Certificate in Sustainability Solutions

Stephanie Pfirman, Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus

The proposed Certificate in Sustainability Solutions prepares students to apply sustainability principles and approaches to address complex human and environmental challenges.

Through 6 courses, including an applied project, the Sustainability Solutions certificate offers practical, skill-based experience positioning students perfectly for today’s job market.

Goals of the Program

Students with a Certificate in Sustainability Solutions will have the knowledge base and skill sets to bring sustainability solutions to corporate, government, and NGO sectors. This action-oriented certificate complements knowledge-oriented Bachelors, Masters and PhD programs, and will be of particular interest to STEM majors who want to broaden their capacity to effect change. The focus on sustainability competencies — see Learning Outcomes — highlights the need to integrate foundational, humanistic, and meta knowledge in co-designing solutions with partners/clients. Foundational knowledge is assembling and making accessible the content necessary for decision-making. Humanistic knowledge spans the context and culture of the specific problem to be addressed, including alignment of values. Meta knowledge is the process by which stakeholders are engaged to move toward action through reviewing and interpreting information, anticipating alternative futures, and designing strategic approaches including collaboration and partnerships.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the program will develop:

Foundational knowledge:

• Systems Thinking Competence: Systems thinking means analyzing how things relate to and affect one another in a holistic way. Systems thinking focuses on the way that a system’s parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems.

Humanistic knowledge:

• Values Thinking (Normative) Competence: Values thinking means understanding how culture, tradition and values influence decisions. Values thinking recognizes that different people have different values, and that understanding each other’s values can help break through barriers of prejudice, politics and culture.

Meta knowledge:

• Futures Thinking (Anticipatory) Competence: Futures thinking means envisioning desirable and possible futures. Futures thinking requires anticipating the potential consequences — both positive and negative — of human activity, and managing that activity to progress toward a more sustainable future.
• Strategic Thinking Competence: Strategic thinking means developing a plan to achieve a particular vision. When working toward a sustainable future, strategic thinking prioritizes progress toward long-term goals, rather than reacting to problems with short-term fixes.
• Interpersonal (Collaboration) Competence: Collaborative competency means working effectively with others to achieve a goal. Especially when combined with values thinking, collaborative competency is a powerful tool to find the most productive way to communicate with others and develop strategies and solutions.

Assessing Program Outcomes

A distinguishing element of the Sustainability Solutions certificate program is the culminating experience, in which students design and implement a project that applies sustainability principles and approaches to their chosen career field. Students team up with a company, a government agency, or an NGO to co-develop a real-world sustainability solution.

Assessment of program outcomes is through applying a rubric for the sustainability competencies to the culminating experience in five categories (on a scale of undeveloped / deficient / basic / competent / nuanced):

1. Systems thinking
2. Anticipatory thinking
3. Strategic thinking
4. Normative thinking
5. Collaborative/interpersonal

Demonstrative Program Element 

The course sequence builds from required core classes in foundational/systems and humanistic/normative thinking to meta knowledge electives encompassing anticipatory, strategic and collaborative/interpersonal competencies, followed by the applied project.

A full description is provided of the course sequence, including examples of course options to fulfill the requirements.