Sustainability &amp; Policy

Global Environmental Management

Learn about the best environmental technologies for a sustainable development and how they are managed in various settings around the world. This course gives you an opportunity to learn about global trends that influence our environment and the living conditions and how different management systems and approaches that are used around the world to manage the environment. This includes current environmental technologies built for the environment and technologies for sustainable soil management, groundwater protection methods and integrated Water resources management.

Introduction to Sustainability

This course introduces the academic approach of Sustainability and explores how today’s human societies can endure in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations. The course focuses on key knowledge areas of sustainability theory and practice, including population, ecosystems, global change, energy, agriculture, water, environmental economics and policy, ethics, and cultural history. This subject is of vital importance, seeking as it does to uncover the principles of the long-term welfare of all the peoples of the planet. As sustainability is a cross-disciplinary field of study, this foundation requires intellectual breadth: as I describe it in the class text, understanding our motivations requires the humanities, measuring the challenges of sustainability requires knowledge of the sciences (both natural and social), and building solutions requires technical insight into systems (such as provided by engineering, planning, and management).

Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, the UN launched the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adopted by 193 member states, the goals represent an important international step in setting humanity on a trajectory towards sustainable development. Within this course, you will get a historical overview of how sustainability has been understood, as well as a thorough introduction to the SDGs – what they are, how progress can be measured, and how the SDGs are relevant for the management of the global systems supporting humanity. The course will examine how various societal actors are responding to and implementing the SDGs. While all of the SDGs are essential to sustainable development, SDG 13, Climate Action, is usually perceived as the most urgent in terms of the need for a swift implementation on a global scale. Therefore, particular focus is given to this SDG. Through the course, you will gain up-to-date knowledge of the current understanding of human impacts on the Earth at the planetary level. Progress towards establishing global management of human interactions with the climate system within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is also discussed. The course is designed and taught by Professor Katherine Richardson, who is a member of the 15-person panel appointed by the UN General Secretary in 2016 to write the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report. In each lecture, Katherine interviews experts who provide insights relevant to the topic at hand.

Sustainability

Coursera course: Sustainability Consulting

📚Books(2)

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Sustainability

Sustainability - A book resource

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Drawdown

Drawdown - A book resource

🌐Websites(7)

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Stockholm Resilience Centre

Planetary boundaries and policy insights

World Resources Institute

Research and policy tools for sustainability

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Official UN sustainability policy framework

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and policy resources

sdgs.un.org

Official United Nations portal for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It outlines the 17 goals, targets, and indicators and offers progress updates, data resources, and guidance for policy makers, researchers, and practitioners.

drawdown.org

Drawdown.org is a hub of evidence-based climate solutions from Project Drawdown. It features profiles and data on 100+ solutions across sectors (energy, land, food, buildings, and more), plus interactive tools, case studies, and policy guidance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

iisd.org

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is a global think tank focused on sustainable development policy, climate, energy, trade, and governance. Its website offers research reports, policy briefs, data tools, news, events, and practical resources for policymakers and researchers.