From achieving carbon neutrality or adhering to a high standard for green buildings, Colgate has taken major strides in making the campus more sustainable. Over the years, faculty have increasingly incorporated sustainability into curricula across more than half of the academic departments and programs.
As an area of focus, sustainability has expanded to intersect with disciplines including politics, health, sociology, art, and beyond. Seth Coluzzi, associate professor of music, stated, “I include a sub-unit toward the beginning of the semester that discusses soundscapes and soundscape ecology, Bernie Kraus, and his linking of sound and studies of biodiversity loss.” Coluzzi brings this topic into his course “as a way into a more tangential discussion of species loss through other means.”
By integrating sustainability theory and practice into student learning, Colgate better prepares graduates for their careers. This aligns with the idea expressed by Project Drawdown: All jobs are climate jobs. As global challenges like environmental degradation and climate change intensify, it is imperative that students understand how their intended field plays a role in addressing issues of sustainability. These courses are not only offered for students majoring in environmental topics, but also across the campus as a way to empower students to become global change-makers.
To learn more, current and prospective students can explore how their program or department features sustainability throughout their offerings. Courses are designated as either sustainability-inclusive (SI) or sustainability-focused (SF) based on criteria published by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System. The course listing includes only a sampling of courses across the campus that feature sustainability. This information was compiled by interns from the Office of Sustainability, Boyana He ’25, Marie York ’26, and Alec Lehtman ’27.
View the sampled sustainability courses here.