Sustainability and Climate Change

Weatherization assistance programs have been in existence in the United States for decades, but they are commonly managed and implemented by local government organizations. Furman University, a small liberal arts college, occupies a unique position as an institution of higher education that runs a weatherization program through its sustainability center. In this article we present a case report on Furman's Community Conservation Corps (CCC), which has been weatherizing low-income households in Greenville, South Carolina, for nearly a decade. We provide background on weatherization assistance programs, the history of Furman's CCC, nine years of energy-use data for all weatherized homes, and additional program outcomes. We conclude with recommendations for initiating and scaling weatherization assistance programs within the higher education context.

Sustainability is an idea that is celebrated, loathed, or deemed entirely useless given its many meanings and approaches. While scholars broadly agree it must include merging ecology, economy, and equity, there remain serious challenges, such as how each dimension is weighted, integrated, and presented. Definitional issues and disciplinary foundations are another chronic problem even as the number of sustainability programs in higher education continues to grow. At the same time, colleges and universities across the country are reaffirming their commitment to equity education, recognizing the critical importance of graduates' abilities to speak across differences and bridge ethnic divides. This article offers consideration of how a systems thinking assessment tool, designed to match those created by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, might support general education requirements while advancing both sustainability and equity. In this article, we share a rubric and strategy designed to clarify definitional issues and make the inseparability of equity and sustainability explicit at institutions of higher education.

As the world continues to embrace the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), member countries are becoming more proactive in this pursuit, leading the way to solve the most complex problems of our time. In response to acceptance of the SDGs by member nations, researchers began to map or check the scope of important themes contained in the SDGs. This research led to a better understanding of the interactions between the three pillars of sustainability: economy, society, and environment, and their effects on mapping SDG themes. After 2015, the number of research studies performing the mapping, or scoping, of the world concepts to the SDGs increased. This article offers a systematic review that synthesizes the information gleaned from this research. This review showed that the mapped themes are multidisciplinary, but their impacts, influence, role, responsibilities, synergies, and trade-offs are intrinsic to the SDGs. Some of the themes mapped to the SDGs in this review act as catalysts to foster the achievement of SDGs, while some of the issues act as roadblocks that can cripple the achievement of SDGs. Looking at an issue through the lens of SDGs will enable us to understand the balance needed between profit, people, and the planet. The major takeaway from this review is that the water-food-energy nexus acts as a potential linkage with SDGs and helps in understanding the interrelated dynamics between human population and the natural environment.