Academics & Research

Institutions of higher education play a critical role in developing solutions for a just and sustainable climate future.

Temple prepares future practitioners, entrepreneurs, researchers, and scholars to take on meaningful work, and we're leading the way in forging innovative approaches to sustainability and resilience.

In its climate commitment, Temple University embraces its responsibility to shape a sustainable and resilient future through its curriculum, co-curricular offerings, and support for climate-related research.

Learn more about our goals and the progress we've made.

Curricula Goals & Progress

Increase the number of undergraduate/graduate sustainability courses by ten (10) courses from an October 2017 baseline by June 2022.

Increase the number of undergraduate/graduate courses that include sustainability by twenty (20) courses from an October 2017 baseline by June 2022.

Increase the number of departments with sustainability course offerings by two (2) departments from an October 2017 baseline by June 2022.

Restructure the Undergraduate Certificate in Sustainability and the Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Certificate in Sustainability Committee (University College) by June 2019.

Partner with the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) to create professional development opportunities for faculty that promote interdisciplinary, inter-college sustainability courses and teaching methods for undergraduate and graduate programs.

Coordinate with the University College Office of Digital Education (ODE) to create an online format for sustainability courses by June 2020.

Create an online repository for existing and future sustainability exercises and course material to assist faculty in integrating sustainability into their courses by June 2020.

Co-Curricular Goals & Progress

Develop a strategy for co-curricular sustainability education that integrates academic courses and non-credit learning experiences. The strategy is to include a process for collecting data regarding co-curricular sustainability education and an assessment

ACHIEVED: The Office of Sustainability developed a strategy for co-curricular sustainability education via the Walk Audit Certification Program in collaboration with local non-profit and academic partners. The program was first offered in Fall 2020. A data collection process and assessment tool piloted during the initial phase of the program continues to be utilized to monitor progress on co-curricular initiatives.

Research Goals & Progress

Secure designation of the 187-acre Ambler Campus/Arboretum as a research field station providing facilities and a diverse ecosystem that support both basic and applied research in sustainability disciplines by June 2019.

Identify, validate and amplify sustainability research using the Electronic Research Administration (eRA) database to document sustainability research and include sustainability research in Office of the Vice President for Research’s annual fact sheet.

ACHIEVED: Together with the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR)'s Electronic Research Administration team, the Office of Sustainability has developed a data request protocol for identifying and amplifying major awards for sustainability research. Additionally, OVPR provides sustainability science-themed research development resources and reporting for university investigators through the Catalytic Collaborative internal funding initiative.

Office of Sustainability

Institutions of higher education play a critical role in developing solutions for a just and sustainable climate future.

Curricula Goals & Progress

Co-Curricular Goals & Progress

Research Goals & Progress

Go back to Our ProgressMore in Our Progress

Go back to Our Progress More in Our Progress