Sustainability Certificate

The sustainability certificate gives students an additional accreditation, along with their degree, to enter dynamic worlds of commerce, science, social work, and policy that will continue to be developed in the near future as the global environment becomes more prominent on everyone’s agenda. As we seek to train the engaged citizens of tomorrow, we hope to prepare them for a rapidly changing environment, with economic opportunities based on technologies that don’t exist today, and with an ever stronger commitment to social solutions that do not exclude sub‐groups or sub‐species. This certificate supports the goals of the GC Sustainability Council to “encourage the attitudes, choices and habits that support sustainability at the institutional and personal level in the Georgia College community and connect civic responsibility to learning experiences, both inside and outside the classroom through community service, education and outreach.”

Specifically, the certificate will produce students able to:

describe the global manifestations of sustainability across culturally diverse regions;
examine specific applications of social, environmental, and economic policies and their impacts on human societies;
model the world, including ecosystems, economic systems, and socio‐political systems;
evaluate individual and collective lifestyle impacts and identify political and ethical variations;
characterize energy and material systematics from physical, ethical, and economic viewpoints;
assess campus and community sustainability strategies and actions;
describe issues of sustainability within the geographies of contested spaces;
explore our campus and community through service learning and community outreach, while examining our institution as a potential laboratory for sustainability; and
demonstrate and advocate environmental responsibility in a human context.

These outcomes will be met through several learning objectives and activities, including reflection papers, data collection and analysis, interviews, research projects, and team tasks. The students will be involved in outreach, service learning, and peer education, for example the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco‐Rep Program, whereby they would engage other students on campus to conduct interviews, provide training, and implement sustainability solutions. The service learning component would assist the G.I.V.E. Center, ENGAGE, and the Office of Sustainability.

Certificate Requirements