ES/SO 352 - Sustainability: Challenges and Responses

Sustainability is widely regarded as one of the key challenges facing humanity in the new millennium. Having achieved great success in attaining prosperity for a large proportion of mankind through industrial development, the consequences of unfettered growth have begun to catch up with us.  A diverse array of crises has begun to make itself felt, threatening many of the environmental and social support systems we take for granted.

The course “Sustainability: Challenges and Responses” is in full alignment with the IES Abroad Global Pillars: Sustainable living, Equitable living and Human wellbeing. A session is dedicated to the IES Abroad Sustainability Plan and all the course topics are rooted in the Sustainable Development Goals. Students can explore and practice different assessment tools like the Ecological Footprint, systems thinking, urban diversity and compacity, or the NEXUS approach (water-energy-food). These tools help them identify and start implementing ways to improve sustainability at different levels.

Global Pillars and class topics:

• Sustainable living: Sustainable Development Goals, climate change, ecological footprint, energy, sustainable food systems, the NEXUS approach, waste management.
• Equitable Living: Circular economy, sustainable businesses and responsible consumption, social sustainability, diversity and urban sustainability, inequalities between and within countries, local perspectives.
• Human Wellbeing: Education for sustainability, policies and programs, human health and nature-based solutions, adaptation to climate change strategies.

The course comprises four sections. In the first section (sessions 1 to 5), we introduce some key concepts that we will use along the whole course. In the second section (sessions 6 to 13), we will examine some of the tremendous challenges that we face, all around the globe: we will identify key problem areas, recognize their consequences, and attempt to understand the reasons for their persistence.  In the third section (Sessions 16 to 24), we will discuss various responses born at different levels involving policies, models and frameworks, technologies and social initiatives that may help us change course to a more promising and fulfilling future. This is all meant to guide students in the development of their final project.

“For over 70 years economics has been fixated on GDP, or national output, as its primary measure of progress. That fixation has been used to justify extreme inequalities of income and wealth coupled with unprecedented destruction of the living world. For the twenty-first century a far bigger goal is needed: meeting the human rights of every person within the means of our life-giving planet.”

― Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist.