Sustainability is one of the big global issues of our time. It is crucial that we all play our part in protecting our world for current and future generations. This course provides you with the knowledge and skills to do this by investigating sustainability from multiple angles and exploring what small steps you can take to have a real impact upon all our futures.

The course team includes academics and postgraduates from many disciplines and is led by Professor Sarah Speight, from Nottingham’s School of Education. Through videos, readings, activities and discussions, you will explore sustainability from the perspective of the environment, the economy, health, politics, society and culture, education and community.

You will be encouraged to look at your own behaviours and undertake activities such as measuring your water footprint, conducting a waste audit, researching, blogging and sourcing images. We encourage course participants to find, produce, share and discuss resources for sustainability.

The University of Nottingham is an education partner of IEMA, the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment. IEMA’s role is to support individuals and organisations to set, recognise and achieve global sustainability standards and practice. Nottingham and IEMA are pleased to be working collaboratively on this course.

Recommended reading

Why not download some of our free eBooks to help you read around the topic and be ready to join the discussions. Extracts from these books are used throughout the course.

Or find out more in Sarah’s post for the FutureLearn blog: “What do the new UN sustainable development goals mean for you?”

This course is intended for anyone with an interest in sustainability. It does not require any prior experience of studying the subject.