Green Skills for a Sustainable and Just Future

Environmental economics is a powerful and comprehensive approach to understanding, assessing, and addressing the world’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges. This course, “Environmental Economics,” provides training in the principles, conceptual frameworks, and applications of environmental economics. The course will help you develop and analyze climate policy and energy policy, and assess sustainability policy and practice. You will begin by exploring the key concepts of the sustainability economy, including market failures and externalities, like CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Learn how to use tools like benefit-cost analysis, time discounting, and environmental policy instruments to make strategic decisions in your role. Additional topics covered include the economic valuation of nonmarket environmental goods and services, specific policy instruments like CO2 cap-and-trade programs, time discounting for intertemporal decision-making, benefit-cost analysis of environmental regulations, the global energy transition to renewables, and global climate policy. By understanding both sustainable and unsustainable economic practices and activities, you’ll learn to make policy and financial decisions that have positive impacts on our planet and your organization. This is the first course in “Green Skills for a Sustainable and Just Future," a course series dedicated to shaping the next generation of sustainable practices and leadership.

Studies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries demonstrated persistent trends in the US: race, income, and other factors predispose marginalized communities to higher toxic waste exposure and poorer quality of air, water, housing, and recreational spaces. In “Environmental Justice,” you’ll learn how these burdens have individual, interpersonal, and intergenerational effects and how environmental justice has helped mitigate these inequities In this course, you’ll learn about the historical events that have helped shape the environmental justice movements of today, and legislative victories, like the removal of lead from automotive fuels and the establishment of mandates within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to previous successes, this course will explore current work emerging in the field of environmental justice, including Indigenous sovereignty, conservation, climate and migration justice, affordable housing, policing, digital equity, disability rights, and more. This is a course within the “Green Skills for a Sustainable and Just Future," a course series dedicated to shaping the next generation of sustainable practices and leadership.

The world is currently experiencing complex challenges in social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Geographic information systems (GIS) help us organize, analyze, and display large spatial datasets that reveal critical spatial and temporal patterns crucial for addressing these complex issues. “GIS: Geographic Information Systems for Sustainability” is designed for sustainability professionals seeking an introduction to GIS that is accessible, geospatial professionals beginning to delve into sustainability, and learners needing some exposure to GIS for their job. Through this course, you’ll learn fundamental GIS principles through the lens of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. You’ll engage with instructor-led lectures about how GIS can be applied to various aspects of sustainability. You’ll hear from sustainability professionals about the relevance of GIS in their own work and where they see GIS and sustainability tying together in the future. You’ll also gain technical GIS skills through hands-on exercises using real-world data and scenarios. By learning how to use GIS, you can guide your organization to use spatial analysis in sustainability practices that increase public awareness, empower communities, or help decision-makers engage diverse stakeholders. This is the fourth course in “Green Skills for a Sustainable and Just Future," a course series dedicated to shaping the next generation of sustainable practices and leadership.