Certificate in Sustainability

Certificate in Sustainability

Sustainability Course Offerings for Winter 2024

The purpose of this program is to provide students with a basic structure for decisions about sustainability and crafting sustainable livelihoods and lifestyles. Implemented in the Faculty of Arts, a Certificate in Sustainability is open to students enrolled in all faculties, including the professional faculties. Students would need to choose one course from each of the six course categories outlined below with no more than three courses being chosen from any given discipline (to ensure exposure to a range of disciplines and methods).

1. The Sustainability Problem: Courses in this area provide students with a general introduction to the idea of sustainability/sustainable development (and related concepts) that have emerged in relation to a common problem facing humanity, namely, that current human activities have eroded the natural resources upon which these very human activities depend if they are to continue into the future. Students gain a general appreciation of the normative goals sustainability seeks to fulfill and its recognition of empirical constraints, particularly those of natural systems, that limit or restrict the ways in which these goals might be fulfilled.

2. Dimensions of Human Sustainability: Courses in this area explore important elements of human well-being and quality of life and the implications for life within a global community of each person being able to live a decent, dignified life. Implied social constraints and responsibilities found in different theories of justice (e.g., political justice, social justice, distributive justice, intra and inter-generational justice) are potentially explored along with associated normative principles of participation by individuals and communities, especially indigenous communities. The implications of a lack of well-being in specific areas including diverse forms of poverty and vulnerability and key indicators of well-being can also be explored.

3. Dimensions of Environmental Sustainability: Courses in this area provide students with an understanding of complex natural systems at diverse biological scales. The ethical status of natural objects and systems that potentially shape and constrain human interaction with the natural environment are potentially examined. What may be required to sustain these systems over time (such as promoting ecosystem resilience and biodiversity), key indicators of environmental sustainability, and an understanding of how these systems may generally be degraded, especially by patterns of human activity, are also potentially explored.

4. Human Sustainability Options: Courses in this area explore specific problems and issues critical to sustaining human communities and factors that have emerged as priorities in sustainability discourse related to social, cultural, and economic sustainability. Strategic options related to advancing sustainability in the given area(s) are explored.

5. Environmental Sustainability Options: Courses in this area explore specific problems and issues critical to sustaining environmental systems (living and non-living) that have emerged as priorities in sustainability discourse related to environmental sustainability. Strategic options related to advancing sustainability in the given area(s) are explored.

6. Sustainability in Practice: Courses in this area provide students with an opportunity to practically address sustainability issues in a grounded way within a given community (e.g. local living laboratories) and/or organizational context (e.g. policies and/or programs). Practical sustainability projects employing specific forms of community service, engagement and/or research are employed. Knowledge, capabilities, and skills appropriate to engaging sustainability in the particular context (e.g. qualitative and quantitative research tools, policy analysis, report writing/presentations, use of technologies) are important parts of such a course.

Required Electives Courses

Credit Hours	Certificate in Sustainability required courses
3.0	One approved elective from the Sustainability Problem course list
3.0	One approved elective from the Dimensions of Human Sustainability course list
3.0	One approved elective from the Dimensions of Environmental Sustainability course list
3.0	One approved elective from the Human Sustainability Options course list
3.0	One approved elective from the Environmental Sustainability Options course list
3.0	One approved elective from the Sustainability in Action course list
At least one class in the certificate must be at the 300-level. No more than three classes from a single department can be counted in the certificate. At least one class in the certificate must involve a semester-long community engagement project (see approved electives course lists). No more than two classes from a student’s major can be counted in the certificate.
18.0	Total - 65% PGPA required

Approved Electives Courses

Classes incorporating community service through Campion Engaged Learning are indicated with a *. Classes incorporating community service and/or research through Luther College are indicated with a **.
1. The Sustainability Problem	ENST 200/GEOG 226 - Introduction to Environmental Studies/Issues PHIL 282 - Philosophical Issues in Sustainable Development SOC 230 - Nature & Society
2. Dimensions of Human Sustainability	INDG 100 - Introduction to Indigenous Studies INDG 225 - Principles of Indigenous Law JS 100 - Introduction to Justice JS 280 - Introduction to Social Justice PHIL 270 - Ethics PHIL 271 - Social & Political Philosophy RLST 275 - Women in World Religions SOC 208 - Inequality & Social Justice SOC 211 - Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Canada SOC 214 - The Sociology of Indigenous People in Canada WGST 100 - Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies WGST 300 - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
3. Dimensions of Environmental Sustainability	BIOL 150 - Biological Principles GEOG 120 - Human Geography GEOL 102 - Environmental Geology PHIL 275 - Environmental Ethics PSYC 340 - Psychology & Environmental Change SOC 330 - Sociology of the Environment (prereq: one 200-level SOC course)
4. Human Sustainability Options	ANTH 340 - Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems ECON 253 - Health Care in Canada ECON 281 - Wages & Employment in Canada HUM 260 - Utopian Literature, Thought, and Experiment (prereq: ENGL 100) **IDS 101 - Interdisciplinary Studies (Agency & Global Citizenship) INDG 200 - Introduction to Intercultural Indigenous Issues INDG 201 - Introduction to Contemporary Indigenous Issues IS 200 - Feeding the World and Cooling the Planet JS 317 - Justice, Democracy, and Social Change (prereq: JS 100 & JS 090) PHIL 272 - Contemporary Moral Issues PSCI 344 - Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment SOC 314 - Studies in Development and Underdevelopment (prereq: 200-level SOC) SOC 333 - The Sociology of Disaster (prereq: 200-level SOC) SOC 355 - The Global Food System (prereq: 200-level SOC) WGST 201 - Women, the environment, and change WGST 206 - Feminism and Activism
5. Environmental Sustainability Options	BIOC 200 - Bioactive Plants & Culture (prereq: one of the following courses at the 100-level - ANTH, BIOL, CHEM, ENGL, INDG, or PSYC) BIOL 276 - Environmental Biology (prereq: BIOL 150 & ENST 200/GEOG 226) ECON 273 - Environmental Economics (prereq: ECON 100 or 15 credit hours) ECON 274 - Ecological Economics (prereq: ECON 100 or 15 credit hours) ECON 275 - Energy Economics (prereq: ECON 100 or 15 credit hours) ECON 373 - Cimate Change Policy (prereq: ECON 201 or ECON 273) INDG 236 - Indigenous Economic, Environmental, and Geographic Systems
6. Sustainability in Practice	ARTS 301 - AIESEC Global Internship **IDS 290 - Ecomuseums - Exploring Place **NSLI100 - Foundations of the Nonprofit Sector **NSLI200 - Nonprofit Advocacy and Community Development (prereq: NSLI100) SOST 307 - Applied Methods - Qualitative Approaches

For more information, please contact Dr. Roger Petry, Professor of Philosophy at Luther College at the University of Regina, at 1-306-585-5295 or roger.petry@uregina.ca or Dr. Katherine Arbuthnott, Professor of Psychology at Campion College at the University of Regina, at 1-306-359-1239 or katherine.arbuthnott@uregina.ca.