In recent decades, sustainability has been used as a guiding framework for urban development and a lens for understanding our relationship with nature at local and global levels. From a planning perspective, it compels us to recognize planetary boundaries and challenges us to consider how to develop communities in a way that meets both present and future needs.

By exploring historic origins and contemporary practices of sustainability, students will examine this framework as it relates to land use and transportation, energy systems, climate change, environmental restoration, inequality and the built environment. Through case studies and hands-on sustainability activities, students will critically examine sustainability and equity implications of planning practices, and consider emerging pathways toward urban sustainable development.