Strive to be a leader in sustainable practices. By focusing on sustainability electives, students achieve an understanding of modern sustainability practices and how to realistically implement them in the world. Students who choose this path benefit from Findlay's ongoing sustainability initiatives including solar and wind turbine powered student housing, a biodiesel converter, a 54-acre natural habitat used as a living laboratory and activities including the Ohio Student Sustainability Leader Conference .
Skills for this Work:
- Passion for sustainable practices
- Persuasive argumentation
- Awareness of current culture
- Communicate scientific principles
- Financial competency
What These Jobs Do:
- Influence companies to adopt new technology
- Investigate updates to technology
- Imagine innovative practices
- Communicate the importance of sustainability
- Create new sustainability strategies to position companies for new growth
Course Offerings for Sustainability
Environmental & Resource Economics - Transition to Sustainability (3 hrs)Examine how people make choices when their unlimited wants meet scarce resources. Human technology has developed far enough to challenge the limits of the finite globe. This course is intended to provide students with an understanding of if or how finite resources of the globe can be sustained for the future within our present economic system of globalization.
Energy for a Sustainable Future (3 hrs)
Explore different types of renewable and alternative energy. Topics will include renewable energy and the use, design, and application of solar, wind, tidal, and biomass energy.
Sustainability: The Human Footprint - Global Environmental Change in the Anthropocene (3 hrs)
This course is a study of human impact on our larger biophysical environment; an impact that has grown to the point where we are now living in the ‘Anthropocene’, an era in which humans have become a key driver in the Earth’s system. Instructors will focus on the ways in which humans modify and interfere with the functioning of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the atmosphere, the lithosphere, and the hydrosphere. The fundamental objective of the course is to provide students with a modern perspective on our growing human population, the increasing demands for resources to supply our consumptive economy, and the impact of local, regional, and global pollution.
Sustainability: Systems and Impacts (3 hrs)
Gain the perspective of an industry professional by viewing sustainability in regards to product life cycle assessment, waste, supply chain management, just-in-time manufacturing, and the environmental impacts of these concepts. Students will be introduced to and apply the principles of life cycle assessment in business, determine ways to reduce waste, analyze waste types to determine recycling/reuse options, and how to effectively report on these concepts to business leaders.
Technology Gaps to Sustainable Development (3 hrs)
Study the use of technology and its gaps as applied to sustainable development in the U.S. and abroad. Students will be introduced to and apply the principles of the Human Development Index and its use in sustainable development. The focus will be on the use of technology in the past and in “visioning” a better future with better technology, a better future with more environmentally conscious technology to minimize the impact of today on future generations.
Sustainability: Moving Principles to Action (3 hrs)
Move from being the student to educating as a teacher. Learning alone will not change how or why things are done in the world today, but through application and education of residents of Earth, differences can be transformed into strengths that will provide enough for today as well as generations to follow. Topics of discussion and education will be focused, but will not be limited to, the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
Sustainability: Past, Present & Future (3 hrs)
Explore the historic and current trends in sustainability and analyze the impact that they are having on a global scale. From this trend analysis, students will theorize what future trends should be.