Launch of a program to get a Certificate in Sustainability at Luther College (University of Regina)

Luther College (one of the campuses at the University of Regina) launched a program to help students get a better understanding of Sustainability and its various dimensions and aspects. The students who complete the program will then receive a Certificate in Sustainability, attesting to their mastery of the subject. The purpose of this program is therefore to provide students with a basic structure for decisions about sustainability and crafting sustainable livelihoods and lifestyles. Implemented in the Faculty of Arts, the Certificate in Sustainability is open to students enrolled in all faculties, including the professional faculties. Students would need to choose one course from each of the six course categories outlined below with no more than three courses being chosen from any given discipline (to ensure exposure to a range of disciplines and methods). 

1. The Sustainability Problem: Courses in this area provide students with a general introduction to the idea of sustainability/sustainable development (and related concepts) that have emerged in relation to a common problem facing humanity, namely, that current human activities have eroded the natural resources upon which these very human activities depend if they are to continue into the future. 

2. Dimensions of Human Sustainability: Courses in this area explore important elements of human well-being and quality of life and the implications for life within a global community of each person being able to live a decent, dignified life. 

3. Dimensions of Environmental Sustainability: Courses in this area provide students with an understanding of complex natural systems at diverse biological scales. 

4. Human Sustainability Options: Courses in this area explore specific problems and issues critical to sustaining human communities and factors that have emerged as priorities in sustainability discourse related to social, cultural, and economic sustainability. 

5. Environmental Sustainability Options: Courses in this area explore specific problems and issues critical to sustaining environmental systems (living and non-living) that have emerged as priorities in sustainability discourse related to environmental sustainability. 

6. Sustainability in Practice: Courses in this area provide students with an opportunity to practically address sustainability issues in a grounded way within a given community (e.g. local living laboratories) and/or organizational context (e.g. policies and/or programs). 

More information about this program here.

The University of Regina leads together with its adjoined Luther College SDG 12 of the IAU Cluster on HESD.