Education

Typically Tue 12-3 Posvar

Contact rkidney@pitt.edu for help with registration.

This course explores the ways in which policy can protect people from environmental and health harms, on local and global scales, and the factors that cuase such policy to success or fail. We discuss a variety of environmental challenges (e.g., stratospheric ozone depletion, e-waste management, plastic pollution, waste exports); attempted solutions with varying success (e.g., the Montreal Protocol and current efforts to draft an international plastics treaty); and the roots of these problems and barriers to solutions. Environmental issues are often borne from governance structures that enable the undervaluation of sustainable practicies and their benefits while externalizaing pollution costs. We explore how policies can change this, especially by making companies internalize their pollution costs, and how citizens’ oversight of regulatory agencies, including NGO-led litigation, can lead to better policy and protections.

This course begins by discussing Amartya Sen’s concept of “development as freedom” and reviewing the trends in poverty, inequality and human development indices in both developed and less developed countries. We examine how various development strategies – investments in human capital, public goods, and responsive governance; corrections to market failures (e.g., externalities, monopolies); and efforts to address structural discrimination (e.g., against Indigenous peoples) – can improve socioeconomic outcomes for individuals and communities. We also examine efforts to reform the international system, including food production, the international trade regime, the international patent regime, which influences innovation and access to medicines; and international Loss and Damage funds to support climate mitigation and adaptation.

Tue 12-3 Posvar

Contact rkidney@pitt.edu for help with registration.

We examine strategies at the local, national and international level to address the climate emergency and to transition to more sustainable and equitable economies. These incldue mandating climate risks disclosure for financial institutions, climate litigation to hold governments and fossil companies to account and the declining costs and technology advancement for greater deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency. We discuss how to advocate for shifting taxpayers’ funds from fossil fuels to renewable energy and for the just transition of fossil fuel reliant communities and how to counter climate misinformation and false solutions.

Typically Tue 9-12 Posvar

Contact rkidney@pitt.edu for help with registration.

The Sustainable Development Goals prioritize investments in human health. We study policy instruments to support innovation, access, and affordability of medicines and vaccines in developed and developing countries. These include pull mechanisms (e.g., advanced purchase commitments), push mechanisms (government funding for R&D), and public-private partnerships. We explore the national and international responses to COVID-19 to understand the need for and barries to global pandemic preparedness. We explore how World Trade Organization provisions and bilateral agreements between US/EU and developing countries balance (or fail to) medical innovation with access and affordability to these innovations. We delve into policies to address the public health impacts of industrial agriculture that accelerates antibiotic resistance. We examine how international cooperation has assisted or hindered responses to existing challenges (e.g., addressing maternal/child mortality, AIDS, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, diarrheal diseases). Finally, we consider the global health challenges resulting from the climate emergency.

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course will introduce the core principles of sustainability (i.e. Social, economic, and environmental) from the perspective of several disciplines and research fields. Covering a variety of topics such as urban infrastructure, energy policy and the environment, sustainable water-use, habitat sustainability and biodiversity, the curriculum and schedule are updated annually to reflect advancements in the field of sustainable engineering and science, and to continually incorporate current topics. While the course is primarily taught by the sustainability faculty fellows it will also consist of various guest lectures by sustainability faculty and senior practitioners working throughout the Pittsburgh region. Course assignments will consist of a series of essays and assignments and culminate in a team term project. This is a required course for the undergraduate sustainability certificate and the M.S. in Sustainable Engineering.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Letter Grade

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
Building upon students’ previous experience and skills, this course will focus on enabling interdisciplinary student teams to synthesize comprehensive solutions to complex real-world Sustainability challenges. This is a project-based course. Project topics will be developed in consultation with instructors and sustainability stakeholders. Innovative solutions will require the application of critical thinking and collaboration to resolve. By the end of the course the students will have a deeper understanding of 1) the multi-faceted nature of Sustainability solutions 2) approaches to problem solving across fields and 3) how to communicate sustainable solutions and concepts in an interdisciplinary team environment. This course serves as a capstone course for the Sustainability certificate and M.S. in a Sustainable Engineering degree and is a required course for these two programs.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Letter Grade
Course Attributes: Capstone Course

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course will examine the atmospheric and oceanic interactions that determine the nature of the global climate system. Specifically, the course will explore the origin, evolution, and structure of the earth’s oceans and atmosphere, the earth’s energy balance, atmospheric circulation patterns, and surface and deep ocean currents. The course will also consider records of past climate, evidence for recent warming, climate change projections, and climate change policy.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis
Course Attributes: Global Studies

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course is intended as an introductory interdisciplinary engineering course. Topics include principles of sustainable design in engineering, manufacturing, infrastructure, communications, and community development; overview of environmental issues for engineers; design for the environment; models of environmental processes; introduction to the use of life cycle assessment; and case studies examining the relationship of green design and the field of engineering.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Letter Grade

Select three electives. Only one elective can be in the student’s major department.

• ARC 0110 – APPROACHES TO THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
• BIOSC 0740 – YELLOWSTONE FIELD COURSE
• BIOSC 1160 – FOREST ECOLOGY
• BIOSC 1220 – ECOLOGICAL FIELD STUDIES
• BIOSC 1310 – WETLAND ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
• BIOSC 1610 – CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
• CEE 1503 – INTRO TO ENVIRONMENTAL ENGRNG
• CEE 1609 – LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT METHODS AND TOOLS
• CS 0090 – SUSTAINABILITY AND COMPUTING
• ECON 0360 – INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS
• ECON 0530 – INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ECON 1360 – ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS
• ENGCMP 0214 – SEMINAR IN COMPOSITION: SUSTAINABILITY
• ENGLIT 0710 – CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE
• ENGLIT 1005 – LITERATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
• ENGR 0034 – ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVES OF THE RENAISSANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY
• ENGR 1060 – SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP- ENGINEERING FOR HUMANITY
• ENGR 1283 – EXPLORATION OF ENERGY AND ELECTRIFICATION: BRAZIL
• ENGR 1605 – SUSTAINABLE DESIGN IN ISLAND NATIONS: GUAM
• ENGR 1909 – INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS
• FR 0075 – GLOBAL FICTIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
• FR 1036 – GREEN FRANCE: SITUATED ECOLOGIES
• FR 1077 – THINKING THE EARTH: THEORIES OF THE ENVIRONMENT FROM THE FRENCH-SPEAKING WORLD
• GEOL 0840 – ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
• GEOL 0860 – ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY
• GEOL 0880 – INTRODUCTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
• GEOL 1051 – GROUNDWATER GEOLOGY
• GEOL 1060 – GEOMORPHOLOGY
• GEOL 1330 – SUSTAINABILITY FLASH LAB
• GEOL 1333 – SUSTAINABILITY
• GEOL 1445 – GIS, GPS, AND COMPUTER METHODS
• GEOL 1515 – ENVIRONMENTAL GEOCHEMISTRY
• GEOL 1904 – DIRECTED READING
• GEOL 1930 – YELLOWSTONE FIELD CLASS
• GEOL 1950 – WYOMING FIELD STUDIES IN ECOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY
• GSWS 1450 – GENDER AND SUSTAINABILITY
• HIST 1019 – CITIES IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
• HIST 1695 – ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
• MEMS 1065 – THERMAL SYSTEMS DESIGN
• PIA 2231 – CONTEMPORARY US ENERGY POLICY
• PIA 2502 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: LOCAL AND GLOBAL
• PIA 2522 CLIMATE POLICY: LOCAL AND GLOBAL 
• PS 1357 – THE POLITICS OF FOOD, LAND, AND SUSTAINABILITY
• PS 1542 – GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS
• RELGST 1519 – RELIGION, NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT
• SA 1340 – SCULPTURE STUDIO: PROJECTS
• SOC 1445 – SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT
• URBNST 0010 – INTRODUCTION TO URBAN STUDIES
• URBNST 0114 – URBAN SUSTAINABILITY