This course is designed to provide an introduction to sustainability concepts and challenges through the lens of the world's most significant framework to address them: the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). The UN-SDGs serve as a blueprint for addressing the world's most critical social and environmental challenges, calling for urgent collaboration and change to reset the world on a path that operates within planetary boundaries and promotes global prosperity and security. This course will explore extraordinarily significant threats to the way of life of future generations--such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, health and nutrition, pollution, and resource depletion---with specific attention to sustainability challenges and solutions involving food, water, energy, oceans, waste, plastics, biodiversity loss, and urbanization. Further, the course will include focus on the importance of transitioning from linear to circular systems and maximizing life cycle resource utilization. Case studies of scalable sustainability practices and organizational leadership for sustainability will be reviewed with additional input from global thought leaders.

This course is a requirement for students enrolled in Certificate in Urban Design and for Master of City Planning students enrolled in the Urban Design concentration. How should urban designers give shape to the city? What urban design methods could they apply? This course helps students acquire the principles that can inform urban design practice. It has three major pedagogical objectives. First, it helps students understand the contemporary city through a series urban design tools. Second, it covers both historical and modern urban design principles. Finally, it includes all the scales in which urban designers operate, ranging from the fundamentals of social interaction in public space, to the sustainability of the region.

What is "the economy," and how is "it" gendered? How is access to land, resources, and livelihood options mediated by hierarchies of gender that are co-constituted with race, class, age, and ability? How are gender equality, economic justice, and environmental justice interrelated? This course grapples with these and other foundational questions concerning the ways that gender, economy, and environment are intimately linked. Using case studies from around the world, we will consider Marxist-feminist, ecofeminist, political ecology, queer, critical race, and postcolonial approaches to understanding how abstract economic processes are materialized in social relations and in human-environment interactions. From women peasant farmer's online practices in Myanmar to land-grabs and contemporary witch-hunting in African countries, together we will engage with the material histories, politics, and power relations shaping the uneven distribution of wealth and resources among gendered populations - and how different social groups are mobilizing to contest these gender, economic, and environmental inequalities together. In addition to our core questions, this course asks: How is capitalism itself gendered, and with what effects? What is considered productive work, and how are categories of worker gendered? Why are women overrepresented as peasant farmers in global south countries? How and why is climate change gendered? How and why are solutions to climate change and other environmental problems gendered? What are the gendered benefits and costs of sustainable development, and who bears them? Most of these questions lack clear answers, but by the end of the semester you will be able to give compelling oral and written explanations in response to each. Using a diverse array of texts - including film, podcasts, poetry, and peer-reviewed academic literature - this course will equip students with tools to thoughtfully and ethically engage with academic, activist, policy, and development spaces that are concerned with the intersection of gender, economy, and the environment.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to theory and applications of chemistry in the earth and environmental sciences. Theory covered will include atomic structure, chemical bonding, cosmic abundances, nucleosynthesis,radioactive decay, dating of geological materials, stable isotopes, acid-base equilibria, salts and solutions, and oxidation-reduction reactions. Applications will emphasize oceanography, atmospheric sciences and environmental chemistry, as well as other topics depending on the interests of the class. Although we will review the basics, this course is intended to supplement, rather than to replace, courses offered in the Department of Chemistry. It is appropriate for advanced undergraduate as well as graduate students in Geology, Environmental Science, Chemistry and other sciences, who wish to have a better understanding of these important chemical processes.

This course will provide an introduction to GIS in public health research and practice. Through a series of lectures and labs students will explore theories linking health and the environment, spatial analysis and spatial epidemiology, and applications of GIS-related data collection and analysis.

Hands-on study of earth materials and processes. Identification and interpretation of rocks, minerals and fossils. Topographic and geologic maps. Evolution of landscapes. Field trips lead to a synthesis of the geologic history of southeastern Pennsylvania.

Microorganisms inhabit almost every conceivable environment on the planet's surface, and extent the biosphere to depths of several kilometers into the crust. Significantly, the chemical reactivity and metabolic diversity displayed by microbial communities make them integral components of global elemental cycles, from mineral dissolution and precipitation reactions, to aqueous reduction-oxidation processes. In that regard, microorganisms have helped shape our planet overthe past 4 billion years and made it habitable for higher forms of life. In this course we will evaluate the geological consequences of microbial activities, by taking am interdisciplinary and "global" view of microbe-environment interactions

This course is a hands-on introduction to the concepts and capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS). Students will develop the skills necessary for carrying out basic GIS projects and for advanced GIS coursework. The class will focus on a broad range of functional and practical applications,ranging from environmental science and planning to land use history, social demography, and public health. By the end of the course, students will be able to find, organize, map, and analyze data using both vector (i.e. drawing-based) and raster (i.e. image-based) GIS tools, while developing an appreciation for basic cartographic principles relating to map presentation.

All forms of frozen water at Earth's surface define the cryosphere. These icy environmnets are an integral part of the global climate system, with important linkages and feedbacks resulting from their influences on surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds, precipitation, hydrology, and circulation in the atmosphere and oceans. This course will survey the various components of the cryosphere and their interactions with climate, with a strong emphasis on the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets. Broad topics to be covered are 1)the rudimentary mechanics of glacier and ice sheet flow, 2)fast-flowing ice streams and factors limiting their motion, 3)ice-quakes and their origins, 4)the nature of climate data recorded in natural ice bodies, 5)the influence of climate on the stability of ice sheets and glaciers, and 6)glacier-like flow on other planetary bodies. This will be a lecture-based course with written assignmnets and problems sets.

This course examines the futures of urbanization in most of the world. With cities in "developing" countries set to absorb 95% of urban population growth in the next generation, the course explores the plans, spaces and social experiences of this dramatic urban century. How do proliferating urban populations sustain themselves in the cities of Latin America, Africa and Asia? What kinds of social and political claims do these populations make more just and sustainable cities? The course investigates the ongoing experiences in urban planning, infrastructure development and environmental governance in cities of the Global South. In so doing, it imagines new forms of citizenship, development and sustainability that are currently unfolding in these cities of the future.

This course examines the possibilities and limitations of conceiving of and realizing citizenship on a global scale. Readings, guest lecturers, and discussions will focus on dilemmas associated with addressing issues that transcend national boundaries. In particular, the course compares global/local dynamics that emerge across different types of improvement efforts focusing on distinctive institutions and social domains, including: educational development; human rights; humanitarian aid; free trade; micro-finance initiatives; and the global environmental movement. The course has two objectives: to explore research and theoretical work related to global citizenship, social engagement, and international development; and to discuss ethical and practical issues that emerge in the local contexts where development initiatives are implemented.

Public perceptions and attitudes concerning the causes and importance of globalwarming have changed. Global Climate Change provides a sound theoretical understanding of global warming through an appreciation of the Earth's climate system and how and why this has changed through time. We will describe progress in understanding of the human and natural drivers of climate change, climate pr0cesses and attribution, and estimates of projected future climate change. We will assess scientific, tehnical, and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.

Environmentalist Paul Hawken challenged a class of 2009 college graduates that they would have to "figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating." That theme is at the heart of this course. Our quality of life in the near future hinges on the development and implementation of sustainable solutions to the enormously complex environmental and social problems embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals -- particularly around food, water, energy, and waste. This course is designed to foster the thinking, and the collaborative spirit, that is needed to address those enormous problems. It involves focusing on a critical global sustainability problem with vast social, cultural, and environmental dimensions -- in this case, the need to balance global food, water, and energy needs in a manner that allows the world to feed 9.6 billion citizens by 2050 while preserving the environment for future generations. It also involves collaboration and the exchange of ideas between multi-disciplinary leaders and students from multiple countries, and perspectives on how to manage diverse views and sustainability initiatives that are extremely relevant to the success of today’s organizations (i.e. how to lead “big change” for competitive advantage). DYNM 7660 will explore the food-water-energy nexus in Italy amid a culture that literally celebrates food, with special emphasis on the systemic challenge of global food loss and waste. The course will involve a special session with experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome – the hub of agriculture and food security research for the world – and additional sessions on food, water, energy, SDG and innovation topics with international students and food system experts at the University of Bologna (the oldest University in the world) and the Food Innovation Program led by food system leader Sara Roversi. Potential side trips include tours of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and balsamic vinegar producers, a pasta producer, an Italian supermarket, FICO/Eataly, and Food For Soul (Modena). Students will have some time to explore the wonders of Rome and Bologna on their own as well.

This course explores the changing relationships between human beings and the natural world from early history to the present. We will consider the various ways humans across the globe have interacted with and modified the natural world by using fire, domesticating plants and animals, extracting minerals and energy, designing petro-chemicals, splitting atoms and leaving behind wastes of all sorts. Together we consider the impacts, ranging from population expansion to species extinctions and climate change. We examine how human interactions with the natural world relate to broader cultural processes such as religion, colonialism and capitalism, and why it is important to understand the past, even the deep past, in order to rise to the challenges of the present.

Wildfires, deforestation, air pollution, plastics in the ocean, lead in water, and increasingly destructive natural disasters have all been in the news lately. What are the underlying causes? What can be done? In this course students will examine eight environmental issues. They will become familiar with the current knowledge, debates, human impacts, economic consequences, policies, and potential solutions for each issue. Lectures will introduce each of the disciplines that contribute to the dialogue on these environmental issues, while a final project will allow students to dive deeper into one major environmental issue within the context of each of these disciplines. In addition to lectures, readings, and discussion there is a semester-long group project culminating in a final paper.

This undergraduate capstone course, sponsored by the Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department, is a 7-week, .5 cu class designed to give Wharton seniors the chance to connect academic theory with complex real-world issues arising within the context of award-winning social enterprise projects identified by the World Bank's "Ideas for Action Initiative." The course by the Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department is jointly sponsored by the World Bank and Wharton's Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research. The aim of the course is to integrate and strengthen students' academic skills by applying them in cross-functional ways to the production of real-world consulting reports for project founders. The course will also require students to grapple with current ethical and legal challenges that business organizations face, such as defining the purpose of a business, determining how to incorporate global standards like the Sustainable Development Goals or other Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards into a business plan, and designing mechanisms to promote ethical behavior and combat such systemic challenges as corruption.

After four generations of explosive global trade growth, a growing awareness of climate change and other environmental externalities has triggered a global movement toward decarbonization, localization and re-shoring. ESG pressure from investors as well as carbon-related taxes, incentives and reporting requirements are driving operations and supply management to go green. However, lowering the carbon profile of global supply chains is a massive undertaking. This class teaches a proven sequence of management decision-making frameworks and optimization tools for eliminating carbon throughout the supply chain. Students will apply logistical and supply management models that integrate carbon objectives with cost, service level, and other conventional supply chain management objectives, making the course valuable for supply chain professionals and students alike. The combination of academic constructs and real-life case studies is designed to equip students to successfully lead their companies’ decarbonization programs. It also prepares students to take the optional REVchain™ supply chain decarbonization certificate exam.

This research-oriented seminar focuses on the ways in which "sustainability" and "sustainable development" are linguistically and culturally translated into the world's languages. We may take the terms for granted, but they have only really been on the global stage since they were widely introduced in the 1987 United Nations report, Our Common Future. Seminar participants will first become acquainted with the cultural and conceptual history of the terms and the UN framework within which sustainability efforts directly or indirectly operate. Having established the significance of cultural and linguistic difference in conceiving and implementing sustainability, participants will collaboratively develop a research methodology in order to begin collecting and analyzing data. We will draw heavily on Penn's diverse language communities and international units. Seminar members will work together and individually to build an increasingly comprehensive website that provides information about the world's languages of sustainability.

Over the past five years, humanity has tak en a massive leap into a new Space Era made possible by powerful enabling technologies and private sector entrepreneurs from around the world in collaboration with the public sector What used to be the exclusive domain of two superpowers is now being democratized and made accessible to established organizations and entrepreneurs from both developed and e merging countries. The cost of escaping EarthEarth’s gravity is expected to fall by more than two orders of magnitude by innovation s in reusable rockets and business models.

This course explores the history and archaeology of the last 20,000 years from the development of agriculture to the industrial revolution. Why did people across the world abandon foraging for farming? How and why did cities and states develop? Why did societies succeed or fail? How have humans transformed themselves and the natural world, including the landscape and the climate? We will explore the methods that archaeologists use to consider these questions and analyze evidence for social and economic change from the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe. In addition, students will have a chance to conduct hands-on exercises with artifacts from the Penn Museum during practicums.