poster of their work to present to the wider graduate community at the end of the semester. Listings of prior projects may be viewed at the Independent Research Capstone website.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted degree candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability, capstone track. Candidates must be in good academic standing, ready to graduate in May with only the capstone left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone tutorial, ENVR E-598, in the previous fall term. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.