Concentrations Go Back
Our program aims to give students the breadth of wisdom to be able to make a real difference in their own lives and the life of society. All students are required to take a set of core courses that cover the full range of Sustainable Living. In addition, students interested in going deeper into one area of sustainability have the option of following an educational track/concentration within a key area of concern to sustainable communities. Each track is comprised of at least four classes, designed to build on each other and give students a greater level of expertise in that particular subject. The tracks are as follows:
- Fundamentals of Sustainability
- Applied Soil Ecology
- Renewable Energy
- Agriculture and Food
- Sustainability and the Built Environment
Areas of Sustainability
Our track system allows students to specialize in a particular area of sustainability. See the video from our sister university, MUM
Fundamentals of Sustainability
The Fundamentals of Sustainability track starts from the awareness that “sustainability” is a concept that is
used differently by different people, institutions, and governments. In fact, it is a normative concept,
meaning that it is based on human definitions of “norms.”
Another way of putting this is that the various definitions of sustainability come from various ways of
answering, “what is it that we are choosing to sustain?” How a person, institution, or government answers
this question depends upon their understanding of equity, ethics, philosophy, and spirituality.
Therefore, the Fundamentals of Sustainability track focuses on these foundational belief structures as a way
of understanding the myriad conceptions of “sustainability” at work in the world today. Perhaps a more
eloquent way of putting it comes from Wendell Berry:
Before going further, we had better ask what is it that we humans need to know. We
need to know many things, of course, and many kinds of things. But let us be merely practical for the time
being and say that we need to know who we are, where we are, and what we must do to live. These
questions do not refer to discreet categories of knowledge. We are not likely to be able to answer one of
them without answering the other two. And all three must be well answered before we can answer well a
further practical question that is now pressing urgently upon us: How can we work without doing irreparable
damage to the world and its creatures, including ourselves? Or: How can we live without destroying the
sources of our life? (“The Way of Ignorance” p. 59)
Courses
- SL-F151 Deep Ecology
- SL-F305 Spirituality and Sustainability
- SL-F310 Social Justice and Sustainability
- SL-F401 Philosophies of Sustainability
Applied Soil Ecology
The conventional agriculture that we’re so familiar with produces high yields, but at the cost of an unsustainable impact on human health, the environment, the economy, and the social fabric. Surprisingly,
even organic agriculture is usually not fully sustainable. Enter the concept of the living soil, as developed by
Dr. Elaine Ingham, one of the world’s leading soil biology experts. Basically, it holds that with the proper
balance of soil bacteria, protozoa, fungi, nematodes, and microarthropods, any soil in the world can provide
all the nutrition required for a healthy crop.
This track teaches students how to prepare the compost and compost tea required to restore that nutrition
to soils, first through hands-on class work and then fieldwork on a practicing farm.
Courses
- SL-G195 Living Systems
- SL-G201 Ecology
- SL-A301 Living Soil
Renewable Energy
The energy track is for students who want to go into greater depth about energy and sustainability.
Currently, Energy 101 is offered every year, and Energy 201-203 are offered in two year rotations. Good basic math skills, including addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division, working with decimals and fractions, basic trigonometric relation of angles, areas, and volumes, basic algebra, and simple statistics like averages and mean, are needed for deep understanding and success in these courses. The suggested sequence of courses for the energy track and descriptions of each course are listed below:
Courses
- Energy 101: Energy and Sustainability: The Energy Basis of Humans and Nature
- Energy 201: Renewable Energy Technology: Solar, Wind, Water Prerequisites: Energy 101, Math for sustainable Living, Physics and Chemistry for Sustainable Living or permission of Instructor
- Energy 301: Modeling and Monitoring Energy Flow Prerequisites: Energy 101, Math for Sustainable Living, Physics and Chemistry for Sustainable Living or permission of Instructor
Agriculture and Food
The agricultural track is for students interested in working to create food systems that nourish and sustain
communities. Students learn about sustainable agriculture, organic agriculture and going beyond organic to
food production that is regenerative – an agriculture that renews the land, people and communities.
Students learn about the living soil, taught by world-renowned soil biologist Elaine Ingham.
Season extension is another important subject for temperate climates; students learn about greenhouses,
passive solar hoop-houses, low tunnels and other ways to grow food earlier and later in the season. A farm
planning course enables student to create a business plan for an economically sustainable farm. Practical
hands-on courses and internships on organic farms give students real life experience.
Possible job opportunities for graduates of this track include: organic farmer, farm manager or assistant
farm manager, community garden manager, Farm to School coordinator, Buy Fresh Buy Local coordinator,
School Garden Program Manager.
Courses
- Organic Agriculture SL-A101
- Season Extension SL-A201
- Biodynamic Agriculture SL-A202
- Planning a Sustainable Farm SL-A401
Sustainability and the Built Environment
Everything we humans create or affect using physical materials—buildings, roads, bridges and landscapes,
from urban sprawl to industrialized agriculture—can be considered part of the built environment. Gaining a
holistic view of the environmental and social impacts of our constructed world is an important part of
sustainability.
The track’s primary focus is on buildings. In their constituent materials, their construction, and in the course
of their useful life, buildings are responsible for a large percentage of all energy and resource use. Yet, even
in the face of increasing energy costs and the depletion of global resources, most buildings built today are
constructed to technological standards set fifty years ago.
The four courses in this track are designed to give students practical experience in the newest methods,
materials and design philosophies of “green” construction—how to build energy efficient, healthy, affordable
homes and other structures to support the vision of sustainable community living.
Courses
- SL—B101 Sustainability, Buildings and the Built Environment
- SL—B201 Natural Building
- SL—B202 Eco-cities
- SL—B301 High Performance Green Building: Shaping the Future with Regenerative Design