Additional Exercises

Research Problems 

1. Write one or two paragraphs describing the word “environment.” Include the etymology or origin of the word, its definitions, and your observations about how the word appears in common usage.  

2. Write a brief report on the Long Now Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to foster long-term thinking. 

3. Find as many different definitions as you can (within reason) of “sustainability” and “sustainable development.” List the definitions and their sources. Explain which you think is best, and why.  

4. Write a paper, or create a presentation to share with your class, about the Earth Charter Initiative. Briefly describe its history and summarize the 16 sustainability principles. A few writers have criticized the Charter as being too vague; why do you think its creators did not choose to be more specific? 

5. What are the goals of the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as the “Rio 2012 Conference?” 

6. Information visualization is an interdisciplinary study for displaying connections and relationships among large collections of abstract data. Its graphic representations can be used to yield new insights in fields as diverse as cell chemistry, computer architecture, social networks, and many kinds of academic scholarship. Research this field, then write a brief paper which explains the basic concepts for a lay audience. What applications can you envision for the interdisciplinary study of sustainability? 

Projects and Group Activities 

7. When you are interviewed for a job, you will need to be able to answer questions thoughtfully and concisely. You might find it helpful to gather a notebook of “elevator speeches” you can study as you prepare for interviews. As you read this textbook, compile a list of core sustainability concepts. Write your own succinct elevator speech for each one, and collect these in a notebook. 

8. Write a description of your ideal sustainability career. For example, would it be in the private or public sector? In a big corporation, a small nonprofit organization, or education? Would you like to lead or work behind the scenes? Would you like to interact with just a few people or with lots of people? What kind of subspecialty would you like to focus on? Would you enjoy putting your ideas and energy to work through science, or artistic expression, or perhaps a combination? 

9. In a group, think about what a sustainable world might include. Record your ideas on a flipchart, white board, or computer screen. How would humans, animals, and plants share the planet? How large might the human population be? How might humans provision themselves with food, water, and shelter? What raw material and energy sources would we use? How might humans find beauty, meaning and intellectual growth?  

10. Write several paragraphs describing in your own words what a sustainable world might include.  

11. Imagine that you are historians living 100 or perhaps 200 years from now. The prospect was grim in the early twenty-first century, but Earth and humanity have lived through mass extinctions, changing climates, and other upheavals, and have come out the other side into a sustainable world which is unlike the one we inhabit today. Early adaptations went unnoticed by most people, but eventually these changes came together, resulting in a sea change in the human presence on the planet. Human societies have become decent and nourishing, and the health of the biosphere is slowly recovering. You are now consultants on a project which will document how the shift occurred. Imagine what this world will look like, and discuss as a group what humans did successfully to make the changes.  

12. This “thought experiment” asks you to expand your time horizon. Write two paragraphs imagining what the world might be like in the next 1000 years. In the first and shorter paragraph, summarize some changes you might predict if humanity were unable to adopt a sustainable path. In the second paragraph, describe a hopeful vision of what the world might be like in the next 1000 years.  

13. Throughout the coming term or semester, collect and share with each other examples of inaccurate perspectives from public media. You may be able to find examples that deal with time, magnitude, cultural preferences, or other attributes. For example, packaging on one product states that the company’s founding in 1966 “forever changed the way Americans do business,” although the elapsed time was only a few decades. A documentary may refer to “a species who has always lived in these mountains,” although habitats, climates, and mountains do not stay the same over long time periods. A writer may believe that a particular worldview is common to all people, when the view is only held within that writer’s cultural group. Write individual reflections on what you found. What types of statements did you find? What do you think caused them? 

14. As a class, compile a resource index for topics in sustainability. Each person will focus on one topic. Work together as a group to determine what topics should be included, who will take which topic, how the index will be compiled, what format you will use, and any other details. For your assigned topic, prepare a list of recognized sources to which your colleagues can turn to get information. As applicable, list publications (journals, important reference books, and whether they are available in your library); people (local or national experts in your topic); organizations (national standards organizations, governmental agencies, and trade associations); significant laws or regulations; standards and codes; and any other important sources (for example, a university with a research institute which specializes in your topic). When complete, distribute a copy of the index to each member of the class. 

15. Collect and share magazines, advertisements, and other printed items that are destined to be recycled. Create a collage, one per person, to illustrate the idea of interconnection or other concepts of sustainability of your choice. To make a collage, cut out illustrations, shapes, colors, or text and glue them to recycled cardboard. Don’t worry if your collage is not an artistic creation; your goal is to communicate ideas. Schedule a class pin-up day, and let each person briefly explain the concept they were expressing and why they chose the images they did. 
16. A local civic organization has asked you to give a presentation on sustainability. They will allow 15 minutes for the presentation and 15 minutes for questions and answers. Prepare a set of slides, with a script or outline notes, for this presentation. 

Research Problems

1. In your own words, what does the Environmental Protection Agency say is the goal of environmental justice?
2. Look up the principles of sustainability in Agenda 21, developed at the 1992 Earth Summit. How do these principles compare with actual development trends since the Earth Summit?
3. Compare and contrast the principles in the 1992 Agenda 21 with the goals of the 2002 Millennium Development Goals.
4. Write a brief history of the event known as Earth Day.
5. Challenge problem: The 1968 photograph known as “Earthrise” allowed people to shift context and to see life at a different scale. Find another example from anthropology, history, or literature of a changed perspective resulting from a shift in scale and write a reflection on that phenomenon.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Create a timeline, using collage, markers, graphic software, or your choice of other media, that illustrates milestones in environmental history together with milestones in the field of sustainability. Include some major political events for context.
2. Select one pre-industrial culture to research—for example, early Clovis people, the Native American tribe in your local area, ancient Rome, Ming dynasty China, or Renaissance Italy, among many others.  Could this culture’s practices be considered  sustainable, or was it simply degrading its part of the planet more slowly?  Write a paper examining which practices were sustainable and which were not.  Begin your paper by defining what you mean by “sustainable.”
3. Find out which Native American tribe once lived in the region where you live. Learn what you can about their lifeways. Write a paper describing how their lives might have followed a seasonal round, with activities tuned to conditions that change with the seasons.
4. During the Great Depression, people in some rural communities survived by cooperation and sharing. For example, if one person had a potato harvest, all the neighbors had potatoes. If one person had a tractor, all the neighbors used it and maintained it. Write a story describing life in such a community.

Research Problems

1. Find a copy of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold and read his essay, “The Land Ethic.” Write several paragraphs in response. What were Leopold’s central ideas? What does he say about ethics? What does he say about community?
2. Write a paper on the role of animism in prehistory and early history.
3. Investigate the role of animism in early Greek culture, and the changes in Greek thought that led to the concept of the Great Chain of Being.
4. In the 1970s and 1980s an approach known as Deep Ecology appeared in environmental ethics. Write a paper highlighting its main points.
5. A philosophy known as Ecofeminism also appeared in the 1970s and 1980s. Write a paper describing its approach to environmental ethics.
6. Investigate and report on current research into animal sentience. Discuss how this research might inform thinking about animal rights.
7. Choose a religious or spiritual tradition that is active today, and research ways in which some of its practitioners express responsibility to Earth and the living world.
8. Write a paper on the life and work of Baruch Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher who lived in the 17^th century.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Create a timeline, using collage, markers, graphic software, or your choice of other media, that illustrates developments in environmental ethics from prehistory through today.
2. In a group, choose some people who will argue for a vegetarian diet and other who will argue in favor of an omnivorous diet. Conduct a debate. Then discuss whether compromise is possible.
3. Download a copy of the 1972 brief, Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects by Christopher Stone. Read the brief, then write a 2-page summary including its main points, why it was written, and your comments.
4. Download a copy of the article by medieval historian Lynn White titled “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” published in the journal Science in 1967. Write 1 to 2 pages in which you summarize the article and then offer your own comments and questions.
5. Write a Bill of Rights for plants, for animals, and for ecosystems. What challenges would you face if you tried to write a Bill of Rights for bacteria?

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. One day the groundskeeper in a large city park noticed a small duckweed plant growing in the lake. When she checked the next day, there were 2 plants. By the following day there were 4 plants, and the numbers continued to double each day. At first the little plants covered only a small portion of the lake, but as the doubling continued the groundskeeper became concerned. When the lake was half covered, she decided to take action. At this point, how much time did she have before the lake would be completely covered?
2. If the world’s rivers transport about 350 billion cubic feet of sediment to the oceans each year, about how long would it take for the elevation of the Earth’s land masses to lower 1 foot, if no other processes were acting on them? Land covers a total of approximately 196.9 million square miles of area. (Hint: You’ll need to convert square miles to square feet.)

Research Problems

1. Find a copy of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold and read his essay, “Thinking Like a Mountain.” Write one to two paragraphs in response. What does Leopold mean by the title? What is he conveying in this essay?
2. Compare and contrast the history of bacteria and the history of the human species.
3. What are the changes in air temperature change as you move from sea level up through the layers of the atmosphere? Can you explain why this happens?
4. Earth system scientists talk about a biological pump. What are they referring to?
5. Write an elevator speech to describe equilibrium, dynamic non-equilibrium, and steady-state conditions in living systems. Find some examples of each.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Draw a diagram of the nitrogen cycle in your community.
2. Write the “life story” of a grain of sand now lying on a beach.
3. Write the “life story” of a rock and describe what it experiences as it moves through the rock cycle. Start with any type of rock you prefer.
4. Write the “life story” of a carbon molecule and describe what it experiences as it moves through the carbon cycle on Earth.
5. Write the “life story” of a carbon molecule but this time begin the carbon’s story in the furnaces of a star.
6. Write the “life story” of a water molecule and describe what it experiences on its trips through the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and organisms of the biosphere as part of the hydrologic cycle. 
7. Create a map of the region where you live. Show only the biophysical features, and omit political boundaries.
8. Pick a tree you will be able to visit easily. Examine the tree for a few minutes each day during the next term or semester, or even better, the year. Keep a journal of your interactions with your tree and what you observe.
9. Select an ecosystem in your community and enact a food web within it. Do the activity outdoors, if possible. Each person in the class should select an organism from one of the trophic levels. The group should have producers (plants), herbivores, omnivores, predators, scavengers, and decomposers. If the class is large enough, you can also include roles for other environmental factors such as water, soil, rock, and sunlight. For your organism, find a picture of your organism, attach it to an 8 inch square piece of recycled cardboard, label it in large letters, and hang the label around your neck with a length of string. Stand in a circle, positioning yourselves so that a web will form. (For example, a producer might stand across from an herbivore, rather than lining up side by side.) Give one person a ball of strong cord, and have them hold one end. That person, representing an organism, should pass the cord to another organism with whom they have a relationship. As they do, they should state what their relationship is. Continue passing until everyone is connected to the web and all the possible relationships have been identified, and pull the cords so that they are tight. Notice that some organisms may be connected by more cords than others. Now make up stories about the individuals in the web, and observe the effects. For example, a deer eaten by a cougar or a salmon eaten by a bear will remain part of the web but may pick up other connections as decomposers do their work, while a forest tree cut and hauled to a mill will lose its connections. The web may stay taut through several events, then unexpectedly collapse.

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. Using the Rule of 70, if atmospheric carbon dioxide increased 1 percent per year, in how many years would carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere double?
2. A country with 20 million people is growing rapidly at a rate of 7 percent per year. Another country has 160 million people and is growing at 1 percent per year. Using the Rule of 70, roughly when will the populations of the two countries be equal?
3. Create a graph tracing changes in a hypothetical population over 50 years. Begin with 1000 people. Using 6 population lines on the same graph, show the populations if the growth rate were 0.5 percent, 1.0 percent, 1.5 percent, 2.0 percent, 2.5 percent, and 3.0 percent. Now assume that the population was using all of its available resources at the beginning, and create a second graph showing the available resources remaining. For example, if 1000 people were using 100 percent of the resource and the population then grew to 1100 people, each person would have access to 1000/1100 or only 91 percent of the resource. You can use a calculator and draw graphs by hand, or use a spreadsheet program such as Excel to create the graphs for you.
4. A paper carrier, age 15, wants to be a millionaire at age 55. If she could earn a 7 percent rate of interest on her investment, how much would she need to deposit now to reach her goal? Solve using the Rule of 70.

Research Problems

1. Ecologists and population biologists talk about a phenomenon known as a population bottleneck or demographic bottleneck. Biologist Edward O. Wilson discusses this issue in his book, The Future of Life. Write a 1-page report on this phenomenon and consider how it relates to sustainability.
2. What fertility rate would result in the global population stabilizing at a little over 9 billion people in the year 2050?
3. Imagine you are to be a guest lecturer in a world history class. Prepare a 20-minute lecture describing Malthusian cycles, a name given to a pattern of innovation and population growth followed by a crash as populations outstrip resources.  Explain these cycles and how they occur, and give several examples from past cultures. Present the lecture to your class using PowerPoint.
4. Go to websites for the Population Reference Bureau and the U.S. Census Bureau’s World Population Clock. What is the world’s population as of today? What was it one year ago today?
5. What was the world’s population in 1950? What was it in 2000? What are the current forecasts for 2050?
6. Find the current rates of population growth in the United States, China, Germany, France, India, Kenya, and the world.
7. Review some of the current research on happiness and wellbeing. Can they be measured? What are their components? What is their connection to the study of economics? This will be a challenging topic to research using the Internet; you may want to enlist the help of a reference librarian or an ecological economics specialist. Write a 1- to 3-page paper summarizing your findings.
8. Impassioned protests against globalization sometimes take place, such as the 1999 protests at the World Trade Organization in Seattle. Write 1 to 3 paragraphs describing the issues that spark these protests.
9. Making economics understandable to lay audiences is challenging. Go to the website of Italian graphic designer Angela Morelli at www.angelamorelli.com/Angela_Morelli/steadystate.html and study her Steady State Economy poster, which translates Herman Daly’s work into graphic form. Write a commentary on this poster as if you were one of the judges in a poster competition. Is this graphic effective? Why or why not?
10. Look up the etymology, or word origin, of the word “wealth.” How does its original meaning compare to its meaning today?
11. Pull up the current year’s Fragile States Index. List the top 5 countries as of this year.
12. Compare this year’s Fragile States Index with the previous year’s list.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Imagine that it is 40 years in the future. The world’s population has grown much larger. Write a letter to your grandchild reflecting on how the world has changed as a result. What aspects of life were impacted? What things would you have done differently?
2. Brainstorm ways in which population growth in the more developed countries might affect your life 20 years from now. Now brainstorm ways in which population growth in the less developed countries might affect your life 20 years from now. Record your discussion on a flipchart, white board, or computer screen.
3. Imagine that you are on a planning board which is developing a long-range plan for your community. At the next meeting, the board will engage in scenario planning. To help set the stage, write a position paper for the next meeting in which you lay out the ways in which population growth could affect city planning, economics, food and water, quality of life, and any other aspects you can think of.
4. Select a developing country to write about. Imagine that you live in this country, at the age you are now. Write a short story describing your life, the family planning choices you face, what your family planning options are, and how you will choose among them.
5. Imagine that it is 40 years in the future. Societies found peaceful and humane strategies for reducing human population, and the world’s population is now 20 percent below today’s population and on track to reach 50 percent of today’s population. Write a letter to your grandchild describing how this shift occurred, what humans did successfully to make the changes, and what aspects of life are different than before.
6. An economist was recently quoted in a local newspaper warning of economic damage if the growth rate of the national economy should fall from 3 percent to 2 percent. Write an op-ed article in response. (An op-ed is a written opinion usually printed on the page opposite the editorial page. It is longer in length than a letter to the editor.) Address the problems inherent in the growth model, and if you can, outline an alternative to the growth model. You will want to write a well-reasoned piece, supported by evidence, in order to be taken seriously.
7. Consumption has major impacts on climate and other environmental factors. Yet reduced consumption could damage the economy. How can these conflicting needs be balanced? Write a paper or make a presentation in which you consider this question.
8. For several years a nonprofit organization known as Redefining Progress maintained a database which tracked current Genuine Progress Indicators. Although Redefining Progress is no longer in existence, the concept of a Genuine Progress Indicator is still actively discussed. Write a report in which you compare and contrast GDP and GPI. Discuss the history of the GPI, and describe its principles.
9. If your library has a copy of the 2006 book Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime by Helphand, read it and then write a summary with your comments and observations. 
10. Go to the Water Footprint Network at www.waterfootprint.org. Go to the section on Training Materials, download the Globalization of Water Role Play Game, and play the game as a class.

Research Problems

1. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a measure created by the United Nations Develop Programme which combines life expectancy, educational attainment and income into a single composite number. Its purpose is to assess the development of a country based on people and their capabilities, rather than on economic growth alone. Find the most current HDI report. Which region has the highest HDI rating? Which region has made the least progress since 1990? Compare the list of regions with low HDIs to the Fragile States Index discussed in chapter 4. What do you notice?
2. Research the Earth4All initiative. Write a paper that discusses what it is, briefly describes some of the people involved, discusses how it relates to the earlier Limits to Growth project, and lays out the solutions it proposes.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Select a developing country to write about. Imagine that you live in this country, at the age you are now. Write a short story describing your life, the family planning choices you face, what your family planning options are, and how you will choose among them.
2. List the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Brainstorm how each of these goals relates to population stabilization. Then brainstorm how each of these goals might relate to issues of ecosystem change, and how each of these goals might relate to issues of climate change. Record your discussion on a flipchart, white board, or computer screen. Alternatively, as a group develop a concept map which illustrates these connections.
3. Imagine that you are writing a handbook on equity and justice for an organization. Working as a group, discuss the meanings of the terms equality, equity, justice, and inclusion. Create a definition for each. Consider illustrating the definitions with examples.

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels. Global quantities are often expressed in gigatons (Gt) of carbon. If a carbon molecule has an atomic weight of 12 and a carbon dioxide molecule has an atomic weight of 44, how many gigatons of carbon dioxide does 1 gigaton of carbon represent?
2. If you drive a car which gets 24 miles per gallon and you drive 10,000 miles per year, how many gallons of gas per year do you consume? If a gallon of gasoline produces 19.4 pounds of carbon dioxide when burned, how much carbon dioxide does your car produce in a year?
3. Calculate the total gallons of gasoline consumed in the U.S. by 246 million light cars and trucks, if each is driven an average of 12,000 miles per year and the average fuel efficiency is 20.3 miles per gallon. Calculate the total weight of carbon dioxide emitted per year by all these vehicles if a gallon of gasoline produces 19.4 pounds of carbon dioxide when burned. Now calculate how much gasoline would be consumed per year, how much carbon dioxide would be emitted per year, and how much emissions would be reduced if the average fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks were increased to 50 miles per gallon.
4. Greenhouse gases are typically converted to carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) using their global warming potential (GWP) values. If methane has a GWP of 34, what is the annual CO2e of a landfill which gives off 3500 tons of methane per year?
5. Calculate how much carbon dioxide is released by fishing boats annually for a country of your choice. You will need to find how many boats are in the commercial fishing fleet. You will then need to research what sizes and types of diesel engines are typical, and get data on fuel consumption and emissions for the most common engine. You will also need to determine how many days a year commercial fishing boats operate, on average.  When they are in operation, the boats’ engines run 24 hours a day.

Research Problems

1. What was the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere in the year 1750 in parts per million? What is it today?
2. What was the average global surface temperature in the year 1900? What is it today?
3. What increases are projected for this century?
4. The breathing of 8 billion humans worldwide does not cause a net increase in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Why not?
5. Compile a list of the arguments offered by people who are doubtful about climate change to support their skepticism. For each of these, summarize what scientific consensus says in response.
6. Some scientists have noted a possibility that parts of Europe could actually become colder as most of the world becomes warmer. What would cause this to happen? How likely is it thought to be? Write a 1-page paper summarizing this phenomenon.
7. The term “tipping point” is often used in discussions of climate uncertainty. Research the concepts of uncertainty and tipping points as they relate to climate destabilization, and write a paper discussing what you found.
8. Select two glaciers from different parts of the world. Download the oldest image and the most current image you can find for each of these glaciers.
9. Visit a local plant nursery, landscaper, or farmer. Ask them what changes in the growing season they have observed in your area in the past 20 years.
10. Find analyses of how a 3-foot rise in sea level will affect one or more coastal cities. Write a description of what this sea level rise will mean to your chosen city, and include an illustration.
11. Find the most recent IPCC report. Briefly describe the scenarios used. Which scenario do you think is the most likely?
12. Write a report on the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a period of global warming that occurred 56 million years ago. How much did global temperatures rise? What impacts resulted from the rising temperature? What is known about the cause? What implications do scientists see for the modern climate change?
13. Go to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Download a copy of a map showing the extent of Arctic ice 5 years ago and the extent this year. New data are released each September, when the ice cover is at its minimum.
14. Calculate the carbon footprint of your household using one of the online calculators.
15. Calculate the carbon footprint of a typical home heated by electric heat. (Determine whether electricity is generated by coal or by hydroelectric dams, which will affect the impact. You will need to decide what constitutes a “typical” home.) Calculate the carbon footprint of the same home if it is converted to heating by natural gas. How do the annual carbon dioxide emissions change?
16. An earlier IPCC report recommended an atmospheric concentration of 450 parts per million carbon dioxide equivalent. Some climate scientists are now saying the concentration should be no higher than 350 ppm. What are the most current arguments about concentration levels? Which is most valid? What might be politically achievable? Which level of greenhouse gas concentration do you think should be chosen as the target?
17. Find out from your energy management or facilities department how much electricity your college or university uses each year. Assuming all of this is purchased from a utility, how much carbon dioxide does this emit?
18. For how many tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year is each person responsible in the country where you live? In other words, what are the annual per capita emissions in that country?
19. How many tons of carbon dioxide per acre can a tropical rainforest sequester?
20. How many tons of carbon dioxide per acre can a temperate rainforest sequester? How many tons of carbon dioxide are emitted per year in the country where you live? If all these emissions were to be sequestered in temperate rainforests, how many acres would be required?

Projects and Group Activities

1. Imagine that the winter weather has been unusually cold and snowy in the region where you live, and that a local politician has commented this proves that climate change is not real. Write a polite and factual letter to the editor of your newspaper in response.
2. Some people believe that the greenhouse effect and global warming are natural phenomena. One argument is that methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide, is naturally produced by decaying plant matter in swamps and by cattle flatulence. They argue that singling out human activities as the primary driver of global warming is therefore unreasonable. Write a 1-page paper which discusses this issue.
3. Imagine that you plan to give presentations about climate change to groups in your community. You want to be prepared for questions. Someone in the audience may point out that global warming and cooling variations over time are natural, caused by shifts in Earth’s orbit and axis. Write a 1-page paper which discusses what you will say in response.
4. Schedule a class session for sharing explanations of IPCC graphs. Go to the most current report from the IPCC and choose one graph per student. For your chosen graph, explain its purpose and method. Try for a clear and concise explanation that would be understandable to someone not familiar with the subject.
5. Imagine that you are part of a team assigned to make a presentation to your local city council on the ways in which a changing climate could affect the region where you live over the next 100 years. For example, climate in your region may be hotter, drier, wetter, with more intense storms, with changing hydrologic regimes, or with changing plant and animal communities. Effects could include changes in sea level, river flow, ice packs, pollution, forest health, agriculture, ecosystem composition, human disease, economics, and so forth. Investigate any research which has already been done. Propose a menu of climate adaptation strategies for your region. Prepare a presentation to share with your class.
6. Organize a debate. Divide your class into three teams. One team will argue that there is a climate crisis and we must act now; a second team will argue that more study is needed before acting; and a third team will argue that there is no anthropogenic climate change. For your team, find data which supports your case. Be sure you understand what it says, and be prepared to support your arguments.
7. If you would like to be part of climate modeling research, go to www.climateprediction.net. This cooperative project is led by a team at Oxford University and joined by universities from around the world. Computer models help identify what is likely to happen as the Earth warms. Running climate models requires massive computing power. When you sign up, your computer will run a climate model in background mode at times when it is turned on but not being used at full capacity. If you like, you can watch the weather patterns on your model’s version of the world evolve.
8. Go to Princeton University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative at https://cmi.princeton.edu/resources/stabilization-wedges/the-wedges-game/ and play the Stabilization Wedges Game. The website provides instructions and materials.
9. As with almost everything else connected with sustainability, computer use includes tradeoffs. In some ways it reduces environmental impact, in other ways it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. As a group, brainstorm benefits and costs of computer and internet use, recording your ideas on flipcharts or a computer screen (which themselves are the subjects of your inquiry). Now identify research tasks connected to these potential benefits and costs and assign one to each student or group of students. After gathering data about these issues, develop a concept-map poster and a presentation which explore multiple sides of these issues. Consider offering to share your presentation with another class or community group.
10. Write a paper on the role of international treaties in addressing climate change. Survey the history of international climate treaty efforts and describe the current state of climate agreement. What is the next step? What kinds of international actions do you think might be taken as climate impacts become more obvious and scientific knowledge becomes more certain? Describe a possible set of incremental responses that could take place over the next 20 years, and include your best guess about timing.
11. Write a paper which investigates climate mitigation geo-engineering strategies currently being considered. Briefly describe how each one works, and discuss the uncertainties and tradeoffs associated with each one.
12. Write a paper in which you discuss the advantages and disadvantages of emissions trading programs.
13. Propose climate adaptation strategies for the community where you live. First consider how a changing climate could affect your region. For example, climate in your region may be hotter, drier, wetter, with more intense storms, with changing hydrologic regimes, or with changing plant and animal communities. Identify some strategies for adapting buildings or cities to a changing climate. Write a research paper exploring this subject, or prepare a presentation to share with your class.
14. Our planet faces challenging years ahead, as the dual crises of climate change and the decline of fossil fuels converge.  Some scientists predict catastrophe lies ahead, but catastrophe is only one possibility.  What if there were small beginning steps which led to a fundamental shift toward a sustainable planet?  Imagine you are a person living 100 years from now, looking back on our time.  Write a “history” of the small steps and the paradigm shift that resulted.  

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. A leaking water faucet is dripping at a rate of one drop per second. If each drop contains 0.010 tablespoon, how many tablespoons of water will be lost in a year? How many gallons will be lost in a year? (There are 256 tablespoons in 1 gallon.)
2. A leaking water faucet is dripping steadily. You place a container under the faucet for 10 minutes. You then weigh the water you collected and find that it weighs 0.83 pounds. How many pounds of water will be lost in 1 year due to the leak? How many gallons does this equate to?
3. A local pickle factory has offered to donate free 55-gallon barrels to residents who are interested in using them to store rainwater. Your house roof covers a catchment area of 2000 square feet. If your area gets a storm with 2 inches of rainfall within a short time, how many barrels would you need in order to store the full amount of rain that falls on your house? Neglect the quantity needed for the first flush.
4. Find the most current “Summary of Water Use in the United States” from the U.S. Geological Survey. Find the population for that year in the U.S. How many gallons of freshwater a day were withdrawn? Calculate the average per capita consumption of water.
5. In the same “Summary of Water Use” from the previous question, what percentage of total water withdrawals were used for irrigation? Count the number of students in your class, and calculate the quantity of irrigation water per day for which your class is responsible.
6. Providing a continuous slope is important in any drainage system. If a pipe slopes ¼ inch per foot, what is the equivalent slope expressed as a percentage?
7. Challenge problem: Assume that in the previous problem, the temperature of the water in the cold water pipes measures 50°F. That water goes through an electric water heater and comes out of a hot water faucet, where its temperature measures 140°F. How much is the temperature raised? If the hot water faucet is leaking at the same rate as the cold water faucet in the previous problem (leaking 0.83 pounds of water in 10 minutes), and if it takes 1 Btu of heat energy to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1°F, calculate how many Btus of heat energy are lost in 1 year because of the leaking hot water faucet. How many kilowatt-hours per year of electricity are used to heat the water lost through the leaking faucet, if 1 kWh is equivalent to 3413 Btus?
8. Challenge problem: It takes 2500 square feet of roofing material to cover a particular roof.  The roof is 50 feet long, slopes at a 30° angle, and measures 50 feet along the slope from peak to gutter. How large is the footprint of the actual catchment area? (Hint: Use trigonometry to solve one side of a triangle.)

Research Problems

1. Write a paper in which you explore the breaching and removal of dams. Discuss controversies and describe some advantages and disadvantages of removal. Include examples.
2. Write a paper in which you survey global conflicts over the privatization of water.
3. Research the history of privatization of water in Patagonia, Chile.
4. Go to the Water Resources website of the U.S. Geological Survey at http://water.usgs.gov/. Where can you go to find information about the location, extent, and the geologic and hydrologic characteristics of significant aquifers in the U.S.?
5. Go to the Water Resources website of the U.S. Geological Survey at http://water.usgs.gov/. Find the estimated water use data for the county where you live. What is the most recent year for which data are available? What percentage of water in your county was used for domestic use, industrial use, irrigation, and thermoelectric power plants?
6. Find information about the water table in the area where you live. Write a paragraph describing what you found. Be sure to cite your sources.
7. Determine whether your city or county plumbing codes allow the use of harvested rainwater and whether they allow graywater reuse.
8. Research graywater reuse in state plumbing codes. Make a list showing which states allow graywater reuse, which states forbid it, and which are in the process of changing their codes. Are the codes similar, or are there differences? (Remember that many states adopt a model plumbing code, such as the International Plumbing Code, and either adopt the entire code as written or modify certain details.)
9. Research rainwater harvesting for water supply in state plumbing codes. Make a list showing which states allow harvested rainwater, which states forbid it, and which are in the process of changing their codes. Are the codes similar, or are there differences? (Remember that many states adopt a model plumbing code, such as the International Plumbing Code, and either adopt the entire code as written or modify certain details.)
10. Write a brief report on how ultraviolet light provides disinfection.
11. Find out whether your local utility offers a water conservation program. If it does, what services are offered?
12. Consult a recent utility bill for your household to determine the cost per gallon of water in your area. Find the price of a typical half quart or 1-quart container of bottled water from your local market. What is the cost per gallon? How does this compare with the cost of water from the public water supply?
13. Biomimicry is an approach to design and problem-solving which uses strategies developed by living organisms. AskNature is the Biomimicry Institute’s online database of solutions from nature. You can find the database at https://asknature.org. Go to the strategies and find the category labeled “Get, store, or distribute resources.” List at least 10 ways other organisms have developed to capture water. Include a brief description of how each strategy works.
14. Write a paper or prepare a presentation to share with your class explaining the design and function of water supply systems in ancient Rome.
15. Write a paper or prepare a presentation to share with your class explaining the design and function of qanat water supply systems in ancient and modern cultures of the Middle East.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Think about situations in which the tragedy of the commons applies. Make a table in which you list (1) the economic activity, (2) the benefit to the individual, and (3) the negative impact on the commons. 
2. Write a story in which you describe the journey of a water molecule through the hydrologic cycle. 
3. List the foods you ate yesterday. Alternatively, list the foods you eat on a typical day. Go to the Water Footprint Network at www.waterfootprint.org and calculate as much of your diet’s water footprint as you can.
4. Go to the Water Footprint Network at www.waterfootprint.org and calculate your own water footprint using the extended version of the water calculator.
5. Find or reproduce a map of the region where you live. On the map, show the source of your water and the paths it follows from its source to your residence.
6. Write a report about the California Water Project. What are the controversies surrounding this water transfer project?
7. Write a report on the Peripheral Canal project in California. Summarize the history of the proposal, and discuss the economic, political, and environmental issues.
8. Write a report about the local water supply system in the region where you live. Find out who manages and distributes the water. Try to determine the age of the system, whether repairs or upgrades are needed, and what the costs and obstacles might be. Find out whether there have been any proposals for privatization and if so, detail who was involved, who supported and opposed the proposal, and what happened.
9. Go to the Water Footprint Network at www.waterfootprint.org. Go to the Multimedia Hub, download the River Basin Game, and play the game as a class.
10. Stage a town hall meeting to make a decision about water supply. Imagine that a multinational corporation with global water holdings has offered to purchase the rights to your town’s water supply. They have proposed to make large, desperately needed investments in the struggling local economy, and their purchase will bring much-needed revenue to the city government coffers, which are nearly empty. Decide which roles to include, and assign one to each student or group of students. Examples include a mayor, city council members, staff members from the local water utility, representatives from the corporation, a local citizens’ group organized in opposition to water privatization, a local citizens’ group in favor of water privatization, and a facilitator. Research relevant background to your role, prepare a brief statement about your position, and be prepared to discuss and answer questions. You may choose to have the city council vote on the proposal at the end of the meeting.
11. Draw and label a simple diagram illustrating the movement of water into, within, and out of a building, such as your school or home. You can use simple boxes and arrows. Show all the possible sources, how the water is treated, where it is used, and where it goes once it has been used.  
12. Conduct research and write a paper explaining the water supply, water treatment system, usage, and disposal for the town or city where you live. If possible, visit your local facility and interview someone knowledgeable about this system as part of your research. Include a map which shows the route the water follows from its source to disposal.
13. Write a report on your personal water consumption. Keep a log of your daily water use for a typical day. Estimate the number of gallons for each use. Indicate how you estimated the amount of water in each use. Calculate how many gallons of water you consume in one year, and calculate as best you can how much of that water is sent to your local sewage treatment facility.
14. Investigate the flushing mechanism of an ordinary toilet and explain its operation, using pictures and a verbal description.
15. If your institution does not already treat and reuse graywater, design a simple demonstration project to do so. As a group, decide what steps will be needed. These steps might include research, meeting with staff at your school, selecting a site, working out technical details, installation, monitoring, and communication.
16. Design a rainwater harvest system for a home with a catchment area of 2000 square feet. The house is in a rainy area that receives an average of 60 inches of rainfall a year, with a 2-week dry spell each summer. The home has 2 residents who each use an average of 60 gallons of water per day. How large a cistern will be needed? Will the home’s roof be adequate to supply the household’s water needs?
17. Design a rainwater harvest system for the place where you live. Include all calculations.
18. Carry out a simple water audit on one of the buildings that you regularly use at your institution.
19. Design a water conservation campaign to encourage staff and students to reduce water use at your institution or in one building of your institution. Begin by conducting a simple water audit. Then develop a water conservation plan. What is the potential for rainwater harvesting and graywater reuse? In what ways can users reduce their water use? How will you educate users? How will you motivate people to take these steps?
20. Imagine that people in your class are members of a legislative committee for water issues in a state where the aquifers are being depleted. Farm production is declining, and some irrigation wells have gone dry. The population of the state’s largest city is growing, and with it the demand for water is increasing. What will you do? Assign an area of research to each student or group of students. Then as a committee, discuss what kinds of policy changes you will consider in order to address this situation. Each member should then write a report detailing your recommendations.
21. Visit your local utility, water treatment facility, and wastewater treatment facility, if possible. Working in small groups, create and label a map or diagram which illustrates the life cycle of water in the area where you live. Include the source of the water supply, distribution systems, users, treatment sites, and beyond. Some groups may want to focus on residential use, others on commercial and public use, others on industrial use.
22. If your college or university uses bottled water, consider a Take Back the Tap campaign; go to the website for Food & Water Watch to find project resources.
23. If your college or university does not yet use low-flow faucets and toilets, consider organizing an initiative to replace fixtures with low-flow models. There may be grants or other funds available at your institution.
24. Quantify your college or university’s consumption levels by preparing an indicator report. You can use the water section of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Working with staff from your facilities department, use utility bills plus enrollment, employment, and facilities data to calculate total water use in gallons per person per day and per building square feet per day.

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. Sketch three hypothetical forest habitat patches: a circular patch 2000 feet in diameter, a square patch 2000 feet on a side, and a rectangular patch 1000 feet by 4000 feet. (a) Calculate the area of interior habitat if the edge effect extends 200 feet into the core from all sides. (b) Sketch a small road with a 60-foot right-of-way which bisects each patch. Try two versions of the rectangular patch, one with the road bisecting the long side and one with the road bisecting the short side. Now calculate the area of the interior habitat in each patch, assuming that the edge effect extends 200 feet from each side of the road right-of-way.

Research Problems

1. What are the current extinction rates?
2. What were the causes of the previous 5 mass extinctions? How is the current mass extinction different?
3. In the place where you live now, what animal and plant species lived here 20,000 years ago? 2 million years ago? 20 million years ago?
4. Explain what is meant by threatened species and endangered species. Give an example of each from the region where you live, if possible.
5. This chapter gave examples of invasive species introduced during the twentieth century. Find as many examples as you can of invasive species introduced by humans in earlier centuries.
6. Research the problem of coral bleaching and write 1 to 2 paragraphs describing what you learned.
7. Write a report on why mangroves are important, why they are threatened, and efforts to preserve them.
8. Find two examples each of threatened species, endangered species, and species of concern in your state or region.
9. Choose one endangered species. Summarize where it lives and how it makes its living. Report on the threats facing it. If possible, discuss how these threats connect to issues of environment, economics, and equity, and to larger social and political issues.
10. Investigate the ecosystem services provided by pollinators. What kinds of animals are pollinators? What types of cultivated and wild plants rely on them? How important is pollination? What are the current threats facing various pollinators?
11. Use information about geology and fossil records to create a timeline for the region where you live. Indicate the climates, plant communities, and animals who lived there, going back as many million years as you can. The timeline format may be written or graphic.
12. How many animal species in the country where you live are currently listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act? How many are listed as Threatened?
13. In 1971 biologist Barry Commoner proposed “Four Laws of Ecology.” What did they say?
14. Go to Conservation International’s Biodiversity Hotspots website. Select one of the sites; report on why it was designated as a hotspot and what is being done to protect biodiversity there.
15. If your library provides an online aerial photography collection, select a neighborhood in your area developed within the last 70 years for which you can find aerial photographs. Collect the earliest photographs you can, and see if you can piece together where old river channels and meander scars were located. Create a display showing images of the area before and after development, side by side.
16. Find a map of the region where you live. What river’s watershed are you in? Can you find where the headwaters are? Where does the river’s water go? Find out whether there is a watershed stewardship group for that river.
17. Obtain a copy of a flood map for the community where you live from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Locate your residence on the map. Determine whether you live within a floodplain. If you do, is it a 100-year floodplain? A 500-year floodplain?

Projects and Group Activities

1. Create a diagram that illustrates habitat fragmentation in a way that would be understandable to a layperson unfamiliar with landscape ecology.
2. Imagine that you work for a nonprofit tree foundation. Create a brochure that could be distributed in your community explaining the value and benefits of trees.
3. Create and label a diagram illustrating a food web. You can draw simplified pictures with markers, cut and paste images from recycled magazines, or use another graphic method of your choice. Illustrate a food web from one of the following:
   • a temperate forest
   • a mangrove swamp
   • coastal waters of the ocean
   • the soil
   • a river
   • a prairie
4. In their book Introduction to Environmental Engineering, authors P. Aarne Vesilind, et al ask a provocative question: “Would you intentionally run over a box turtle trying to cross a road? Why or why not?” Write one or several paragraphs in which you answer these questions.
5. Create a timeline graph of the American bison population over time. Show the population prior to the arrival of humans in North America, the arrival of humans around 13,000 BP, the introduction (actually the re-introduction) of the horse, the introduction of the rifle, the settling of what was called the frontier by Europeans, and the conversion of Great Plains to agriculture.
6. Pick a previously widespread animal, such as the lion, tiger, camel, or elephant. For example, lions once lived across Europe, the Middle East, and into Greece, and were featured on ancient Assyrian carvings. Camels, a type of tiger, and relatives of the elephant once lived in North America. Create a map which represents what you are able to learn about the population size and range of your species over time.
7. Select one city block or a 1- to 2-acre patch of land near you. Report in as much detail as you can what the area looked like 200 years ago. Potential sources may include local geology research, land use planning bureaus, natural resources surveys, historic aerial photographs, and records of public land surveys from the nineteenth century. Contact the reference librarian at your library for suggestions.
8. As a class compile a visual dictionary to help nonscientists understand the issues and causes of ecosystem change, suitable for your college to distribute to students, or for a city government to distribute to citizens. For your topic, provide a definition with a brief explanation, plus an image or images to explain your concept. Images could include photographs, drawings, or diagrams. Be sure to cite your sources. Each person should choose one of the following topics: habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, pollution, population, overharvesting, climate change, extinction, biodiversity. You may also want to include topics which deal with solutions.
9. If you live in a house or apartment with yard space, prepare a plan for converting your yard to wildlife habitat that could qualify as Certified Wildlife Habitat under the National Wildlife Federation program.
10. Write a report on reclamation of pits and quarries. What regulations are involved? What issues are considered in the planning process? Find a few examples that you think have been successful. What made them successful?
11. Write a 1-page report on Ramsey Creek in South Carolina, an eco-cemetery that is also a forest restoration project, or other eco-cemetery of your choice.
12. Obtain a map of your region that shows parks, reserves, wildlife refuges, and other protected areas. If you received a large grant from a land trust and could protect additional areas, where would they be? How would you select them? Mark these areas on your map, showing the sizes and shapes you would choose. Write a report to the land trust explaining your choices.
13. Read John McPhee’s 1987 essay “Atchafalaya” about the channeling and control of the Mississippi River, available in McPhee’s book The Control of Nature or online through the New Yorker magazine. Write a commentary.
14. Create a poster which illustrates the geometry of stream meander formation.
15. Keep a photographic record of your local stream or river over the next year. On a map, mark one or more sites from which you will record photographs of your stream. Take a photo from that place at least once every 3 months. Take a photo after a rainstorm if possible. Place your photos in a single document, and label each one with the date and a note about recent precipitation history. Add other comments, as you choose.
16. Create and label a diagram illustrating a food web within a stream. Include hyporheic and riparian zones. You can draw simplified pictures with markers, cut and paste images from recycled magazines, or use another graphic method of your choice.
17. As a group, draw a transect of a stream near you. The stream should be one that you can wade across. A transect is a straight line across the land. You can mark a line with a length of string attached to stakes in the ground, or you could envision an imaginary line. The line should go across the stream, cover the flatter areas on each side, and begin to go up the slopes above. You can divide the transect, so that one or several students take one section. Make notes at several points along the line, noting the height of the soil above the stream surface, type and size of rocks, understory vegetation, trees, and any other habitat elements. You will notice that all of these features change from point to point along the line. In addition to your notes, you can take measurements and record locations with photographs. Now use all this data to draw a long, cross-sectional view of your stream. Try to reproduce the slopes, vegetation, and other features at the same scale as best you can, so that you can get a realistic sense of the shape and various features. If you have enough people, you can have another team draw a transect 100 yards upstream from the first transect.
18. Build a stream table in partnership with a local school class or parks program. A stream table is a miniature model which lets you see stream dynamics at work. You can find suggestions and instructions on the websites of a number of university programs. Some science museums provide stream-building activities; if there is one near you, it can offer useful examples. As a group, research the size and materials you will use, and divide the tasks to make the project manageable.

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. A typical medium-weight mechanical pencil lead has a diameter of 0.5 mm. How many PM₁₀ particles, or particles 10 μm in diameter, could you line up side by side to reach across the pencil lead diameter?
2. If the half-life of a particular radioactive element were 1 million years, what fraction of the original nuclei would remain after 3 million years? That is, what fraction would remain after 3 half-lives?

Research Problems

1. Name five common building products and finishes that outgas formaldehyde.
2. What pollutants are found in wastes from the chrome plating process?
3. Is DDT still used in some parts of the world? If so, where?
4. The EPA provides a database called the “Toxics Release Inventory” (TRI), which some observers have criticized. Go to the TRI at www.epa.gov/tri and find toxic releases in your zip code. What kind of issues did you find? How understandable was the report? Toxic releases in this database are reported by companies themselves. How does that affect their usefulness?
5. Three materials commonly used in buildings are cement (used in concrete), steel, and aluminum. Write a report summarizing the environmental problems associated with the manufacture of each.
6. Investigate current research on the potential risks of a chemical known as triclocarban, an antiseptic used in liquid hand soaps. Write a report summarizing what you found.
7. Go to the Living Future Red List at https://living-future.org/red-list/. Can PVC (a form of vinyl) be used in Living Building certified projects? What does Living Future say about the substance?
8. Go to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution at https://www.unep.org/inc-plastic-pollution. Does the proposed plastics treaty refer to PVC?
9. Some European countries have banned the manufacture of PVC. Write a report summarizing the problems with PVC manufacturing. Summarize what you can find about the current state of PVC regulation in the EU and the US.
10. Find the agency which issues daily air quality reports for your region. Select a particular pollutant, and keep a 7-day record of the concentration of that pollutant.
11. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to conduct a New Source Review for any new facility likely to generate significant pollution. Some sources are exempt from this requirement; what are they?
12. Guidelines for methylmercury levels in fish are established by two federal agencies: the EPA and the FDA. Investigate the history of these setting these guidelines. What approaches have the two agencies used? Have they always been in agreement?
13. Research the industrial pollution control device known as a scrubber. Explain its purpose, and describe briefly how it works. What coal pollutant is generally removed by scrubbing?
14. Cement production results in very fine particulate dust and very high-temperature exhaust gases. Research and report on the types of pollution control devices which are used at cement plants. Do these devices eliminate environmental impacts?
15. Describe the basics of how soap works. (Hint: It is not a magical chemical. This is more like a mechanical process.)
16. Find out whether the county where you live has regulations limiting air pollution or water pollution, and if so, summarize what they are.
17. Using data from the U.S. Forest Service or similar sources, and selecting 1 or 2 species of trees, create a graph showing NOx or SOx concentration in the atmosphere as a function of tree size and tree canopy cover.
18. Find data which will let you create a graph showing benzene concentration in the atmosphere as a function of distance from automobiles.  What is the concentration on a sidewalk next to a street? On a sidewalk on the other side of a planted park strip?
19. Go to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) website at www.usgbc.org/leed and find the current LEED for New Construction Rating System. One of the LEED-BD+C categories is Indoor Environmental Quality (EQ). Look at EQ Credit: Low-Emitting Materials. What organization establishes VOC limits? What ingredient is not permitted in composite wood and agrifiber products?

Projects and Group Activities

1. Investigate what fuels are burned in your region. For example, you may find wood, other biomass, coal, natural gas, landfill gas, propane, fuel oil, and gasoline. Create a poster illustrating these fuel sources, their air quality impacts, and possible alternatives, if known. Or, you may choose to write a paper in place of creating a poster.
2. Write a paper which discusses three well-known nuclear accidents: Three Mile Island in the United States, Chernobyl in Ukraine, and Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. Give a brief summary of how a nuclear plant works. Then give a brief summary of each accident. How did they differ from each other? What is known about the health and environmental impacts from each?
3. The nonprofit organization for which you work is considering the purchase of an old former residence to house its offices. What environmental hazards would you look for in the interior, the plumbing and heating systems, and on the site? What would you look for if the building were less than 10 years old? Discuss as a group.
4. You are the sustainability coordinator for a company whose employees are complaining frequently of respiratory illnesses, headaches, and other unexplained symptoms. You suspect the building is making the employees sick. You will need to persuade your boss to allow you to interview employees and hire professionals to perform inspections. More funding will be needed to correct the problems found. Write a program request to your boss in which you lay out how you will narrow down the possible causes, what kinds of questions you will need to ask employees, the kinds of hazards you will need to look for, and how you will determine which professionals to hire.
5. The EPA offers a market-based cap-and-trade approach to controlling air and water pollution. Polluters can buy and sell permits to pollute and can receive financial rewards for reducing pollution. Write a report in which you describe pollution trading. Include a discussion of its advantages and disadvantages.
6. Your group is a committee of state legislators charged with reducing and preventing pollution. You are preparing to draft a suite of pollution policies. Not all can be enacted at once, so you will need to prioritize. Develop a list of policy recommendations for dealing with the range of pollution issues in your state. Decide in what order they should be enacted in order to have the maximum effect.
7. You are a sustainability coordinator in the local school district. Some staff in your district wants to implement a green chemistry program in the high schools. Administrators ask you what that means and what will be involved. Write a report for them which summarizes the principles and approaches of green chemistry. Discuss the benefits for the schools and the benefits for students, both while at school and in preparation for future careers.
8. Select several types of building materials and assign one to each student or group of students. For example, you could compare two different interior glossy paints available in your area. Choose one conventional brand and one which is sold as a zero- or low-VOC product. Compare their labels. Can you determine VOC content from those labels? Talk with the paint sales staff and find out how to obtain emissions testing information. Were you able to? How knowledgeable were the staff? Are ratings or test results given on the labels or on MSDS (material safety data) sheets? Conduct the same comparison as in the previous problem for other interior materials such as insulation, carpet, and resilient flooring.
9. Develop a brochure to help prevent nonpoint source pollution in your community. Developing material that is concise, understandable, appealing, yet comprehensive is a challenge. You may want to look at examples from watershed councils and partnerships in other communities for inspiration.
10. The drinking water in your town comes from a well. Plan the components of a program to educate citizens about protecting their water source.

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. Use your current utility bill to determine the cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in your area. Determine the approximate cost of gasoline per gallon in your area. If a gallon of gasoline contains about 37 kWh per gallon, compare the current price of energy for gasoline and electricity.
2. Calculate the total gallons of gasoline consumed per year by the nation’s 246 million light cars and trucks, if each is driven an average of 12,000 miles per year and the average fuel efficiency is 20.3 miles per gallon. Now calculate how much gasoline would be consumed per year  and how much consumption would be reduced if the average fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks were increased to 50 miles per gallon.
3. Express your answers from the previous problem in terms of numbers of Exxon Valdez tankers consumed and saved. Assume that the Exxon Valdez held 1.48 million barrels of crude oil, each barrel of oil contains 42 gallons, and 1 gallon of crude oil yields about half a gallon of gasoline.
4. Contact a solar installer in your area and find out the cost of an approximately 100 square foot photovoltaic panel for your residence, and determine how many kilowatts it produces. Get a copy of your power bill, and find out how many kilowatt-hours of power you use in a year, and find the cost per kilowatt-hour. (If you live in an apartment or dorm, you could use the data from a friend’s or your family’s residence.) Finally, calculate how long it would take to pay off the cost of the PV panel. 
5. You live in a household with an average power demand of 1.5 kW. If you plan to purchase solar photovoltaic modules which produce about 120 watts per square meter, how big an area of solar modules will you need to meet this demand? (Neglect factors of temperature, efficiency, and so forth.) How big is that area in square feet?
6. You are cooking for a dinner party. You use the oven, which runs at 3000 watts, plus 2 burners on your stove, each of which runs at 1800 watts. You run all three for 2 hours. How many kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power will you consume during that 2 hours? (Remember that a kilowatt is 1000 watts.) If your utility charges $0.10 per kWh, how much will you pay for the power to cook this meal?
7. If your television uses 200 watts and you leave the TV on for 12 hours a day, how many kWh of power will it consume in one month of 30 days? If your utility charges $0.10 per kWh, how much will it cost to run the TV for a month?
8. If your computer uses 100 watts and you leave the computer on 24 hours a day, how many kWh of power will it consume in a year? If your utility charges $0.10 per kWh, how much will you pay for that power?
9. Your college’s energy manager  has proposed an energy conservation project which costs $25,000 and will cost $2000 per year in maintenance. However, it will save $5000 per year in reduced utility costs. How long is the payback period? That is, when will the college break even on its investment?
10. You work in a company which has 100 offices desks with task lighting. Each desk lamp can use either a 60-watt incandescent light bulb or a 13-watt compact fluorescent light bulb. The lights are used 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. How much power in kWh would be used in a year if all the lamps were incandescent? How much would be used if all were compact fluorescent? If your utility charges $0.10 per kWh, what is the difference in cost?

Research Problems

1. According to the EPA, a gallon of gasoline weighs slightly over 6 pounds but produces over 19 pounds of carbon dioxide when it is burned. Explain how that is possible.
2. Collect the following information: How many barrels are current U.S. oil reserves estimated to contain? How many barrels are oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) estimated to contain? What is the current U.S. rate of oil consumption in barrels? If there were no imports or exports, how many years would U.S. oil reserves last at the current rate of consumption? How many years would the ANWR reserves last?
3. How many cubic feet of natural gas are contained in the current U.S. natural gas reserves? What is the current U.S. rate of natural gas consumption in cubic feet? If there were no imports or exports, how many years would U.S. natural gas reserves last at the current rate of consumption?
4. Look at an insolation map for the area where you live. How much solar energy reaches the ground on average in summer and in winter?
5. Look at a wind resource map and an insolation map for the area where you live. Based on what you find, if your school were planning to invest in on-site renewable energy would you recommend wind or solar power?
6. Determine the total amount of power produced by wind turbines in the U.S. and the European Union in the most current year data are available.
7. If you live in the U.S., use the EIA’s “Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States” to determine whether any power plants using renewable energy sources are operating in your state. If so, where are they and what are their energy sources? If not, where are the nearest such plants?
8. Find data on corn ethanol, sugarcane ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel from canola, gasoline, and diesel. Of the various biofuel types, which provides the greatest energy output? Which requires the least fossil fuel energy input? Which produces the least net greenhouse gas emissions?
9. Find out whether your city or region offers incentives or subsidies for installation of solar or other renewable energy systems. If so, what are they?
10. Research and list the advantages and the disadvantages of heating with wood.
11. Imagine you are working as a sustainability coordinator and someone in your organization asks you, “Isn’t it better to leave bulbs on than to turn them on and off?” Try to get a detailed answer for them. Calculate the carbon and energy footprints of manufacturing a 13W compact fluorescent light bulb and of running it for an hour.  See if you can find information on how much, or whether, the bulb’s life expectancy is shortened with each off-on cycle.  Calculate the break-even point between switching it off and letting it burn, in number of minutes.
12. Determine when your region will switch from standard time to daylight savings time. For one week before the switch, record the number of hours each light bulb in your household is on, and record how many watts each consumes. Do the same for the week after the switch. Insofar as possible, try to use lights as you normally would without letting your research activity influence your behavior. Calculate how many kWh you consumed for lighting each week. Did the switch to daylight savings time affect your consumption?
13. Find data from university research projects which have investigated whether switching to daylight savings time results in decreased or increased energy consumption. Summarize what you found in a report.
14. List the electrical devices you typically use every day and list the energy consumption rate for each one in watts. You can usually find the wattage by looking on the nameplate or power adapter of each, depending on the type of device.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Write a report which describes one of the following topics of your choice: how petroleum is extracted from oil shales, how petroleum is extracted from oil sands or tar sands, the process of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, or “clean coal” technology. Discuss the energy required and any other issues connected with extraction and processing. Discuss advantages and disadvantages, and examine the positions presented by people on both sides of the issue.
2. Consider the life cycle of a gasoline molecule. Create a diagram that illustrates as comprehensively as you can the environmental impacts of gasoline production and use. Include exploration, extraction, refining, transporting, storage, use, and any waste.
3. As a group, think about all the items and materials in the room where you are sitting, including items in bags and backpacks. List all of the items which contain petroleum or other fossil fuel products. Now add all the items and materials which use petroleum or other fossil fuel products somewhere in their life cycles (extraction, manufacture, transportation, use, and disposal). If you find the list growing too long, reverse the question and see if you can find anything in the room which not made using petroleum products.
4. Keep a list of the objects you use in a single day, including consumable materials such as shampoo and lip balm. Make a note of any items which do not contain petroleum products, if any.
5. Think about how your life might change as petroleum production declines. Rob Hopkins suggests the following activity for discussing “life beyond oil” in his Transition Handbook. Put up sheets of flipchart paper. On one sheet, write “What would you look forward to?” On another, write “What would you miss?” As a group, brainstorm answers for each category.
6. Develop an action plan for reducing your institution’s fossil fuel use by 50 percent over the next 10 years. Meet as a group to determine how to structure your report and what categories to include. Then divide the work, with each student or group of students developing a report for one category. In your report, begin with a paragraph which summarizes existing conditions. Then write around two paragraphs which summarize your vision. Follow this with a plan which describes the practical steps which will be needed, together with a proposed timeline. Consider how you can include members of the surrounding community and integrate existing organizations. Include photographs or other illustrations where appropriate. Schedule a date for reviewing and commenting on each other’s chapters. Revise if needed, then compile into a finished report. Consider presenting the finished report to interested staff at your institution.
7. Prepare a matrix, or table, with a list of the renewable energy sources discussed in this chapter followed by 3 columns which list advantages, disadvantages including environmental impacts, and limitations of each source. You may want to start by brainstorming and listing your ideas on flipcharts or a computer screen. Discuss the tradeoffs between these impacts and the danger of climate destabilization caused by greenhouse gases.
8. Write a report on the use of hemp as a biomass crop for producing energy. What are the benefits of hemp? What are the obstacles to its use? Is it legal to grow hemp as a biomass crop in the region where you live?
9. Your institution is considering a switch to hydrogen fuel cell cars, but no one seems to know what that means. Prepare a report or presentation which will help make this subject clear to a nontechnical audience. Include one or more diagrams or illustrations. Explain how a fuel cell works. Clarify how hydrogen relates to fuel cells. Consider what types of nonpolluting, renewable energy sources might be used to produce hydrogen. Discuss the current state of research and development. Discuss advantages and disadvantages.
10. Your institution has decided to convert its power sources to 100 percent renewable resources. You are charged with organizing the transition. Work as a group to identify the kinds of issues you will need to address. Develop a list of criteria for choosing renewable sources. Write up a plan which includes a general timeline.
11. Our planet faces challenging years ahead, as the dual crises of climate change and the decline of fossil fuels converge.  Some scientists predict catastrophe lies ahead, but catastrophe is only one possibility.  What if there were small beginning steps which led to a fundamental shift toward a sustainable planet?  Imagine you are a person living 100 years from now, looking back on our time.  Write a “history” of the small steps and the paradigm shift that resulted, with a focus on energy production and consumption.  
12. As a group, brainstorm the factors you would need to consider in order to evaluate the life-cycle costs of one type of biofuel of your choice, from raw materials through production, use, and disposal. Consider environmental, economic, and social factors. Create a diagram or concept map which illustrates this process.
13. Create a table listing common appliances found and common activities done in and around the home. For each, list what alternatives people might have used instead 60 or 100 years ago. How did people get along without them? What did they use or do instead?
14. Carry out a simple energy audit on one of the buildings that you regularly use at your institution.
15. Design an energy awareness campaign to encourage staff and students to reduce energy use at your institution or in one building of your institution. In what ways can they reduce energy use? How will you educate users? How will you motivate people to take these steps?

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. A particular window has a U-value of .20. What is its equivalent R-value?
2. To warm a space using passive solar heat, in general the window area should be 8 to 15 percent as large as the floor area. If a designer wants to bring solar heat into a south-facing room whose floor measures 15 feet by 20 feet, what is the largest area of window opening that would be appropriate? Give two examples of window dimensions that would provide that area.
3. To illuminate a room using daylighting, in general the window area should be 20 to 25 percent as large as the floor area.  If a designer wants to use daylighting in a north-facing room whose floor measures 15 feet by 20 feet, what area of window opening would be appropriate? Give two examples of window dimensions that would provide that area.
4. Challenge problem: You live in a 1500-square foot house with 8-foot ceilings. What is the volume of air inside the house? If 4 people live in this house, and you want 15 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of fresh air per person, how many complete air changes per hour (ach) would an HVAC system need to supply?

Research Problems

1. Write a brief paper in which you compare rammed earth and strawbale wall construction. Include a description of each and list the advantages and disadvantages of each.
2. Find out what kind of heating and cooling systems are used in the building in which your class meets.
3. Write a brief report in which you describe and compare three types of solar collector: the flat-plate collector, evacuated-tube collector, and concentrating collector.
4. Find a college or university website which describes how to use a sun path chart. Determine the approximate latitude of the town where you live. Find a sun path chart that is closest to that latitude. At noon on December 21 (the winter solstice), at what vertical angle or altitude will the sun’s rays strike a building? At noon on June 21 (the summer solstice), at what vertical angle or altitude will the sun’s rays strike a building? At 3:00 in the afternoon on December 21, at what horizontal angle or azimuth will the sun be shining towards your building? At 3:00 in the afternoon on June 21, at what horizontal angle or azimuth will the sun be shining towards your building?
5. What materials are used in plywood and in oriented strand board? Is one “greener” than another? Why or why not?
6. What are the elements of the method known as advanced framing, used in residential construction? How does it differ from conventional framing? How does it result it more sustainable building?
7. Every year the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA/COTE) selects ten projects for its AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects award. Look through the list of award winners at www.aiatopten.org. Find a project which appears to use passive solar principles for providing at least some of its heat. (Because of their shapes or internal heat gains, not all buildings are candidates for passive solar design.) What is the name and year of the project you found? Where is it located? What are the clues that it is heated using passive solar principles?
8. Go to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) website at www.usgbc.org and find the current LEED Residential Rating System. Is there a section labeled “passive solar design?” Of the 9 major categories, under which category could a home’s solar design get points? Now find the section which explains that major category. Which subcategory best applies to getting points for a home’s passive solar design?
9. Create a diagram, poster, or presentation or write a brief report illustrating how wind towers achieve passive cooling in hot climates.
10. Create a diagram, poster, or presentation or write a brief report illustrating how solar chimneys can augment natural ventilation.
11. Dockside Green, a 15-acre village in Victoria, B.C., achieved a Platinum rating under LEED-ND. Find some discussions with photographs of this site. With what you know about green building and biophilia, do you think this development is biophilic? Why or why not? 

Projects and Group Activities

1. As a group, make a list of ecosystem services. Then brainstorm some ways that buildings could provide their own ecosystem services. Record your discussion on a flipchart, white board, or computer screen. Alternatively, as a group develop a concept map which illustrates these strategies.
2. List three materials used in the building in which your class meets or in which you live that are manufactured at distant locations. Investigate which ones could be locally sourced. If local sources are not available, investigate alternative building materials which could have been used instead. Develop a directory of building materials which are available within your bioregion.
3. Imagine that people in your class are members of a legislative committee for land use planning in the U.S. Congress. It is typically assumed that development always has a negative environmental impact. Your committee has decided to pursue a new policy direction and to investigate the possibilities for promoting regenerative planning and design. As a committee, discuss what kinds of policies you will consider in order to foster a structural evolution toward regenerative cities. Each member should then write a report detailing your recommendations.
4. Write a report on ways in which buildings can reflect and foster biophilia.
5. Write a report on the application of biophilic design in health care settings.
6. Identify on a map the climate types in the country or region where you live or another region of your choice. Research the forms of indigenous architecture which developed in each.  Create a poster or prepare a presentation to share with your class showing climate characteristics of each region and the styles of shelter which responded to each climate type.
7. Write a research paper or prepare a presentation to share with your class exploring climate-adaptive vernacular design. For example, compare Native American building strategies of tribes in three regions of North America.  Possibilities include Alaskan Inuit, Pacific Northwest Coast, Columbia River Chinookan, Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, Great Plains tipis, Southwest, Northeast, or Southeast tribes.
8. Select several materials used in a typical building. Examples could include steel, lumber, oriented strand board, cork, linoleum, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Assign one material to each student or group of students. Create a diagram or concept map which illustrates the life cycle of each material, from raw material acquisition through production, use, and disposal. Consider environmental, economic, and social impacts.
9. Investigate how wasps, bees, ants, and African mound-builder termites heat and cool their dwellings. Assign one animal type to each student or group of students. Prepare presentations to share with your class illustrating the strategies of these resourceful animals.
10. Find an example of a local LEED-certified project. Meet with the designers, if possible. Describe the “life story” of the project. What were the steps in the design process? Who was involved? What obstacles or problems were encountered? How did they solve these? What strategies were used to get LEED points? Present what you found in a written paper or in a presentation to share with your class. Include photographs and diagrams.
11. You would like to retrofit your house or the building where you live to use passive solar heating and passive cooling, and to minimize or eliminate mechanical heating and cooling. Think about the building features which are required for passive heating and cooling. How feasible would it be to retrofit your building? Write a report, illustrated with photographs or diagrams, analyzing whether or not a retrofit is possible, and explaining why or why not.
12. Imagine you are a person living 100 years from now, looking back on our time.  The ways we build and inhabit our buildings have changed. Our buildings are now regenerative instead of destructive. Imagine in as much detail as you can what the built world is like now, and write a “history” of the changes in building design and construction which led to a fundamental shift toward a sustainable planet.

Research Problems

1. A new development is planned for your town. Budgets are being prepared for construction of infrastructure including storm sewers. As part of the planning team, you would like to consider using green infrastructure in place of some of the pipes. Conduct research on towns which use bioswales, rain gardens, and constructed wetlands to treat stormwater and graywater. Present what you found as a precedent study using posters or presentation software. Be sure to include illustrations of the precedents you found to show that these solutions can be attractive.
2. Conduct an informal energy audit of the wastewater treatment plant where you live, insofar as is possible. What are the primary contributors to its energy consumption and carbon footprint?
3. Write a letter to your city council in which you propose that their new public swimming pool be a natural swimming pool, with the water cleansed by a constructed wetland. Try to anticipate what their objections might be, and address them in your letter. Describe what the benefits will be to the city and its residents. That is, why should they consider this?
4. Find out which local, state, or federal bodies write the rules which govern stormwater management in the city or county where you live.
5. Find out whether permeable concrete or permeable asphalt are available in the area where you live. Are there any contractors who specialize in their installation? How do the costs compare to conventional concrete or asphalt paving?
6. Research on-site wastewater treatment in state plumbing codes. Make a list showing which states allow on-site wastewater treatment, which states forbid it, and which are in the process of changing their codes. Are the codes similar, or are there differences? (Remember that many states adopt a model plumbing code, such as the International Plumbing Code, and either adopt the entire code as written or modify certain details.)
7. Determine where and how wastewater from the community where you live is treated. Write a brief paragraph summarizing what you found.
8. Conduct research and write a paper explaining the wastewater water treatment system for the town or city where you live. If possible, visit your local facility and interview someone knowledgeable about this system as part of your research. 

Projects and Group Activities

1. Write a research paper or prepare a presentation to share with your class which illustrates the ecosystem services provided by an ecologically healthy site.
2. Draw and label a simple flowchart or diagram to illustrate what happens to stormwater that enters storm drains during a 2-year storm and during a major rainstorm event in the city where you live. Don’t worry if your diagram is not an artistic creation; your goal is to communicate ideas.
3. Design a plan for an outdoor space where you live that will capture and either use or infiltrate rainwater.
4. Create and label a diagram which illustrates the major steps in wastewater treatment processes. You can draw simplified pictures with markers, cut and paste images from recycled magazines, or use another graphic method of your choice.
5. Stormwater runoff in urban areas is often carried away in pipes, where the water is hidden from view. Select a building or other site at your college or university. As a group, brainstorm some ways your school might be able to make water processes visible. Consider why a school or other organization might want to make these processes visible: what are the benefits? Then develop a proposal in as much detail as you can.
6. Write a brief paper, prepare a 5-minute presentation to share with your class, or create an illustrated poster explaining how Living Machines treat wastewater. 
7. Write a brief paper, prepare a 5-minute presentation to share with your class, or create an illustrated poster explaining how sewage lagoons treat wastewater.
8. Write a brief paper, prepare a 5-minute presentation to share with your class, or create an illustrated poster explaining how constructed wetlands treat wastewater.
9. Research and report on the differences between surface flow and subsurface flow wetlands. How do they transform and remove pollutants from water?
10. A new development is planned for the community where you live. As a group, create a proposal for treating stormwater using lagoons or wetlands that will also serve as habitat and public open space. First, conduct research on other communities which have developed similar solutions, and present them as a precedent study using posters or presentation software. Then, find a potential location in your community and develop a preliminary plan for implementing this project.
11. Perform a lighting audit of the neighborhood where you live. Determine what elements might be causing light pollution, and what elements are adequate for preventing light pollution. Compile your findings in a list of recommendations.
12. Cities within the European Union are required to develop noise maps and noise action plans. If your city or town does not yet have these, launch an initiative. First, find examples of noise maps, then create one for your town. Then, find examples of noise action plans, and create one for your town. Contact your city officials before you begin, to see whether they would like to receive a copy of your work and would consider implementing your plan.

Research Problems

1. Investigate the early history of 1 to 3 cities in your state or province. Why did they begin developing where they did?
2. One of the trends of the modern era is a population shift from rural to urban areas. Investigate and report on the factors which have driven this shift.
3. Conduct an interview with a representative of a neighborhood group regarding issues of increased density on infill sites in low-density neighborhoods. Write a brief summary of your conversation.
4. Find out what processes are used in your local government area to bring the community into the decision making process related to urban planning, development and management. Make a list of what you consider to be the strengths and weaknesses of these processes.
5. Some critics disagree with some of the approaches of New Urbanism. Write a report discussing advantages and criticisms of New Urbanism.
6. Compare and contrast the approaches and strategies of smart growth and New Urbanism. How are they similar? How are they different?
7. Prepare a presentation on an urban development being designed as an eco-city, such as Tianjin in China. What are its goals and strategies? What tradeoffs must the design wrestle with? Do you think this project did or will achieve its goals?
8. Look up the principles of sustainability as defined by Agenda 21. Are these principles compatible with current development practice?
9. Using a detailed map and other data sources, determine how much land in your community is devoted to private vehicles. Include roads, driveways, parking lots, and support services such as tire stores and gas stations. Determine as best you can how much land would be devoted to public transit instead if it replaced the automobile as the primary mode of transportation. This project would be a good use of geographic information systems software, for students who are familiar with GIS.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Write a report on strategies used by a city such as Boulder, Colorado, Portland, Oregon,  Copenhagen, Denmark, or other city of your choice, to control urban growth. What mechanisms have they used? What advantages and disadvantages can you see? How have these strategies affected inhabitants’ quality of life? Have they allowed room for diverse income levels, or have limits to growth driven up housing prices and driven out poor people? What obstacles and concerns do these cities face?
2. Imagine students in your class are members of the city council in the city where you live. Develop a set of strategies to gradually move the settlement patterns away from suburban sprawl and toward eco-villages and smart-growth, transit-oriented neighborhood cores. Compile your proposals into a report, a planning manual, or a set of development guidelines.
3. As a group, brainstorm the outcomes that would result if your city implemented a new policy requiring urban office buildings to provide an increased number of parking spaces. Then brainstorm the outcomes that would result if your city implemented a policy decreasing the number of parking spaces allowed for urban office buildings. Record your discussion on a flipchart, white board, or computer screen. Alternatively, as a group develop a concept map which illustrates your conclusions.
4. Stage a meeting of a local planning commission. 3 to 5 students should assume the role of planning commission members, 3 to 5 students should assume the role of developers who are applying for permits to build a typical suburban subdivision, and 3 to 5 students should assume the role of community activists arguing for alternative neighborhood development. Research relevant background to your role, prepare a brief statement about your position, and be prepared to discuss and answer questions. You may choose to have the planning commission vote on the proposal at the end of the meeting.
5. Hold a retrospective cities day in your class. Each student should choose one large city from the past and prepare a presentation on the kind of setting where it was located, how it was organized, how its buildings provided shelter and comfort, how it fed its citizens, how it supplied water, and how it handled garbage and waste. Examples can include ancient Rome, 14th century Hangzhou in China, both of which had populations of around 1 million, Athens in ancient Greece, Mayan and Incan cities, Cahokia in Illinois, and various other cities in Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
6. A city of a million inhabitants expects to absorb an additional million climate refugees in the next ten years.  Develop a food production plan that will accommodate them within the current city limits and that will provide quality of life, sense of community, and a diversity of crops.
7. Imagine that it is 50 years in the future. The city where you live has successfully made the transition to a carbon-free, nonfossil-fuel economy and has strategies in place for adapting to a changing climate. Inhabitants enjoy a livable environment, food security, healthy and diverse communities surrounded by healthy ecosystems, and economic opportunity for everyone. Prepare a simulated television documentary, talk show interview, tour guide commentary, travel show narration, press release, or magazine article describing in detail what strategies were developed, what changes were made, and what the city is like now. You might begin this large and detailed project by brainstorming together as a group, then assign specific tasks and research to individual students or groups of students, then reconvening as a group to plan the assembling of the final product.
8. As a group, develop 3 scenarios for the next 25 years for the city or region where you live. Describe what kinds of characteristics will define each of the scenarios. Suggest some types of governmental policies that might be developed in response to each of the scenarios.
9. Imagine that students in your class are members of a transportation planning group at your institution. The institution has asked your group for a set of recommended strategies to reduce the number of single-occupant vehicle miles connected with travel to and from the campus. Research transportation demand management strategies used at other institutions and prepare a report. Suggest which strategies would work best for your institution, discuss costs and benefits, and propose a timeline.

Research Problems

1. Calculate the ecological footprints for (1) a typical diet which is 100 percent vegetarian, (2) a typical diet which includes meat at every meal, and (3) a typical diet which includes meat at meals one day a week.
2. Write a brief report on the advantages and disadvantages of genetically modified cotton which produces its own Bt toxin (from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis).
3. List the basic arguments given by proponents and opponents of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
4. Write a brief report on the advantages and disadvantages of biofortified food using genetic modification, such as was done with Golden Rice.
5. Write a report on the connections between biodiversity and food security.
6. Write a report on the advantages and disadvantages of aquaculture.
7. Write a 1- to 2-page paper on the subject of artificial food coloring and artificial flavoring. What are the chemicals used? What tests have been conducted on their safety? What legitimate controversies about their use, if any, did you find?
8. Find out which nitrogen-fixing plants can be used as cover crops in your region to restore nitrogen to depleted soil.
9. Determine the carbon footprint for a typical meal at home and for the same meal at a restaurant. Include transportation for the diners and for the foods. You will need to make some assumptions or educated guesses for some of the elements.
10. Pick a simple lunch or dinner menu and estimate its average food miles. Determine the weight of each ingredient. Find the distance traveled by each ingredient from its place of production to its place of consumption. Estimate distances with an online map service such as Google Maps. If you do not know where an ingredient originated, try the website for the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, which lists shipping and importing data. Multiply each weight times its distance, add these totals, and divide by the total weight to arrive at the average distance. For example, if your meal had 2 ingredients, the formula for the average distance would be: [(weight1 x distance1) + (weight2 x distance2)] / total weight.
11. Some people propose the use of hydroponics and aeroponics, that is, soil-free agriculture, to grow food on vertical walls or on green roofs. Research the sustainability advantages and disadvantages of hydroponics and aeroponics. Write a paper on what you found, and discuss advantages, disadvantages, and potential environmental impacts.
12. The Land Institute in Kansas is conducting research in perennial grains, using natural prairies as a model. These deep-rooted plants enrich the soil, protect water resources, and survive from year to year as part of stable natural prairie ecosystems. Write a 1- to 2-page paper which explains what these grains are, briefly discusses tradeoffs, and reviews the current state of research on perennial grains.
13. Select a food you ate today. Determine where it came from and trace its path from its origin to you. Identify the suppliers and distributors.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Host a lunch for your fellow students. Design and print a menu. On the menu, instead of listing the prices for each item, list the virtual water cost, the embodied energy cost, and the ecological footprint.
2. Write a research paper on the subject of corn in the twenty-first century American economy. Include information about uses of corn as a sweetener in corn syrup, the use of corn as animal feed related to meat consumption, the use of corn in ethanol, and federal subsidies for growing corn and their effects.
3. Some people who are vegetarians because of ethical reasons suggest that sentience is an ethical dividing line. That is, they do not eat animals with brains but do eat other kinds of animals. Other ethicists suggest the dividing line may not be so clear. Read several essays on this subject by major figures in environmental ethics, then write a reflection on what you have read.
4. Rice is a staple crop in much of Asia. Its lack of vitamin A has negative health impacts on low-income people, particularly children, in that region of the world. Researchers in some corporations, including Monsanto and Syngenta, have developed a strain of rice which has been genetically modified to contain vitamin A, known as Golden Rice. The corporations have granted humanitarian use licenses allowing their crop to be grown in those areas. Some activists and environmental groups oppose the use of this rice. Imagine that you are working in this part of the world, and stage a village meeting to discuss what to do. Decide which roles to include and assign one to each student or group of students. Examples include representatives from the local government, the corporations, food and humanitarian agencies, and environmental groups. Research relevant background to your role, prepare a brief statement about your position, and be prepared to discuss the issue. At the end of the discussion, have members of the local government make a decision.
5. Track your food’s origins. Keep a record of all the food and beverages you consume for one week. Record the geographic origin of each food, where possible. Calculate the percentage of your food that was local in origin, for example, food that grew within 150 miles of you.
6. Be a locavore for one week. Before you start, define what you will consider to be local. Decide if you will allow any items as exceptions. For example, the middle of a term or semester is not the best time for a regular tea or coffee drinker to quit suddenly. During the week, keep a record of everything you eat and drink. At the end of the week, write a report and include any additional observations or comments.
7. If you live in a house or apartment with yard space, prepare a plan for growing food in at least part of your yard.
8. Select one city block or one real estate parcel or lot in your area. Generate a list of ways to increase space for growing food.
9. Compile a class recipe book which features local foods in season.
10. Plan and prepare a “100-Mile Meal” as a class project. Find out which foods are grown within 100 miles of where you live, and in what seasons each is harvested. Your menu will vary depending upon which season you choose.  As a group, decide whether some ingredients will be permitted as exceptions to the 100-mile limit and if so, which ones. Your group might consider inviting others to your 100-Mile Meal as a fundraiser for a local cause or as an educational event for community members.
11. Construct a visual diagram or write a report illustrating the life stories, from field to table, of one or two foods from the produce section of your local market. If it is possible in the area where you live, select a conventionally produced item distributed by a large company and a locally grown, organically produced item. Research as many details as you can about the food’s path from seed to market. Find out where the seed comes from, whether there is a patent on the seed, and whether it is genetically engineered. Learn where it is grown and how the soil is prepared. If fertilizers, herbicides, or insecticides are used in the fields, find out what they are and try to collect details on their environmental, economic, and social impacts. Research labor issues in the area where the plant is grown and harvested; who does the work, and what kinds of pay and benefits do they receive? Now get as much detail as you can about shipping and distribution. How many times does the food change hands? How long is it held in refrigerated storage? What kinds of compounds are used to treat it for storage and transport? What kinds of materials are used in packaging? Where do they come from?
12. Imagine that people in your class are members of a newly formed city food policy council. You expect a growing population in the next 50 years, including an influx of climate refugees. Your task is to develop a comprehensive community food program which will provide food security for everyone, strengthen community connections, and preserve a diversity of cultures, while reducing the city’s carbon footprint and fostering community resilience for adapting to a changing climate and the decline of fossil fuels. Begin by brainstorming a list of as many strategies as you can; don’t be afraid to be creative. Develop a list of tasks and divide them among individual students or groups of students. Read some plans from food policy groups in other cities to get ideas. Do research to locate and map potential locations for food production in and around your city. Develop a proposal in as much detail as you can, including a set of steps and a recommended timeline. Consider presenting your proposal to local organizations or city agencies.

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. Develop a list of common household objects, such as a pen, a kitchen faucet, or a light bulb. Divide the class into small groups, and assign one object to each group. In your group, list the materials which make up your object, and try to determine where these materials originated. Estimate the ratio of raw material to the quantity of material in the finished product. Estimate how many of these objects there are in the U.S. alone. Try to estimate how frequently these objects are replaced or updated. Using the estimates you developed, try to determine the quantity of invisible material that lies behind all such objects in the U.S.
2. Convert plastic grocery bags to petroleum consumption: According to a recent study from Australia, driving an average automobile for 1 mile consumes as much petroleum as 14 plastic bags. If there are approximately 67 plastic bags in 1 pound, how far can a car travel on the equivalent of 1 pound of plastic grocery bags? How far can a car travel on the equivalent of 1 plastic bag?

Research Problems

1. In response to tighter fuel economy standards, manufacturers have responded by replacing some of the steel with plastic, making vehicles lighter weight. What are the environmental tradeoffs associated with this substitution?
2. Select a metal which is used in manufacturing and prepare a brief report or presentation to share with the class. Describe the ore, where it is found, how it is mined or extracted, how it is processed, typical products in which it is used, and how it is reused or recycled. Discuss what is known about remaining resources, and what you might predict for the metal’s use in the next few decades. Examples of metals include aluminum, chromium, gold, lead, lithium, magnesium, manganese, mercury, nickel, platinum, silver, titanium, tungsten, and zinc. The class  may want to assign one metal to each student or group of students. You may also want to include some of the rare earth metals.
3. Arrange a tour of a manufacturing facility. Take notes, and photographs if they are permitted. Work in groups to develop diagrams of material flows and processes. Write individual reports on how materials and energy flow through the facility, pollution prevention, and any green manufacturing strategies you observed.
4. Write a report on the development of the industrial ecosystem at Kalundborg, Denmark. How did it get started? What is working well, and what is not working so well?  Does the city envision doing more?
5. Think of a kind of product you might like to design, for example, a piece of furniture, a support structure, a propeller, a fastener, a waterproof coating, an air filter, and so forth. Investigate how you could use biomimicry to help with the design. Biomimicry is an approach to design and problem-solving which uses strategies developed by living organisms. AskNature is the Biomimicry Institute’s online database of solutions from nature, organized by type of challenge. You can find the database at https://asknature.org. First, identify the function you want to accomplish, rather than the thing you want to design. (For example, you might want “a place to sit,” rather than “a chair.”) Then go to the strategies and identify which categories you think could address your design goal. List some of the ways other organisms have developed to perform the function you have in mind. Include a brief description of how each strategy works.
6. Select a pair of alternative consumer products. Examples of possibilities include cloth and disposable diapers; paper and plastic grocery bags; compact fluorescent and LED light bulbs; disposable and rechargeable batteries. Conduct research on the life cycle costs of each and report your findings in a paper or a presentation. You may want to create and label a diagram to illustrate the material and energy flows embedded in these products.
7. Make a list of 10 products on store shelves which claim to be green or environmentally friendly. Try to select items from more than one product category. List and evaluate the claims. What does each claim mean? Is it measurable? Has it been verified by a third party? Who holds the company accountable for its claim?
8. Find 3 to 5 examples of symbols or logos from products on store shelves which try to communicate that the products are green or environmentally friendly. Write an analysis of these symbols. What did the manufacturers intend to accomplish? How do the symbols support those goals? In your opinion, are these symbols honest and ethical? Explain your reasons.
9. Find out whether any companies are using Pharos Lens labeling. Do you predict this project will disappear, or become more widely accepted?
10. Paper or plastic? Prepare a report which compares the embedded energy and other impacts of plastic grocery bags, paper grocery bags, and reusable polyethylene grocery bags. What are the tradeoffs? What environmental impacts would result from a ban on plastic bags? What alternatives might policy writers want to consider?
11. Determine where in your community citizens can recycle Styrofoam, plastic bags, aerosol cans, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, wood treated with wood preservative, tires, motor oil, paint, medications, and hazardous materials including pesticides. Write a report on how each is handled and what happens to it.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Write a paragraph describing the embodied energy in your choice of a pen or a pencil.
2. Select a few common and familiar consumer items. For each one, calculate its water footprint, its carbon footprint, and its ecological footprint.
3. Choose an everyday product that is in common use. Create and label a diagram which illustrates the life cycle of this product. Include paths of materials used in this product, from raw material acquisition to processing, manufacture, packaging, transport, marketing, use, and disposal. Show energy consumption and environmental impacts. You can draw simplified pictures with markers, cut and paste images from recycled magazines, or use another graphic method of your choice.
4. Select a make and model of automobile. Assign one component from the vehicle, such as the tires or the battery, to each student or group of students. Find its embedded energy, carbon footprint, and pollution load. Analyze the life cycle costs of your component as best you can. Then collect the data from the group to give an overall picture of the car’s impact.
5. Plastic is a petroleum product. As a group, discuss possible alternatives when the petroleum supply becomes too expensive. Following your discussion, conduct further follow-up research and write individual reports on the alternatives to petroleum-based plastics.
6. Write a Bill of Rights for consumers. Write a Bill of Rights for workers.
7. You work for a manufacturing company. You understand that products which are designed for long life and ease of repair help to reduce environmental impact. However, the management at your company prefers products which are short-lived and not repairable because they can sell more products. Prepare a report to present to management which discusses the financial and business benefits to them of converting to more durable products. Think about what objections they might raise, and address their concerns in your analysis.
8. Imagine that people in your class are members of a legislative committee in Congress or Parliament which deals with truth in advertising. Your committee is considering whether true environmental costs and social costs should be included in advertisements for products. What issues will you need to consider? What would a policy need to include?
9. Select one room in the building where you live, and make a list of as many of the physical objects in that room as you can. Divide the objects on your list into four categories: (1) objects which are necessary for survival, (2) objects which serve functions necessary for survival but which themselves are not necessary, (3) objects which are not necessary for survival but which are important culturally, and (4) objects which are desirable but not physically or culturally required. Write a reflection on what you observe from these lists.
10. Think about an activity in your life involving a device which consumes energy. For example, you might consider video games, television, exercise equipment, cooking equipment, or transportation. As a group, think about what services are provided by this device. Then brainstorm other ways this same service might be provided instead.
11. Compare servicizing and takeback programs. How are they similar? How do they differ?
12. You work for a light trailer manufacturer which is considering changing from steel wheel rims to either aluminum or a titanium alloy. Management asks for your recommendation. Write a memo giving your recommendation and explaining your reasoning.
13. Imagine that people in your class are planners for the region where you live. Investors want to build a new industrial park. Design an industrial ecosystem for your town or region. What facilities are already in place that you could build on? What industrial, municipal, or agricultural wastes are currently produced or collected that could be incorporated into an industrial ecology system? What obstacles will you face? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of implementing an industrial ecosystem in your region?
14. Investigate the possibilities for an industrial ecosystem on your college or university campus. Are there ways to use waste energy or materials from campus processes? Are there opportunities for partnerships with nearby businesses? Are there preliminary steps that would need to be taken first? You may want to collect discarded magazines as a class, so that you have lots of pictures from which to choose, and create a diagram of the industrial ecology cycles you envision using collage. 
15. Select a product or type of product for which you will create a label. Design a product label that would make it easy for the average consumer to understand this product’s ecological footprint, virtual water content, embedded energy, and carbon footprint and easy to compare it to similar products which might use your label.

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. A sanitary landfill has 40 acres of available space, with an average depth of 30 feet. 27,000 cubic feet of solid waste are dumped at the landfill 5 days per week. The solid waste is then compacted to twice the original density. In other words, it takes up half the original volume. How many years is the expected life of the landfill?
2. It is estimated that Americans, including adults and children, generate an average of 40 tons of solid waste per person per year. After compaction, 40 tons of waste takes up about 1000 cubic feet. Use data from the U.S. Census Bureau to find the current U.S. population. If each one of those people generates 1000 cubic feet of compacted trash per year, how many cubic miles of compacted trash does the U.S. generate every year? If you do not live in the U.S., find the corresponding data for the country where you live, then calculate the cubic miles of compacted trash for your country.
3. Determine how many dumpsters will be needed by a typical high school of 1000 students. Each student contributes about 0.5 pound of solid waste each day from the cafeteria and about another 0.2 pound of solid waste each day from other sources. The density of all the waste is about 200 pounds per cubic yard, the school wants to order roll-off dumpsters with a capacity of 20 cubic yards each, and waste pickup occurs once a week. How many should they order?
4. Determine how many trees are used to supply the paper which supports the education of one college or university student: Keep a record of your daily paper use for a typical week and determine the average daily use. Determine how many days will make up your years at school, then calculate the total number of sheets of paper you are likely to use during that time. 1 ream of paper, or 500 sheets, weighs about 5 pounds. 14 to 17 trees are used for every 1 ton of paper. Convert your projected paper use over the course of your education into number of trees.
5. Calculate how many trees per year might be spared by recycling newsprint: Consider a typical urban newspaper that weighs about 0.5 pounds per issue and has a circulation of 500,000 per day. Calculate the total weight of newsprint used per day. Assume that 65 percent of the newspapers are collected for recycling. In the recycling process, 15 percent of the paper is lost as waste. Calculate the total weight of newsprint that can be reused per day. If 1 acre of timber can produce enough wood to make about 14.2 tons of paper pulp, how many acres of trees are saved by recycling newspapers in this hypothetical city?

Research Problems

1. See if you can find out how many of the currently listed U.S. Superfund sites are former industrial reclamation or recycling centers.
2. In the city where you live, what percentage of solid waste currently is sent to landfills, incinerators, and recycling?
3. Write a report on waste-to-energy plants. Include a discussion of benefits and environmental impacts.
4. Write a detailed report describing the process of recycling paper. Include information about estimated greenhouse gas emissions caused by handling and transporting, what chemicals are used in the process and what happens to those chemicals. Discuss the extent to which paper can be repeatedly recycled. Discuss both the benefits and the environmental costs of paper recycling. 
5. Write a detailed report describing the process of recycling plastics. Include information about estimated greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants that result from handling, transporting, and processing. Discuss the extent to which plastics can be repeatedly recycled. Discuss both the benefits and the environmental costs of plastics recycling. 
6. Find an estimate of the number of tons of paper consumed per year in the U.S. by the mailing of advertisements and other junk mail. If 14 to 17 trees are used for every 1 ton of paper, how many trees are killed per year to support junk mailings?
7. Write a brief report on the process of recycling batteries. Consider both disposable and rechargeable battery types.
8. Determine where in your community citizens can recycle Styrofoam, plastic bags, aerosol cans, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, wood treated with wood preservative, tires, motor oil, paint, medications, and hazardous materials including pesticides. Write a report on how each is handled and what happens to it.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Conduct life cycle analyses of reusable glass milk bottles, reusable plastic milk bottles, and recyclable paper milk cartons as best you can. Compare their life cycle costs.
2. Create and label a diagram which illustrates the journey of a piece of garbage from the point where it is first thrown away to its ultimate disposal point. You can draw simplified pictures with markers, cut and paste images from recycled magazines, or use another graphic method of your choice.
3. Staff in the childcare center at the organization for which you work are concerned about the environmental impact of diapers. They believe they should switch from disposable to cloth diapers, but they ask for your evaluation first. Prepare an analysis of the impacts of these two types of diapers. Determine whether cloth and disposable diapers are changed with the same or different frequencies. Consider what materials are used in disposable diapers, what happens to them in a landfill, and what happens when they are incinerated. Consider water and energy consumed by laundering cloth diapers and what happens to the wastewater. Compare the energy and water requirements of laundering diapers on-site versus at a commercial diaper service, and consider the energy and pollution impacts of trucks in the case of a diaper service. Write a report which clarifies the tradeoffs inherent in each choice. Conclude with your recommendation, based on the information you have presented.
4. Imagine that people in your class are members of a legislative committee for land use planning in the Congress or Parliament. As a committee, discuss what kinds of policies you will consider in order to discourage consuming land for building more landfills. Each member should then write a report detailing your recommendations.
5. The company for which you work is considering improvements to their recycling and waste management programs, but some staff are concerned this will add more costs. Write a memo briefly describing the ways in which these improvements will benefit the company.
6. The manufacturing company for which you work has decided to implement a waste reduction program. Management has asked for your recommendations. Would you start with recycling? Are there other steps you would take first? Write a report in which you outline a suggested plan.
7. The small hotel chain for which you work has decided to implement a waste reduction program. Management has asked for your recommendations. Write a report in which you outline a suggested plan.
8. For one day, try to avoid generating waste that would be sent to a landfill. Do not just hang onto a piece of trash until the next day; whatever waste you generate in the day must be disposed of during that day. If a material is theoretically recyclable but cannot be recycled in the area where you live, count it as garbage. Toilet paper does not count as garbage because it goes to a sewage treatment plant, not a landfill. Cigarette butts do not count as garbage for the purposes of this exercise because quitting smoking is beyond the scope of this activity. Keep a record of all the waste you generate during the day and where you put that waste. Record observations you have about your consumption habits, waste disposal, what worked, what did not work, or any other comments.
9. For one day, selected at random, collect all the solid waste you generate and which you would otherwise have sent to a landfill. Separate the waste by category, weigh each category, and determine what percentage consisted of organic material, paper, plastic, glass, steel, aluminum, and other. Write a brief report, including any observations or comments.
10. Conduct a waste audit for one building on your campus. Instructions for conducting such an audit are available on numerous university and government websites.

Sustainability by the Numbers

1. Ecological footprints are expressed in hectares. How many acres are in a hectare?
2. About how many hectares and how many acres are in an American football field?
3. About how many hectares and how many acres are in a standard soccer field?

Research Problems

1. Calculate your personal ecological footprint. How accurate do you think this is? Can you think of any factors that might be missing?
2. Find the average per capita ecological footprint of a person in the United States, Canada, the UK, the EU, China, and India.
3. The term “ecological footprint” is sometimes capitalized. Why?
4. What are the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes? Are any U.S. companies listed among the top companies?
5. What is the Carbon Disclosure Project? 
6. Find an example of an organization that has received negative publicity in connection with a sustainability issue.
7. Find an example of an organization that has received positive publicity or increased market share by improving their sustainability performance.
8. Attend a sustainability workshop, conference, community meeting, or other sustainability event. Write a brief summary of the event, what was presented, what went well, what could be improved, and how you think you could incorporate things you learned at this event into your work in the future.
9. Find ten examples of agencies, regions, institutions, or corporations that have used scenario planning. Briefly describe how they organized driving forces and summarize each of the plausible futures they developed.

Projects and Group Activities

1. As a group, brainstorm a list of indicators you think should be used to measure sustainability in the city or region where you live. Work together to agree on a final set of indicators. Record your discussion and conclusions on a flipchart, white board, or computer screen.
2. Develop a checklist of questions to be used as part of conducting a preliminary sustainability audit of one building on your campus. Use your checklist in an initial site walk around the building.
3. Download a copy of the current Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) from the website of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Select one section, and use this indicator framework to conduct a sustainability audit of your institution within that section.
4. Download a copy of the current Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Decide which topics to include in an audit. Divide into teams, conduct a GRI audit of your institution, and prepare a report on your findings.
5. Select a common consumer product to analyze, such as a refrigerator or washing machine. Develop a flowchart to illustrate a life cycle analysis of this product. As best you can, include the inputs and outputs from raw material acquisition, manufacture, distribution, use, and disposal. In your opinion, which stage has the greatest environmental impact?
6. Develop flowcharts to illustrate comparative life cycle analyses of plastic and paper grocery bags.
7. Develop flowcharts to illustrate comparative life cycle analyses of cloth and disposable diapers.
8. Develop flowcharts to illustrate comparative life cycle analyses of paper towels and warm-air hand dryers.
9. As a class, prepare a sustainability guide, with succinct explanations and perhaps diagrams, which explains what individuals can do to live more sustainably, suitable for your college to distribute to students, or for a city government to distribute to citizens. Use group processes of your choice to determine what topics should be included, who will take which topic, how the guide will be compiled, what format you will use, and any other details.
10. Imagine that people in your class are members of a team at your institution which is developing a new purchasing policy. Work together to propose categories for such a policy. Assign research for one category to each student or groups of students. Bring recommendations back to the larger group, discuss and modify as necessary, then assemble into a finished purchasing policy. Alternatively, instead of a policy for your institution, you could develop a purchasing policy for a manufacturing firm, a city government, or a school district.
11. Imagine that people in your class work for an organization which is considering converting its fleet from gasoline-powered vehicles to hybrid or hybrid/electric vehicles. The sales and consulting staff travel an average of 30,000 miles per vehicle per year, the standard company vehicle is a Toyota Camry, and the company replaces each vehicle every five years. Your team has been asked to make the business case for converting the fleet. Select a Toyota hybrid and a hybrid electric model to investigate. Collect data on purchase prices, fuel mileage, cost of fuel, any government incentives, and any other data you think are relevant. Prepare a simple cost-benefit analysis, using a spreadsheet if you wish, and accompany your analysis by a one-page memorandum to management recommending purchase of hybrids or hybrid/electrics.
12. Prepare a cost-benefit analysis and memorandum as in the previous question, this time selecting other makes of automobile to evaluate.
13. Write a report on The Natural Step framework. Include one or more case studies of how The Natural Step was applied in actual organizations. Find out whether The Natural Step has been used by an organization in the region where you live, and if so, try to interview someone who was part of that activity. Or choose a specific company whose products you use regularly, and evaluate one of its business practices using The Natural Step framework.
14. Research the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Write a report discussing what you found. Discuss the main tenets of CSR and how they relates to sustainability. What career paths are possible? What are the potentials for misuse? Discuss at least one example of an organization with a CSR program or department.
15. Compile a list of companies which have sustainability programs or initiatives. Each person should select one and prepare a report to present to the class. How did the program develop? How is it structured? What are its goals? Which stakeholders are involved? What other observations do you have?
16. The company you work for currently has no sustainability programs in place. Some managers think the company needs to look into this concept, but other managers warn that it will just cost money with no financial advantage. They ask for your opinion. Write a letter to the management team outlining the advantages of greening the business and addressing the financial concerns. 
17. The Corporate Register at www.corporateregister.com provides an online directory of corporate responsibility and corporate sustainability reports. Each person should select one sustainability report as an example, and summarize for the class what you think worked well and what you think could be improved. After everyone has shared an example, discuss which one(s) you might want to use as a template if you were preparing a sustainability indicator report for a university, for a school district, for a city, or for a corporation.
18. Your college or university has just received a major donation to be used for moving the institution along the path toward sustainability. People are excited, and many ideas for projects have been proposed. You are on a shared-governance team responsible for choosing which projects should get funded first. As a group, develop a set of criteria to be used in making selections. (If you are having trouble getting started, you might refer to the section on criteria, pages 59-63 in The Step-by-Step Guide to Sustainability Planning by Hitchcock and Willard, 2008, for suggestions.)

Research Problems

1. Go to the website for the National Wildlife Federation. Find out whether any schools in your area have certified Schoolyard Habitats.
2. Go to the website for the National Wildlife Federation. Find out whether your college or university is a member of Campus Ecology. If it is not, find out what it would take to become a member.
3. Find out whether your college or university is a member of the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment.
4. Find out whether your college or university is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
5. Find the answers to all the questions from “Where You At? A Bioregional Quiz.”
6. Search the latest IPCC assessment reports and write a paper on the IPCC’s approach to Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), also known as Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK). Discuss how TEK has been incorporated into the IPCC’s work.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Divide the questions from “Where You At? A Bioregional Quiz” among individual students or groups of students. Bring the answers together as a group.
2. Think of a favorite place you had as a child. It might be a tree, a park, a porch or the space under a porch, a basement, a pond, or any other special place. Create a poster with a collage that helps you illustrate to others what made this place special. The collage can be made of images cut from magazines and other printed items that are destined to be recycled. You can add words, photographs, and other graphic images if you like, or use only collage. Write a paragraph to accompany these images and add it to your poster. Include other information that you think will help others understand what they are looking at. Be sure to include your name, the place, and your age when this was an important place in your life. Schedule a class pin-up day, and spend some time studying each other’s posters. Then have each person briefly explain the place they were illustrating and why they chose the images they did.
3. Create a bioregional map of the place where you live, without political boundaries. Show your watershed, plant and animal communities and their interconnections, energy flows, the foodshed, transportation, and other economic or cultural elements that you think are significant. You can draw simplified pictures with markers, cut and paste images from recycled magazines, or use another graphic method of your choice.
4. Schedule a class day to share examples of natural playgrounds and learning environments. Each student or group of students should prepare a brief presentation of a successful example.
5. Schedule a class day to share examples of places that teach or places that reveal process. Each student or group of students should prepare a brief illustrated presentation about one such place. Schedule the day far enough in advance to allow time for research; finding examples may take a bit of digging. You may find interesting places for learning in school playgrounds and yards, school buildings, city parks, zoos, botanical gardens, and natural history museums, among others. You may want to consult with a reference librarian or local design professionals as well.
6. Find an example of a successful experiential learning project for elementary age students. Research how the program operates, what approaches have been successful, and what lessons could help to inform efforts in other places.
7. Imagine that you are part of a team of teachers setting up a school for sustainable living for 10- to 12-year-olds, or another age group of your choice. Develop a plan for teaching a unit on “Soil” or another science topic of your choice in which students learn by doing.
8. Imagine that people in your class are consultants in an organization specializing in natural learning environments. Find a local preschool, elementary school, or multifamily housing complex with a conventional playground, and develop a proposal for an evidence-based natural play area to support learning and healthy development. Write a report for your clients explaining your design and the principles which guided your choices. Present images for your clients to help them understand the general layout and what this learning environment will feel like for the children who will be its users. You may want to include pictures of other play areas as examples.
9. Imagine you are part of a group developing a resilience plan for the community where you live. As a group, brainstorm what skills community members might need in the future during a time of economic degrowth, transition away from fossil fuels, and changing climate. Then develop an education plan, listing ways residents could learn needed skills and prioritizing what kinds of training should be offered. Be sure to consider issues of social equity.

Research Problems

1. Talk to representatives of your city or county government and find out what processes they use to include members of the community in planning and development decisions. Write a brief report in which you comment on the strengths and weaknesses of these processes.
2. Attend a neighborhood meeting that deals with a critical issue, or a city-sponsored meeting such as a planning commission or city council. Describe the meeting you attended in a one-page written summary and a short verbal summary.
3. Research the field of ecolinguistics. Write a list or create a table which summarizes some of the key findings you think are relevant to a study of sustainability.
4. Collect several examples of greenwashing. Write a report or prepare a presentation to share with the class showing each example along with a brief explanation of what makes it greenwashing.
5. Collect some differing examples of how the word “nature” is used in journalism and everyday conversation. Note who is speaking, and what interests are served by the use of the word. Look up the word’s definitions in 3 different dictionaries. Write 1 or 2 paragraphs with your observations.
6. Collect some differing examples of how the word “environment” is used in journalism and everyday conversation. Note who is speaking, and what interests are served by the use of the word. Look up the word’s definitions in 3 different dictionaries. Write 1 or 2 paragraphs with your observations.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Research and prepare a presentation to share with the class on graphic recording and concept maps, used in facilitating and recording meetings. Try to explain the methods so that people who are not naturally artistic will feel confident about using them.
2. Imagine that you are teaching a class in meeting facilitation. You want a handout your students can refer to summarizing some of the processes they have learned. Referring to the Companion Website or other sources, create a table which lists group process techniques and which summarizes the unique features of each as succinctly as possible.
3. Imagine that your institution is considering a conversion to net zero energy. Decisions need to be made about which technologies to use. Use a group process technique to identify the advantages and disadvantages of each renewable energy type for your institution and your region.
4. Write an exploration of how language can influence people’s perceptions of environmental and other sustainability issues.
5. Find a newspaper article to discuss in small groups that deals with some topic related to sustainability. Distribute a copy to each person. Each person will use 4 different colors of highlighter or 4 different symbols to indicate facts, values, myths, and uncertainties. Highlight the fact, value, myth, or uncertainty in each sentence or each paragraph. At the next group meeting, compare and discuss the results. Were they identical? If they differed, discuss why they might have differed.
6. Do some preliminary reading on how to manage meetings with difficult people. Then, conduct a meeting in which several members of the class in turn are assigned to play the roles of difficult people. You could include the non-stop talker, the person who wanders off-topic with personal stories, the stubborn person, the person who waits until a decision is made and then vehemently objects, the person who finds fault with everything, or other challenges you can think of. Before holding the meeting, discuss as a group what your goals are and ways you can move toward those goals in positive and constructive ways. Then hold the meeting and rehearse the strategies you talked about. Hold a debrief session after the meeting and discuss any new discoveries that came up.
7. Stage a public meeting of a local planning commission. Imagine that people in your class are residents of a small city which faces a planning dilemma. The city has a manufacturing company which employs several hundred people. The company wants to expand its facility. This is good for the local economy, because the expansion will bring additional jobs. Unfortunately, in order to enlarge their facility the company will need to destroy some meadow and woodland habitat. The additional employees will also require new houses to be built on adjacent farmland. The company is asking for a zoning change on the habitat, from agricultural to industrial. A real estate developer is asking for a zoning change on the farmland, from agricultural to residential. Assign roles to individual students or groups of students. You could consider including planning commission members, an urban planner, someone from the water-supply utility, company representatives, employees, the developer, a farmer, a banker, a representative from a local environmental advocacy group, concerned local residents, the school principal, and a newspaper reporter. Participants will need to spend some time deciding on roles, researching their roles, and deciding on how to run the meeting. The planning commission can vote on a decision, if you wish. Following the meeting, hold a discussion to debrief what you observed.

Research Problems

1. Research approaches to addressing inequality through social safety net strategies such as universal basic income and free education. Provide some detail about how they would work, and discuss their potential obstacles, challenges, and benefits.

Projects and Group Activities

1. Investigate the living approach known as cohousing and write a brief description. Find out whether there are any cohousing communities in your area and if so, arrange a visit. Either from the local visit or from other research, identify some of the challenges and benefits. What strategies have residents found to work best for setting goals and solving problems?
2. Think about what would happen if people in your apartment building, dormitory, or neighborhood decided to share household items. How would you decide which ones were appropriate for sharing? What barriers to sharing and cooperation would you need to address? What strategies would you consider for overcoming these barriers? What strategies would you consider for preventing conflict and for solving problems? Discuss as a group. Record your discussion and conclusions on a flipchart, white board, or computer screen.
3. As a class, prepare a sustainability guide, with succinct explanations and perhaps diagrams, which explains what individuals can do to live more sustainably, suitable for your college to distribute to students, or for a city government to distribute to citizens. Use group processes of your choice to determine what topics should be included, who will take which topic, how the guide will be compiled, what format you will use, and any other details.
4. Compile a list of current and former Transition Towns and have each person in your class research one of them. As a group, develop a table which lists the various strategies used. Then discuss which Towns and which strategies were successful, which were not, and why.
5. Imagine that you live 100 years from now. As a group, using flip charts, white board, or computer screen, identify as many aspects of daily life as you can from various perspectives and at various scales, recording what they were like before and what they are like now. Use brainstorming to generate as many as you can, then use group processes of your choice to organize the material. Discuss whether you think the transition has been accomplished by 100 years from now, or whether you think it is still underway. Assign tasks to each student or group of students, and write a final paper that describes life after the transition.