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Catalyzing Change: Sustainability Leadership for the Twenty-First Century

Course Syllabus	Assignments	Course Materials	Reading Requirements
POD Work	Residential	Late Policy

This course aims to inspire and enable students to lead effective change toward environmental sustainability in a variety of organizational contexts (education, business, government, nonprofit, church, community). The course explores what change leadership for sustainability is and guides students to advance their related capabilities, competencies, and strategies. The personal, interpersonal, organizational, and infrastructural dimensions of change leadership for sustainability are each addressed. A variety of specific case studies and examples of sustainability in practice, including everything from green building design and renewable energy to environmental purchasing, are explored. Interdependencies between finance, politics, relationships, cognitive processes, capacity building, technology, and more are discussed. In a world lacking adequate political, judicial, and media leadership, we can and must take leadership where we work and live, transforming our organizations en masse, fueling change at all levels of society. This course is designed to empower and prepare anyone who is willing to join in the collective effort to steer our society back on course towards a just and sustainable future.Course Overview

Students will leave with a deep experiential knowledge of change management because they are required to complete a project involving a real life actual change leadership project of their choice. Students typically find this project to be both deeply rewarding and central to the development of their knowledge and confidence as change agents. There will also be an online exam and additional assignments to keep all students on track.

This course is relevant for people in any profession and for those working in the for profit world the non-profit world and for people engaged in their own communities. It is as relevant for very experienced professions as it is for people just starting out. For additional details about the course, see the ENVRE 117 Course Content .doc .

Course Logistics

This is a hybrid class, which means we will meet via live web conferences (Mondays, 6:30-9:30 p.m. ET) and an intensive - and mandatory - weekend residency, June 24-26 in Cambridge. Here is a downloadable version of the course calendar: S117 Summer 2016 Calendar

Course Instructors

Leith Sharp, B.Eng, M.Ed (Harvard). Director, Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership, Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment. Founding Director, Harvard Office for Sustainability 2000-2008.

John D. Spengler, PhD, Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation in the Exposure, Epidemiology & Risk Program, within the Department of Environmental Health, at Harvard University's School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.

Teaching Fellows

Maggie Husak, MA, Tufts University Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Program Coordinator, Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - maggie.husak@gmail.com

Leith Sharp, B.Eng, M.Ed (Harvard). Director, Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership, Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment. Founding Director, Harvard Office for Sustainability 2000-2008 - lsharp@hsph.harvard.edu