Infusing Sustainability Into the Curriculum

Do you want to help students bridge the gap between their personal conviction of living a sustainable life—and the manifestation of it?

Are you integrating sustainability concepts into your engineering courses for the first time and could benefit from a complete set of associated learning outcomes?

Do you already work in the sustainable innovation space and want to increase the scope, impact, and value?

Workshop: Infusing Sustainability Into the Curriculum

Teaching and Learning

The Engineering Unleashed community and VentureWell present the Infusing Sustainability Into the Curriculum workshop.

This virtual, synchronous workshop, which is part of the Teaching and Learning series, is designed to help faculty integrate key sustainability concepts, tools, and frameworks into existing engineering curricula. This will give students the essential knowledge, skills, and experiences to develop an entrepreneurial mindset (EM) and innovate with the planet in mind.

Event Information

Dates: June 7-11, 2021 (Agenda below, or download here)

Location: Virtual/Online

Cost: $1500.00

Registration Deadline: May 10, 2021

Cancellation Policy: If a participant cancels within 30 days of a workshop, the Kern Family Foundation may invoice the institution for a $150 cancelation fee to cover materials and other unrecoverable costs.

Workshop Agenda

Schedule and details subject to change

Pre-Work & Homework Expectations

Participants should expect 4-5 hours of pre-work that should be completed prior to the start of the workshop.
Participants should expect 1-2 hours of homework each day of the workshop.

Day 1: June 7, 2021 (Monday)

All times in ET.

11:00 a.m. Welcome and Introductions
12:05 p.m. Entrepreneurial Mindset and Engineering Unleashed Introduction
12:35 p.m. Break
1:35 p.m. Personal Introductions
2:10 p.m. Sustainability and Engineering One Planet Introduction
3:00+ p.m. Homework for Day 2

Day 2: June 8, 2021 (Tuesday)

All times in ET.

11:00 a.m. Whole System Mapping Part 1: Draw System Map
11:40 a.m. Whole System Mapping Part 2: Priorities
12:05 p.m. Break
1:05 p.m. Whole System Mapping Part 3: Brainstorm
1:30 p.m. Whole System Mapping Part 4: Decide/Prioritize
2:10 p.m. Overview of EU Card Assignment
2:30 p.m. Breakout: Introductions & Initial EU Card Ideas
3:00+ p.m. Homework for Day 3

Day 3: June 9, 2021 (Wednesday)

All times in ET.

11:00 a.m. Life Cycle Analysis Part 1: Boundaries and Functional Units
11:40 a.m. Life Cycle Analysis Part 2: Inventory Analysis & Calculate Impacts
12:30 p.m. Life Cycle Analysis Part 3: Interpret Results
12:55 p.m. Break
1:45 p.m. Other Sustainability Assessment Tools Part 1
2:10 p.m. Breakout: EU Card Idea Presentations & Feedback Session
3:00+ p.m. Homework for Day 4

Day 4: June 10, 2021 (Thursday)

All times in ET.

11:00 a.m. Other Sustainability Assessment Tools Part 2
11:25 a.m. Presidio Business Model Canvas Sustainability Booster
12:10 p.m. Break
1:10 p.m. Product-Service Systems
2:00 p.m. EU Card Working Session
2:45+ p.m. Homework for Day 5

Day 5: June 11, 2021 (Friday)

All times in ET.

11:00 a.m. Biomimicry
12:55 p.m. Break
1:55 p.m. Breakout: Presentations of EU Card Progress & Path Forward
2:50 p.m. Workshop Wrap-Up

Please note: By May 14, 2021, we will be sharing pre-work to complete prior to attending the workshop. Pre-work will take less than 10 hours in total. Participants may complete the pre-work at their own pace before the workshop begins. Stay tuned for more information about the pre-work!

Your Workshop Guides

Meet the facilitators and coaches for your workshop journey:

Jeremy Faludi, Facilitator

Jeremy is assistant professor of design for sustainability at TU Delft in The Netherlands. Before TU Delft, he taught green product design at Stanford, Dartmouth and Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Jeremy's research focuses on sustainable design methods, sustainable additive manufacturing, and sustainability metrics such as life cycle assessment or health hazard assessment. He wrote the OECD’s recommendations for green 3D printing policy, and created the Whole System Mapping sustainable design method, taught in universities around the world. He designed the first version of the Biomimicry Institute's online database that is now AskNature.org, and a bicycle he helped design appeared in the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum's 2007 exhibit "Design for the Other 90%". Jeremy holds a BA in Physics from Reed College, a MEng in product design from Stanford and a PhD in mechanical engineering from University of California Berkeley.

Cindy Gilbert, Facilitator

Cindy is the director of faculty and sustainability initiatives VentureWell where she leads the Higher Education Catalyst Team in the planning, development and execution of VentureWell’s institutional change initiatives. In this role, Cindy oversees the faculty grants program, the Frontier Set program, the Engineering for One Planet program, and is working to advance VentureWell’s sustainability and environmentally responsible engineering initiatives. Prior to joining VentureWell, Cindy founded and led higher education programs at the Biomimicry Institute and Minneapolis College of Art and Design where she launched a fully online, multidisciplinary MA in Sustainable Design. She holds a BS in biology from the University of Guelph (Canada), an MEd from Griffith University (Australia) and an MS from Oregon State University.

Victoria Matthew, Facilitator

Victoria is a senior program officer on VentureWell’s Higher Education Catalyst Team where she leads social learning and community of practice initiatives as well as collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Frontier Set which is a network of 31 post-secondary institutions all working to close the student opportunity gap. Previous to this role, Victoria led the NSF funded Pathways to Innovation program where she designed online and in-person programming that fostered the integration and institutionalization of innovation and entrepreneurship, and leveraged the power of faculty networks. Prior to VentureWell, Victoria worked for over a decade in higher education. She has designed, developed, and managed degree programs, and has experience teaching online, and recruiting and training online faculty. Victoria holds a BS from the University of Hull (United Kingdom) and an MS from Marlboro College.

Jeff Plumblee, Facilitator and Coach

Jeff is a program officer on VentureWell’s Higher Education Catalyst Team where he works to better integrate sustainability into VentureWell programs, including developing and presenting new knowledge in sustainable science and technology innovation and entrepreneurship, designing and leading workshops, reviewing grant proposals, and collaborating with the other teams on sustainability-related initiatives. Prior to VentureWell, Jeff served as an Assistant Professor at The Citadel where he taught engineering and project management courses. He has over a decade of experience leading academic programs and courses, working on sustainable infrastructure and economic development projects in developing communities, from micro-scale to municipal level. Jeff holds an MBA and BS, MS, and PhD in civil engineering from Clemson University.

Bayo Ogundipe, Facilitator and Coach

Bayo is interim department head and assistant professor of engineering at James Madison University (JMU). Bayo joined JMU in 2010 from a position as research fellow with the Center for Environmental Systems at Stevens Institute of Technology. His ongoing research involves Life Cycle Impact Assessment Studies, Industrial Ecology, Environmental Compatibility in Product and Process design, Emerging Pollutants and the development of areas of synergistic activities between engineering and non engineering disciplines and specializations with the goal of an interdisciplinary holistic approach to sustainable problem solving. Bayo holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lago, a MEng in Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Your Workshop Journey

The workshop includes:

The Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Framework (mapped to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ABET’s student outcomes)
The KEEN Framework
Whole system mapping
Systems thinking
Life cycle analysis (LCA)
Green certifications and eco-labels (e.g. C2C)
Energy effectiveness
Sustainable materials
Green business models
Biomimicry

What you will learn to do

Incorporate sustainability-focused student learning outcomes into curriculum using the EM and EOP Frameworks.
Teach key sustainability concepts, tools, and frameworks online or in person.
Enhance existing courses by integrating environmental metrics and methods as well as social, business, and teamwork skills into online or classroom activities through interactive learning experiences.
Develop student leadership and teamwork skills through hands-on, team-based collaborative experiences.
Give students the knowledge, skills, and experience to bring a sustainability focus to their student work and future professional lives.

Key Deliverables

Develop a sustainability-focused Engineering Unleashed card that maps to both the EM and EOP Frameworks to be applied at your home institution and shared on the Engineering Unleashed website.
Assess and reflect on the effectiveness of hands-on experiences with sustainability tools and metrics.
Benefit from coaching support by participating in EM coaching calls.
Report out and share experiences and lessons learned with your workshop peers.
Develop a card on Engineering Unleashed that disseminates the faculty member’s individual project.

Competitive funding opportunities are available to those who successfully complete a faculty development program.

All Workshops

Want to explore more workshops? Return to the main Faculty Development National Workshops page!

View Workshops