Sustainability Course Designations

There are a few types of courses that can be considered 'Sustainable'. The UH Hilo Sustainability curriculum committee has outlined the following course identifiers: "S Focused", "S Related", and "S Ready".

S Focused (SF)

S Focused courses have a thematic, primary, explicit focus on sustainability as an integrated concept having social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Course content is at least 60% focused on Sustainability. (S Focused courses may in future be indicated on transcript and/or count towards certificates or program entry as these mechanisms evolve.)

S Related (SR)

An S Related course is primarily focused on a topic other than sustainability, but incorporates a unit or module on sustainability or a sustainability challenge, includes one or more sustainability-focused activities, or integrates sustainability issues throughout the course. These units/modules, activities or issues should be documented in course descriptions or syllabi. A minimum of 10% of course content is focused on Sustainability. (S Related courses allow faculty to get started with an assignment related to sustainability. They may evolve into S Focused courses, but would not be indicated on transcripts.)

S Ready

An S Ready course is a course identified by catalog audit, departmental review, or faculty input as potentially S Focused or Related, but for any reason has not gone through the campus designation process, or does not meet some feature of the designation, or does not wish to include the formal designation. S Ready courses would not be identified to students, but are useful for internal information in order to identify courses that could be developed into S designated courses.