Sustainability Courses

Quarterly, the Sustainability Engagement Institute releases a Sustainability Course List, highlighting offerings that incorporate social, environmental, and economic sustainability concepts into course content. This resource allows students to find courses across disciplines that address sustainability challenges. 

Use the interface below to search for courses based on department, keyword, or category. 

Sustainability Focused courses are categorized by an explicit focus on sustainability and/or the interdependence of ecological and social, cultural, or economic systems.  

Sustainability Related courses primarily focus on something other than sustainability but incorporate sustainability content or address one or more sustainability challenges.  

Western Washington University defines sustainability using the four pillars: social justice, economic stability, health and well-being, and environmental protection. 

Sustainability is interdisciplinary! These classes prompt students to consider ways to incorporate sustainability into their academic and professional work in any industry. Sustainability courses span across 35+ departments on our campus with more than 200 identified courses quarterly. 

Western adopted the 2025-2030 Sustainability Action Plan Priorities, and advancing sustainability is a collaborative effort requiring sustainability literacy across disciplines. We want students from a variety of backgrounds and fields of study to get excited about sustainability. 

The Sustainability Course List defines classes as Sustainability-Focused or Sustainability-Related as part of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Sustainability challenge 

An issue or situation that threatens or undermines ecological integrity, racial equity and social justice, or the ability of future generations to meet their needs (e.g., biodiversity loss, poverty and inequality, and climate change), OR a goal or objective that contributes to the resolution of such an issue or situation (e.g., ecosystem health, universal human rights, and renewable energy generation). To identify sustainability challenges, it may be helpful to reference the targets embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the principles outlined in the Earth Charter, and/or the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries. 

Sustainability-focused course 

A unit of instruction that has a primary and explicit focus on the integrated concept of sustainability and/or the interdependence of ecological and social/cultural/economic systems. This focus must be demonstrated in the title or high level description of the course. 

Sustainability-related course 

A unit of instruction that is primarily focused on something other than sustainability, but clearly incorporates sustainability content or addresses one or more sustainability challenges. This may include courses that are focused on, for example, ecological integrity or social justice. It may also include courses that: