Syllabus Bank
Sustainability leadership requires harnessing myriad stakeholders, policy strategies and financial mechanisms while navigating through increasingly uncertain legal, political and environmental conditions—not least the complex physical risks of climate change.
This course trains students in both the theory and applied knowledge of sustainability problems and solutions across several key areas: Energy efficiency is taught using live access to building energy analytics systems, enabling students to learn how energy conservation in modern buildings is achieved in real time. Policy writing is taught using legislation written by Professor Leffel as a template, through which students learn to write ordinances that can translate into future environmental law. Environmental injustice is taught using both readings on longstanding systems of oppression and data mapping tools to enable students to detect disproportionate pollution on vulnerable communities. Stakeholder engagement is taught using real government-led community survey results, and using real stakeholder mapping and engagement reports which Professor Leffel was commissioned to create, enabling students to formulate policy in response to constituent demand and map stakeholders to achieve sustainability goals. Renewable energy leadership is taught using comprehensive data on U.S. renewable versus fossil fuel-based power projects and materials on the political-economics of greening electricity grids. These and other subjects, including regulatory risks and managing extreme heat, empower students with both the theoretical understanding and applied skills to advance sustainability leadership across the public, private, civic or academic sectors.