Fundamentals of Sustainability

Fundamentals of Sustainability

Term
Course Number
DYNM 658 001
Course Code
DYNM658001
Course Key
67015
Day(s)
Monday
Time
5:30pm-8:10pm
Instructor
Prerequisites
Course permits for students outside of the DYNM, MES, or MSAG programs: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/graduate/dynamics/course-permit
Primary Program
Course Note
DYNM Category: F; DYNM Concentration: SD.
Course Description
This course is designed to provide an introduction to sustainability concepts and challenges through the lens of the world's most significant framework to address them: the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). The UN-SDGs serve as a blueprint for addressing the world's most critical social and environmental challenges, calling for urgent collaboration and change to reset the world on a path that operates within planetary boundaries and promotes global prosperity and security. This course will explore extraordinarily significant threats to the way of life of future generations--such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, health and nutrition, pollution, and resource depletion---with specific attention to sustainability challenges and solutions involving food, water, energy, oceans, waste, plastics, biodiversity loss, and urbanization. Further, the course will include focus on the importance of transitioning from linear to circular systems and maximizing life cycle resource utilization. Case studies of scalable sustainability practices and organizational leadership for sustainability will be reviewed with additional input from global thought leaders.
Subject Area Vocab