Planting the OHIO SEED: Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum
April 27, 2026
Facilitator: Kyle Butler, professor of instruction, Sustainable Living Hub coordinator, OPIE/Office of Sustainability
Coordinator: Joshua Osondu, Ph.D. candidate, Sustainable Living Hub graduate assistant, Educational Studies, Patton College of Education/Office of Sustainability
Sustainability challenges are often described as “wicked problems” in part because they cannot be solved by a single discipline, institution, or sector but require interdisciplinary knowledge, collaboration, and systems thinking.
Addressing these complex challenges requires graduates who can think across disciplines and apply systems-based approaches to problem solving, which itself requires faculty at institutions like OHIO to adopt a Sustainability Across the Curriculum (SAC) approach.
In this faculty learning community, participants from diverse disciplines will deepen their own sustainability teaching practice and work collaboratively to develop a framework for SAC that can inform the creation of the OHIO SEED (Sustainability Education and Engagement Development) program, an initiative from the Office of Sustainability that would provide support for faculty across disciplines to integrate sustainability concepts, competencies, and experiential learning opportunities into their courses.
Topics for collaboration and discussion will include defining sustainability, incorporating sustainability challenges into coursework, key competencies in sustainability, aligning curriculum with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and fostering a sustainability worldview.
Participants will also be presented with models of how SAC initiatives have been implemented at other higher education institutions. The goal of this faculty learning community will be to establish an ongoing community of practice around SAC at OHIO. Through their participation, faculty will deepen the knowledge, skills, and values needed to implement teaching for sustainability in their own courses and for supporting their colleagues who want to do the same.