GEOG 280 - Sustainability Planning: Putting Theory into Practice

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Communities at all scales are planning for more sustainable futures. From states and regions to college campuses, plans are being developed to reduce carbon consumption and waste production, presumably with co-benefits for social justice, public health, and economic efficiency. These ideas are spelled out in regional and local sustainability plans. These plans try to provide a road map for putting sustainability principles into practice; they also integrate a variety of complex systems, such as energy, building and transportation infrastructure, landscapes, food systems, and the organization of community structures we inhabit. In this course we examine different approaches to sustainability plans, at a range of scales and contexts. We examine recent efforts in New York City, in regional and local governments of the Hudson Valley, including Poughkeepsie, and on the Vassar Campus and other campuses. We draw on emerging examples in the US, Europe, and Asia where innovation is transforming the universe of what we imagine possible. What constraints and opportunities apply in these different contexts and at different scales? How do different incentive structures promote, reward, or obstruct changing practices? How do technological and structural strategies differ? To explore these questions, we draw on ideas such as geographic approaches to place and to regionalism, ecosystem services, and green accounting. As part of the class, students will develop portions of a sustainability plan that incorporates their knowledge into a realistic guidance document. Ms. Cunningham.

Two 75-minute periods.