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Graduate Certificate - CSR/Sustainability at St Michael's College (Video)

August 05, 2017 Add Comment Edit

The Graduate Certificate in CSR/Sustainability at the University of St. Michael's (University of Toronto) is a program that accommodates people who are working full time.

There are already 200 graduates of this program from around the world. They work for a wide range of organizations including for-profit, not-for-profit and government organizations. The personal and professional benefits of education are numerous. A strong business case that can be made for higher learning. Click here for a business case presentation (PDF) or here for a program impact assessment as described by program graduates.

Who attends

The 2017/2018 Cohort includes: The Co-operators, OpenText, Goldcorp, the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, North America Fur Auctions, Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance, Lafayette Economic Development Authority, the United Way.

Curriculum

Leading tools are incorporated in the Certificate in CSR/Sustainability curriculum. The program is advised by a council of business leaders who keep these curriculums practical and at the forefront of thought leadership. The certificate curriculum has been aligned with the body of knowledge for the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP).

The course reviews 60 best practices for embedding CSR/Sustainability in an organization's culture. It also provides access to leading industry research, assessment, tools and best practices. Specific items in the curriculum include a change management simulation used by Fortune 500 companies called Experience Change™. This is an expert-guided experience that teaches both the "what to do" and "how to be" of successful change. Students are also afforded hands-on practice in an engaging, low-risk simulation experience.

Featured Faculty

Faculty includes global thought leaders on the forefront of Sustainability and CSR

BOB WILLARD, PhD - Internationally Respected Author, Speaker and Sustainability Leader. Strategy & Business Case

KAZ FLINN, CSR Certificate Harvard Business School, B.Arts in Mass Communications (Scotiabank, Rogers, CBSR). Governance & Implementation.

WES GEE, Master Sustainable Business, Certificate in Cleaner Production, B.Commerce (CBSR, Stantec, The Works Design). CSR/Sustainability Reporting

Practical Capstone Project

In this "work as you learn" program participants gain core competencies for CSR/Sustainability through a work based Capstone Project. This field work gives participants direct CSR/sustainability experience.

Video Overview

Here is a video of a Webinar for the Graduate Certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility/Sustainability at the University of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto.

For more information contact: Kathryn Cooper, Program Manager, Graduate Certificate in CSR/Sustainability. Email: kathryncooper@xplornet.ca

Click here to apply.

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Make sure to see the article titled, "Comprehensive Green School Information and Resources." It contains links to over 350 posts covering everything you need to know about sustainable academics, green school buildings, student eco-initiatives, and college rankings as well as a wide range of related information and resources.

Course Certificate - Leading Organizations & Change at MIT Sloan School of Management

August 04, 2017 Add Comment Edit

MIT Sloan School of Management is collaborating with world renowned faculty to offer instruction in the prescient realm of organizational change. In today's complex interconnected world an organization's strategies and tactics must be encouraged to evolve. Course alterations are essential in response to changing business environments. In the face a barrage of unprecedented challenges, an organizations ability to pivot on a dime has become critical.

Organizations must learn to be more nimble so that they can make rapid course corrections. However, implementing new directions and altering course is a daunting task. Institutions and employees are commonly steeped in social and organizational cultures that often seem to resist change.

To help navigate these challenges MIT has put together a course that gives people the information they need to help organizations to transition. This course provides frameworks, models, and perspectives that are meant to be immediately applicable.

As explained by MIT:

"Organizations today are large, complex, difficult to understand and even more difficult to manage. To be successful, managers must have a strong knowledge of the social networks that connect people in organizations and how to leverage them. They should identify where the real power and influence of the organization lies. In order to implement successful initiatives, managers need to navigate organizational barriers to change."

The course titled, "Leading Organizations & Change" gives students the knowledge to navigate the sources of power and influence within an organization. In addition to management techniques, the course also explores ways of dealing with organizational impediments.

MIT describes Leading Organizations & Change, as, "a thought provoking course with challenging work assignments, practical frameworks based on MIT research, as well as a powerful change management simulation to immerse you in the complexities and nuances of effective change."

The program's globally connected classrooms facilitate peer to peer learning. Graduates will build new networks and earn a certificate from MIT Sloan School of Management. The two month course starts on September 22, 2017. It requires 2 - 4 hours per week and costs $1,200.

The faculty is led by John Van Maanen, he is the Erwin H. Schell Professor of Management and a Professor of Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has served as the faculty chair of the MIT Sloan Fellows Program at MIT and as the head of the Organization Studies Group within the Sloan School. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including, Tales of the Field. His publications include also methodological studies on writing organizational ethnographies and on power relations in the workplace.

For further information about the course contact:

Asia Pacific: admissions.apac@emeritus.org
Europe, Middle East & Africa: admissions.emea@emeritus.org
North America & South America: admissions.americas@emeritus.org

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Make sure to see the article titled, "Comprehensive Green School Information and Resources." It contains links to over 350 posts covering everything you need to know about sustainable academics, green school buildings, student eco-initiatives, and college rankings as well as a wide range of related information and resources.

Comprehensive Green School Information and Resources 2010 - 2016

August 03, 2017 Add Comment Edit

In 2017 the Green Market Oracle (GMO) is reprising its annual Green School Series. Over the course of the last seven years the GMO has published more than 350 articles related to environmentally oriented academics, sustainable infrastructure and green initiatives in pedagogical settings. In the coming weeks we will post articles on a daily basis related to the green schools and sustainability focused academics. These efforts contribute to the growth of a well informed population, a sustainable economy and ultimately a healthier planet. This focus is a key part of the GMO's mission to help facilitate the convergence of sustainability and the global environment.

The 2016 Edition of The GMO's Green School Series

In the seventh installment of the GMO's Green School Series there were a total of 32 articles. This comprises a review of the growing green schools movement, best practices and what sustainability professionals need to know. It also includes information on schools, degrees, accreditation, early education, ranking, tools, solutions, and awards.

Click here to access the 2016 edition of The GMO's Green School Series.

The 2015 Edition of The GMO's Green School Series

In the sixth installment of the GMO's Green School Series there were a total of 26 articles. This includes a review of green educational opportunities at universities and colleges, different types of related accreditation (degrees, programs, and certificates) early education, student led fossil fuel divestment initiatives, water stewardship efforts and resources, energy and infrastructure in green schools, rankings of the most sustainable colleges and universities and resource tools. .

Click here to access the 2015 edition of The GMO's Green School Series.

The 2014 Edition of The GMO's Green School Series

In the fifth installment of the GMO's Green School Series there were a total of 69 articles. This includes posts covering general information, educational programs and courses, online education, sustainability initiatives, school rankings, resources, green building and campuses, retrofits, renewable energy, fossil fuel divestment, competitions and awards.

Click here to access the 2014 edition of The Green Market Oracle's Green School Series.

The 2013 Edition of The GMO's Green School Series

In the fourth installment of the GMO's Green School Series there were a total of 26 articles. This includes posts on green school rankings, educational programs and courses, buildings and campuses, fossil fuel divestment, renewable energy, campus competitions and fellowships.

Click here to access the 2013 edition of The GMO's Green School Series.

The 2012 Edition of The GMO's Green School Series

In the third installment of the GMO's Green School Series there are a total of 65 articles. This includes posts on the value of green education, programs and courses, buildings and campuses, support programs, teaching resources, and business schools.

Click here to access the 2012 edition of The GMO's Green School Series.

The 2011 Edition of The GMO's Green School Series

In the second installment of the GMO's Green School Series there are a total of 70 articles. This includes posts on sustainable education, school buildings, grants, programs, awards.

Click here to access the 2011 edition of The GMO's Green School Series.

The 2010 Edition of The GMO's Green School Series

In the first installment of the GMO's Green School Series there are a total of 60 articles. to access posts on green student resources, the growth of green education, masters degrees, doctorate degrees, undergraduate degrees and classes, primary and secondary schools, China and Asia, buildings, and information on sustainability officers.

Click here to access the 2010 edition of The GMO's Green School Series.

Stay tuned for more green school information and resources this year. From now until the end of September, The GMO will feature posts as part of the 2017 edition of the Green School Series.

GMO's Annual Green Schools Posts in 2016

August 01, 2017 Add Comment Edit

Each summer and fall the Green Market Oracle (GMO) publishes a series of posts focused on the growing green schools movement. In 2016 this comprised both buildings and academics, it also includes best practices and information useful to sustainability professionals, students, instructors and other stakeholders. In addition to green buildings, this series reviews hundreds of sustainability-focused schools and accreditation. Last year GMO published 32 articles in this series bringing the total to more than 350. In 2016 the predominant themes included early education, tools, resources and awards.

General

The Growth of Green Schools in 2016
Best Practices in Green Schools (Video)
What Aspiring Sustainability Professionals Should Learn in College

Schools and accreditation

150 Sustainability and Environmental Masters Degrees
Investing in Education Pays Lucrative Dividends
Institutions that offer Sustainability Focused Certificates and Degrees as Recommended By Linked-In Professionals
Adler University - Degrees for a More Just Society
Celebrating ASU's School of Sustainability (Video)
Green Futures: Sustainability in Philadelphia Schools
Sustainability Education: Teaching for sustainability (Videos)
Studying Sustainability at Hampshire College
MA in Global Sustainability at The University of South Florida
Hampshire College Going 100% Solar Saving Money and Reducing Emissions
MIT Gets a Fossil Fuel Divestment Letter from Scientists and Advocates

Ranking

Greenest Colleges in America: The Princeton Review
World Leading Canadian Sustainability Focused MBAs
The Top 50 Greenest Universities in America (Sierra Magazine)
Top 50 Green Colleges (Princeton Review 2015)

Early education and impediments

Teaching Kids in Nature May be our Best Hope for the Future
Energy Efficiency: Kids Teaching Parents
Bullfrog Power Contest Getting Kids Talking about Energy
The Right Wants to Crush Climate Science in Our Schools
Kids are Being Denied a Science Based Climate Education

Tools resources and solutions

Footprint Calculator: Measure Your Schools Footprint or Measure Your Own
Natural Light in Schools: Architectural Resource for Daylighting
Free Educational Resources at the Supply Chain Sustainability School (Video)
25 Back to School Books to be Well Informed on Climate, the Environment and Sustainability
Sustainable Educational Solutions from Sustainia

Awards

Space to Grow Wins the Green School Award for Collaboration
The Best of the 2016 Green Schools Honorees (Video)
Green Schools Honorees 2016 (USGBC and the GSNN)

Make sure to see the article titled, "Comprehensive Green School Information and Resources." It contains links to hundreds of articles covering everything you need to know about sustainable academics, student eco-initiatives, green school buildings, and college rankings as well as a wide range of related information and resources.

Event - Faculty of Environmental Studies Graduate Program Information Session (York University)

November 01, 2015 Add Comment Edit

York University will be holding a Faculty of Environmental Studies Graduate Program Information Session on November 3, 2015 (12:30 - 2:30 pm) and November 26, 2015 (6:00 - 7:30 pm). These information sessions will take place in Room 109, of the Health, Nursing and Environmental Studies (HNES) Building, York University, Keele Campus, Toronto, Ontario.

There will also be an online webinar on December 2, 2015. There will be an online webinar on December 2, 2015.

At this event participants will learn details about York University's Master in Environmental Studies (MES) program and expert tips on how to apply to grad school.

Click here to register for the Information Sessions online. You will receive an email confirmation/reminder a few days before the event. You are very welcome to drop by the Information Sessions without registering in advance.

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Make sure to see the article titled, "Comprehensive Green School Information and Resources." It contains links to over 300 articles covering everything you need to know about sustainable academics, student eco-initiatives, green school buildings, and college rankings as well as a wide range of related information and resources.

Webinar - Health and Equity in Action: A Case Study On How Atlanta-Based Colleges & Universities Are Benefiting Their Communities

December 04, 2013 Add Comment Edit

The webinar, "Health and Equity in Action: A Case Study On How Atlanta-Based Colleges & Universities Are Benefiting Their Communities," will take place on December 18th, 2pm EST. Join AASHE, the Center for Green Schools at USGBC and Second Nature for a webcast on health and equity. Panelists from Emory University and Spelman College will discuss the integrated process and climate adaptation to consider the campus’ role in addressing human health issues locally.

Using the city of Atlanta as a case study, the panel will look at how local colleges are meeting the needs of current students and community members as well as future generations through wellness programs, transportation initiatives, agricultural relationships and regional collaboratives, among other efforts. Different campus cultures will explored related to how their institutional story is unfolding to meet their sustainability goals on campus and within the city.

Click here for more information or to register.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Event - Campus Sustainability Day (CSD)

October 06, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Campus Sustainability Day (CSD) is a nation wide event that will take place on October 23, 2013. Since 2003, CSD has been a time to reflect on the success of the sustainability movement in higher education. The theme for Campus Sustainability Day 2013 is “Climate Adaptation: Resilient Campuses & Communities.” The supporting organizations of CSD invite you to join this year’s keynote broadcast, organize and share events on your campus, and engage in the conversation.

Campuses and organizations will host events celebrating your sustainability accomplishments, or the theme of this year’s Campus Sustainability Day. Hold an event on your campus or in your community, commit to a shared challenge, and help raise the bar for sustainability leadership in higher education as we take the next steps forward together!

Click here for more information.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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NWF's Campus Ecology Fellowships

October 03, 2013 Add Comment Edit

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is an environmental leader and since 2000 they have awarded over 170 Campus Ecology Fellowships to US undergraduate and graduate students engaging global warming related issues.

Students are awarded Fellowships for projects ranging from campus-wide energy audits to implementing sustainable forestry practices. In addition to recognition, Fellows receive a modest monetary grant, project support and leadership development.

In 2013, NWF is offering an Emerging Leaders Fellowship track that awards Fellowships to post-graduate, young professionals (ages 21-35) interested in career development and leadership opportunities within the conservation movement. These Fellows are provided with leadership opportunities, skills training and seed funding for their entrepreneurial efforts.

This year NWF Fellows will work on protecting wildlife and habitat in the Appalachian region, in urban and suburban settings, curbing carbon pollution and the expansion of dirty energy sources and creating new energy solutions.

The 2013 class of NWF Fellows is comprised of 21 Fellows (12 Campus Ecology Fellows and 9 Emerging Leader Fellows) hailing from 12 states across the country and the District of Columbia.

Here is the list of NWF Fellows for 2013:

Imran Battla
Austin Clarridge
John “Stephen” Fisher
Heidi Goetsch
Shaza Hussein
Brandon Knight
Ludovic Lemaitre
Rubyana Lyon
Stephanie Mata
Sarah Minkin
Julie Perreau
Omar Peters
Niraj Ray
Evan Reimondo
Christina Rinas
Shantae Robinson
Michael Roles
Timothy Seehan
Jacob Spaulding
Kathryn Thomson
Jessica May Vickers

To view the Fellows full profiles click here.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Event - NAAEE Conference 2013

September 29, 2013 Add Comment Edit

The NAAEE Conference 2013 will take place on October 9 - 12, 2013 in Baltimore, Maryland. The Since 1972, the NAAEE conference has convened top educators, government officials, researchers, nonprofit and community groups, environmental experts, corporations, and others.

With the shared mission of advancing environmental education throughout society—from schoolrooms to board rooms and community centers to zoos and museums—attendees discuss how environmental education can achieve environmental goals, as well as be a conduit to STEM education, a springboard for civic engagement, and a tool for current and future generations to make sense of the world around them.

Prominent Conference Themes

Citizen Science & Public Participation in Scientific Research Connecting Kids & Nature
Conservation Education & Behavior Change
Greening Formal Education
Leadership & Innovation
Sustainable Communities
Teaching About Environmental Issues

Keynote Speakers

RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
Ellen McCallie Reflecting on Our Careers: Circuitous Path to Successful Careers

WEDNESDAY
Stephen Ritz Seeding the Future: Helping Students and Communities Thrive

THURSDAY
Kristin Grimm Communicating the Power of EE

Climate Change Panel Keya Chatterjee, Gerald Durley, Cecilia Estolano, William Spitzer Perspectives on Empowering Communities

FRIDAY
Mahesh Pradhan, Keith A. Wheeler A Global Look at Environmental Education and Sustainability

SATURDAY
Ovie Mughelli Our Future is Green

For more information or to register click here.

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WorldWatch Institute: Refocusing Environmental Education

September 26, 2013 Add Comment Edit

A recent press release from the Worldwatch Institute examines the need to improve environmental education so that students are better prepared for the turbulent times ahead.

Over the past decade, more college students than ever have completed environmentally oriented courses or graduated with degrees in environmental studies and science (ESS). While many hail this environmental renaissance in U.S. higher education as an important step toward sustainability, others see it as a missed opportunity.

In the Worldwatch Institute's (www.worldwatch.org) State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?, contributing author Michael Maniates argues in his chapter "Teaching for Turbulence" that ESS students are being molded for a world that no longer exists, and calls for a refocusing of educational efforts.

"At just that moment when we need students capable of guiding a raft through violent, Class 5 rapids," says Maniates, "we are training them to excel in placid waters." Maniates, a professor of social sciences and environmental studies at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, observes that: "[T]he college student of today will graduate into a world singularly defined by turbulence. Now is the time to explore how current ESS programs undermine student capacity to navigate a turbulent world----and to entertain new curricular features that foster nimbleness and wisdom in times of crisis."

Because of their interdisciplinary and problem-solving focus, ESS programs raise vexing curricular questions: What is the appropriate mix of breadth and depth? How does one prevent multidisciplinary illiteracy? What exactly should ESS students know, and why? Maniates illuminates how these questions rightly preoccupy the ESS community, but at the cost of asking tougher questions about some inadvertent yet pernicious consequences of an ESS education.

One such consequence is the absurd faith in crisis that ESS students consistently demonstrate. By virtue of their education, students too often conclude that crisis----with extreme, powerful, and potentially devastating consequences----is the best driver of needed social change, providing an opportunity to redirect society down a sustainable path. Maniates points to an Allegheny College study that establishes, across 15 U.S. universities, the depth of students' faith in crisis and lack of faith in our collective capacity to move toward a world that works. Yet crisis is rarely a friend of progressive political change, he argues.

"The risk here is not that students see crisis on the horizon, for crisis is surely coming," Maniates notes. "The danger instead is that ESS graduates increasingly view crisis as a benevolent force that will rally the public and enhance the power of environmental problem-solvers like themselves." Moreover, while waiting for a crisis to come, ESS graduates disproportionately focus on innocuous strategies of green consumption that trivialize looming environmental challenges, while assuming that most people are unwilling to entertain major steps toward sustainability. All of this is aided and abetted by the existing curriculum.

But perhaps the most damning deficiency in contemporary ESS programs, says Maniates, is the lack of systematic inquiry into the drivers of social change. Too often students are forced to concoct their own theories of political and social change drawn from a smorgasbord of disconnected classes. These theories are often wrong, or wrongly applied. Why, asks Maniates, would a field like ESS, which studies how change occurs in natural systems, shy away from asking the same questions, rigorously and methodically, about social systems? Drawing on interviews and existing scholarship, he points to factors such as the natural-science origins of ESS, the field's ecumenical scholarly inclinations, and the fear among some faculty of being accused of training environmental activists, rather than scientists and data analysts.

In "Teaching for Turbulence," Maniates----a scholar of ESS programs and an award-winning professor in the field for almost three decades----argues that we can, and must, do better. He writes that the optimism that students bring into the classroom in their first year should be cultivated, not squashed, and that their desire to make change in the world should be sharpened through analyses of theories of social change rather than disempowered by participation in local environmental projects with little prospect for scaling up. Maniates offers a vision of undergraduate environmental education that speaks to the best of the human spirit, and urges educators to reexamine how their curricula can better help students effect change in an increasingly turbulent world.

To this end, Maniates offers five directives for stronger ESS programs:

Embrace founding passions: ESS programs are eclectic and varied, and reflect the passions of their architects, participating instructors, and the college or university within which they sit. Programs needn't respond to the challenges of an increasingly turbulent world in the same way.

Think critically and imaginatively about change and transition: In their own way, ESS programs must engage students in thinking long and hard about human nature, the nature of crisis, and shifting pressure points for change. Most ESS students hunger for this work and are poorly served by the incoherent patchwork of explanation and theorizing they receive. The best ESS programs ideally leave students focused on how sustainability initiatives might bring the noble and compassionate qualities of human beings to the surface, without involving a catastrophe or tragedy. Stay true to the core tools of ESS: The focus on feedback, thresholds, and dynamic change that runs through natural-science ESS coursework must also infuse discussions of social and political change. It is no longer acceptable for ESS professors to hope that other departments or students' own experiences will provide ample coverage of how change happens in human systems.

Understand the severe limits of logic and facts in an increasingly turbulent world: Students must be exposed to contentious environments and participate in classes that foster strategic thinking for promotion of action in times of political angst. Courses in conflict resolution and mediation, issue framing, social-movement theory and human behavior must play a greater role in the curriculum.

Acclimate to uncertainty and change: Ultimately, the best ESS programs will make students comfortable with turbulence in the same way that river rafters feel at ease jostling through whitewater rapids. Too much of today's ESS education trains students to perform in predictable, small-scale environments. This education is a good start, perhaps, but it is not nearly enough.

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2014 Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN)

September 25, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Now in its fourth year, Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN) is the largest electricity and water reduction competition program for colleges and universities in the world. CCN is a partnership of Lucid Design Group, U.S. Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools, National Wildlife Federation and the Alliance to Save Energy.

CCN gives a common voice and motivation to hundreds of thousands of students across North America, all working together to reduce consumption and mitigate the impacts of climate change. CCN encourages students to involve their peers and staff in educational events that can have an immediate and lasting impact on their school’s carbon emissions and campus culture.

CCN offers an unparalleled opportunity to:

Foster a culture of conservation on your campus
Save energy and water in your dorms or academic buildings
Enable students to develop leadership, community organizing and career development skills
Become a part of the CCN legacy