The Sustainability Apprentice Certificate, the first step in GEF Institute's certificate pathway, is a great way to quickly educate corporate employees, high school and college students, and teachers on important sustainability concepts through engaging, online learning techniques. The Apprentice Certificate requires the completion of the 1.5 hour course, Introduction to Sustainability: Its Purposes, Challenges and Requirements. The course includes video narrations, readings, activities, assessments, discussion forums and more.  

$50.00 per individual

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Course Overview - Introduction to Sustainability: Its Purposes, Challenge and Requirements  

Essential Question

How do we create a society and economy that is aligned with the ecological systems of Planet Earth?

The Big Idea

Think about your day so far today. Let’s assume you woke up, took a shower, got dressed, made a cup of coffee, ate breakfast, checked your email on your smartphone, and got in the car to head to work or school. Have you ever thought about the “behind the scenes” of all these routine activities? Where did the water come from for your shower? What kind of fuel heated the water? Who grew your coffee and what are their working conditions like? How about the milk for your cereal—what are the laws that regulate its production? Your smartphone seems completely removed from nature, but where did all of those components inside the phone come from? What happens to the gasoline after it is burned to power your car to work? Investigating these types of questions is the entry way into understanding sustainability. As we will see, seemingly mundane activities are embedded in webs of relationships with the earth, materials, energy, plants and animals, and people all over the world. Sustainability is a way of thinking that allows us to get under the surface of things and see connections in enlightening and sometimes surprising ways.

In this section, we will explore:

• What is Sustainability? 
• Why is Sustainability Important? 
• The Three Pillars of Sustainability
• Business and Sustainability
• Systems Thinking
• The Participatory Sustainability Movement