Integration of sustainability in planning and design programs in higher education: evaluating learning outcomes

Abstract

Although sustainability has a growing presence in the planning and design professions, little guidance is available on how to incorporate sustainability into planning and design education programs. Sustainability can be covered in most planning or design courses to some degree; however, we demonstrate a purposeful application of sustainability through a variety of courses, some specialized, others broad-based and interdisciplinary. We provide a step-wise rationale for incorporating sustainability into programs by examining the objectives, content, experiences and outcomes that have integrated sustainability into planning and design courses. We discuss our observations of incorporating sustainability concepts and methods, finding that the adoption of sustainability can act as a catalyst leading to strengthening outcomes in planning and design pedagogy.