SUSTAINABILITY

ENVIRST 326

Explores fundamentals of systems thinking and how to apply a systems-based approach to understanding and addressing sustainability issues ranging from climate change to environmental racism. Systems content is complemented with foundational skills in life cycle assessment (LCA), an inherently systems-based application of sustainability science that considers the full measure of resources used and waste created throughout the cradle-to-grave supply chain of a product or process. Life cycle and systems-based approaches are used to characterize both human and natural systems in local and global contexts. These approaches also will be integrated with sustainability concepts including the triple bottom line, industrial ecology, and the circular economy. Concepts include: life cycle stages, supply chains, stocks, flows, feedback loops, and unintended consequences.

ENVIRST 977

Review core concepts and history of sustainable development. Introduction to innovative frameworks to sustainable development, including integral framework, institutional analysis, and the often overlooked cultural, philosophical and psychological underpinnings of environmental decision-making. Analyze case studies and examples through the lens of the frameworks presented. Serves as a forum to present your research interests and examples regarding sustainable development.

ENVIRST 417

Analyze the concept of sustainability through current trends, including energy, air and water resources, agriculture, environmental measurement and analysis, modeling, remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems, the built environment, transportation, ecology, conservation and global climate change.

ENVIRST/ILS 255

Explore the foundations of sustainability using the UW-Madison campus as a living laboratory. Ground your feet on the UW-Madison campus and ask questions about the energy we use, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the land we occupy, the goods we purchase, and the waste we create. A blend of environmental sciences and studies. Use principles of chemistry, physics, and biology to understand the dynamics of our human and earth systems, but also explore societal issues like public health and social justice, all through the context of sustainability and the UW-Madison campus community.

ENVIRST 365

Focuses on the concepts and practices used to define systems while providing opportunities to build competencies with systems thinking to describe, assess, understand, and manage complexity from local to global scales. Considers a range of topics, including systems science, complexity, behavior of adaptive systems, networks, emergence, and patterns of organization. Develops skills to analyze how the design and implementation of integrated systems can contribute to solutions for pressing societal challenges. Examines social, physical, and natural systems, the rise of complexity, and achieving resilience in social-ecological systems. Examines the components of systems and analyzes how different ecological and social contexts influence system behavior. Explores and analyzes how decisions ramify to influence processes and outcomes at different levels of complexity.