UNH is proud to be a national leader in sustainability in higher education, and sustainability is one of UNH’s key academic performance metrics. The Sustainability Institute is here as a resource to support faculty across UNH in creating opportunities to integrate sustainability concepts into their curriculum.
As you prepare for your courses, know that the UNH Sustainability Institute team stands ready to help support you with programming, events, tools and other opportunities that can be woven into your course in a variety of ways.
We offer:
- Support and assistance for all faculty interested in integrating concepts of changemaking into their pedagogy
- Training and opportunities for students to apply the knowledge gained from coursework to channel awareness, abilities and passions in real-world settings with organizations committed to positive impact
- High-impact learning experiences and programs for all UNH students, no matter their discipline
- Student, faculty, staff, and community engagement in social innovation, an exciting emerging field that harnesses the tools of business and public policy
A program of the Changemaker Collaborative, the Sustainability Institute's partnership with the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics and the Carsey School of Public Policy, the Changemaker Speaker Series brings innovative and inspiring leaders to campus twice per semester.
Want help identifying relevant readings, creating post-event discussions and/or assignments for your classes? Email Faina Bukher. View our Upcoming offerings
View videos from past Events
2. Build Racial Equity into Your Spring Course: Annual UNH 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
An excellent opportunity to allow students to consider issues of racial equity in the context of your course. The Challenge occurs annually in April and is an outstanding set of resources and prompts focused on deepening understanding of, and willingness to confront, racism for twenty-one consecutive days. The Challenge goes beyond individual or interpersonal racism by helping to demystify structural and institutional racism.
Email Karen Spiller, Thomas W. Haas Professor at the UNH Sustainability Institute, for more information.
UNH is ranked one of the most sustainable schools in the country! Bring the UNH Sustainability Tour into your course virtually with our prerecorded tour, or we can tailor a live in-person or Zoom session to your course with an additional Q&A session facilitated by the Sustainability Institute staff and faculty.
View the prerecorded Sustainability Tour:
Schedule a live Sustainability Tour
Professional and student staff are here to support all students, in any major and available to make guest presentations in your classes. Sessions can be tailored to your course content and help students discover opportunities available to gain experiences to apply classroom learning and build problem-solving skills, courage and confidence to solve today’s pressing sustainability challenges.
If you have specific sustainability topics you'd like covered in a custom class presentation, please reach out and discuss your needs. Our faculty and staff have a wide range of expertise in sustainability topics - economic, social and environmental.
- Introduction to Sustainability
- Business for People, Planet, Profit
- Human-Centered Design
- Recycling
- Social Innovation
- Zero Waste
- Sustainable Food Systems
- Custom Presentation Topic
Each fall, we host an idea-stage competition that supports and shines a light on students who have ideas for innovative solutions to today’s biggest social, environmental and economic challenges. The SVIC is focused on unlocking and jump-starting innovative thinking – no detailed financials, implementation plans, nor prototypes are required. Entrants submit a 2-page paper and a 3-minute video identifying a problem and describing a solution - cash and prizes are awarded to advance winning ideas.
Many faculty report positive experiences incorporating the SVIC into their courses.
Incorporating SVIC as a semester project in my Sustainable Engineering course has been valuable and interesting for the students and an easy process for me. Faina is wonderful to work with and everyone at the Sustainability Institute and E-Center are eager to help students with their ideas. I set aside some class time to introduce students to the Sustainable Development Goals, human-centered design, and market-based solutions, but the class already covered portions of these topics and participating in SVIC just moves them a little earlier in the semester. I find students are more motivated and willing to challenge themselves because they are able to choose their own passions and get quick and meaningful feedback on their ideas. Some of the students have even continued working on ideas after class ended, participating in other UNH programs and beyond.
- Kyle P. Kwiatkowski, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
