Purpose: Build a general foundation of what sustainability means in the context of the department and the discipline
Process: Departments conduct conversations to discern how faculty members interpret sustainability for themselves, their research, and ultimately the department.
Outcomes: Your department may decide to draft a formal definition of sustainability to guide teaching in the department and build competencies from, or simply provide guidance for individual faculty members in the department. Ultimately, understandings of sustainability will need to be revisited over time as the field advances and integration grows deeper.
Resources: Include common frameworks, models, and approaches to defining sustainability. Future resources will also include connections to Indigenous understandings of sustainability.
Guiding Questions:
- How can sustainability be understood?
- What are the ways of thinking and framing?
Resources
Common Sustainability Frameworks
Summary: An outline of common sustainability frameworks, their purpose, context, and uses. This includes Sustainable Development Goals, Environment Social and Governance, and Planetary Boundaries frameworks.
Purpose: Provide context on common ways of thinking about sustainability
Ways of Framing Sustainability
Summary: A description of different structures for considering sustainability including three pillars, overlapping circles, and embedded models.
Purpose: Provide context on the potential relationships between different elements of sustainability.
Example Definitions of Sustainability
Summary: A collection of understandings and definitions of sustainability used by different groups in different contexts.
Purpose: Provide information on what peers have landed on and what a potential definition or understanding may look and sound like. This could also help determine what pieces align with your team and department.