Project Opportunity
The Accelerating Sustainability into the Curriculum project was launched to provide coordinated, institution-level support for integrating sustainability into undergraduate programs at the University of Waterloo.
This project sought to address the challenge of integrating sustainability into undergraduate curricula in a way that was coordinated, scalable, and institutionally supported. While previously, sustainability appeared in some Waterloo programs, efforts to integrate sustainability were typically slow, siloed, and reliant on informal or bilateral initiatives between departments, limiting broader impact.
As sustainability became increasingly relevant across disciplines—and aligned with the university’s emerging Global Futures framework—there was a clear opportunity to move beyond isolated efforts toward a shared, flexible approach that could support both foundational and discipline-specific learning.
Teaching and Learning Innovation
This project sought to create a framework, tools, and collaborative processes that would enable undergraduate programs to meaningfully and more easily embed sustainability into their curricula, while also serving as a model for how the institution could respond to other emerging areas of knowledge considered important for all undergraduate students. To accomplish this, the project was approached in two phases, each building new structures, tools, and communities to support sustainability integration.
Phase 1 (Winter 2023 - Winter 2024): Planning, consultation, and framework design
-
Developed a detailed project plan and hired a dedicated staff lead.
-
Convened a cross-campus working group to guide the project and ensure broad representation.
-
Conducted extensive consultations with 42 of 49 academic departments, as well as student engagement (including a survey with 380 student respondents across all six faculties).
-
Synthesized findings into a Curriculum Integration Report with 11 institutional recommendations.
Phase 2 (Spring 2024 - Fall 2025): Implementation and scaling
During this phase the Sustainability Office, supported by three co-op students, advanced key recommendations including:
-
Launch of a Curriculum Integration Framework that can be applied in any discipline.
-
Developed an online Curriculum Integration Toolkit.
-
Created and piloted Sustainability Integration in Curriculum (SIC) Grants to support department-level integration efforts.
-
Designed and launched the Sustainability Leadership Certificate, a co-curricular credential hosted in LEARN that allows students to track and be recognized for sustainability-related learning and experiences.
-
Established a Community of Practice for instructors and staff, with sessions in 2025 focused on sharing practices, exploring case studies, and troubleshooting common challenges with respect to integrating sustainability into academic disciplines.
-
Piloted a Sustainability Literacy Assessment (Fall 2024) to gauge campus knowledge on sustainability topics.
Incubation Timeline: January 2023 - December 2025
Project Goals
Enhance campus-wide coordination for sustainable curriculum collaborations.
Increase interest and commitment to sustainability/climate integration in the undergraduate curriculum.
Create a flexible framework to support departmental reflection and planning.
Develop supportive resources for implementation.
Project Team
Mat Thijssen, Director, Sustainability Office
Mallory Ball, Curriculum Integration Assistant (Co-op), Sustainability Office
Jana Khanfer, Curriculum Integration Assistant (Co-op), Sustainability Office
Incubator Project Team
Key Insights and Evidence
The project generated a strong evidence base about both the demand for and feasibility of sustainability integration at Waterloo.
Who participated?
-
42 of 49 academic departments participated in consultations, with representation from all six faculties. Most expressed strong interest in curriculum integration and support for a flexible framework approach.
-
380 students completed the Phase 1 consultation survey.
-
Over 75% of student survey respondents indicated that they want to learn about sustainability.
-
Over 92% of student survey respondents agreed sustainability will impact their careers in both the short and long term.
-
-
A cross-campus advisory committee ensured representation from academic and support units.
-
300+ students registered for the Sustainability Leadership Certificate.
-
~450 people (including 316 undergraduate students) completed the Sustainability Literacy Assessment.
-
Six departments received SIC grants to explore program-level integration.
What we experienced:
From these engagements, several key themes emerged:
Students clearly see sustainability as tied to their careers and future, and departments are interested in doing more—even if they are at different starting points.
Academic departments valued the framework’s adaptability rather than a mandatory “one course fits all” model.
Support from the President, TII fundings, and the creation of tangible supports signaled institutional commitment and gave local champions something concrete to work with.
The advisory group’s cross-campus composition gave the project credibility and helped build trust. At the same time, academic departments retained agency and leadership over their own curriculum decisions.
Outcome
This project has led to several concrete, ongoing institutional practices and recognitions. The following elements are now part of Waterloo’s ongoing sustainability and curriculum ecosystem, primarily supported by the Sustainability Office:
-
Curriculum Integration Framework and Toolkit – publicly available, used as a structured starting point for departments and programs exploring sustainability integration.
-
Sustainability Leadership Certification – continues on LEARN.
-
Sustainability Integration in Curriculum Grants (SIC) - ongoing as a funding stream within the Sustainability Action Fund, supporting departments in program-wide integration work.
-
Community of Practice – periodic sessions to share practices, resources, and lessons learned.
-
Sustainability Literacy Assessment – planned biennial updates to monitor trends in campus sustainability knowledge.
Together, these outcomes demonstrate how Teaching Innovation Incubator funding helped Waterloo move from scattered sustainability efforts toward a clearer, more coherent institutional approach—while also revealing what will be needed to sustain and deepen this work in the years ahead.