Sustainable development is a predominant environmental, economic, and social concern of the 21st century. This course seeks to introduce students from across Cornell’s colleges to key concepts of sustainable development and how they are integrated into life cycle analysis (LCA) assessments of sustainability. Students seeking to expand their knowledge of sustainable development through readings, videos, written assignments, and interaction with their peers are welcome to take the course.  Students learn to evaluate sustainability by carrying out LCA assessments from environmental, economic, and social perspectives throughout the semester for a system/product of their choice.  Over the course of the semester, work is posted on an e-portfolio to enable peer sharing and commenting. Course is solely asynchronous and web-based. Additional course information can be found at our Sustainable Development page.

An overview of this online asynchronous course can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/b3299sustainabledevelopment/home.

The course was first pioneered by Professor Norman Scott in 1998, with subsequent development by Professor Mike Walter and Dr. Allison Truhlar.  Since 2019, it has been led by  Dr. Brian K. Richards.