Find Sustainability-Related Classes
The list of courses that cover or include content on sustainability is extensive and ever-changing. To explore current sustainability-related course options, we recommend using keywords in the MyUI "text search" field. A list of sustainability-related search terms is offered below.
If you are looking for a course that will fulfill a specific degree or program requirement, talk with your advisor or use your personal degree audit to verify course eligibility.
Click here for a list of recommended keywords
- Adventure
- Agriculture
- Anthropology
- Climate
- Community
- Conservation
- Design
- Development
- Disaster
- Earth
- Ecology
- Ecosystem
- Energy
- Environment / environmental
- Experiential learning
- Food
- Globe / global
- Grand challenge
- Hazard
- Human
- Infrastructure
- Innovation
- Interdisciplinary
- Justice
- Natural
- Nexus
- Outdoor
- Planning
- Policy
- Pollution
- Resilient
- Resource
- Social
- STEM
- Sustainability / sustainable
- Systems thinking
- Transportation
- Travel
- Waste
- Water
- World
CLAS Sustainability Course Requirement
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences students entering the University of Iowa after Spring 2022 must complete at least one Sustainability course before graduating. Click below to view a list of courses that meet this requirement.
Add a Sustainability Certificate to Any Degree
See the course requirements for a sustainability certificate
Find sustainability-related degree programs
The university offers 30+ undergraduate and graduate degree programs that incorporate sustainability into their curriculum
Examples of Sustainability-Related Classes
Sport and Globalization
The specific aim of the course is to encourage students to consider how various sport practices, bodies, products, and spectacles operate and are experienced as manifestations of the global-local nexus.
Introduction to 3D Design
Students develop conceptual and critical design thinking skills while solving problems to make 3D structures with modular systems and sustainable material, processes, and consumption.
Environmental Communication
In this course we will examine how the media, public relations practitioners, scientists, and decision makers in governments, corporations and other organizations talk about environmental and sustainability issues and how that influences public understanding of these issues.
For Faculty
Integrate Sustainability into Your Curriculum
As academic leaders, faculty play a vital role in equipping students with the knowledge and skills to navigate today’s global challenges—integrating sustainability into the curriculum is a powerful way to do so. Sustainability is inherently transdisciplinary, enriching all fields of study while fostering critical thinking and real-world problem-solving.
Propose a Certificate Course
A Certificate in Sustainability provides students with the tools to understand the dynamics of human and environmental systems and their relationship to promote sustainable knowledge, action, and understanding across sectors. Faculty members from any UI college are invited to submit proposals for Certificate of Sustainability courses by contacting its Advisory Committee.
Propose a GE Course
The CLAS General Education CLAS Core is divided into four broad content areas, with a total of 11 requirements and with Sustainability counting for both Sustainability and as a second requirement noted on each General Education Sustainability course. Faculty members from any UI college are invited to participate in the CLAS Core by submitting proposals for GE status for courses with their administrative home in the instructor's college.