Building Blocks of Sustainability [Self-Paced Online Course]

Explore diverse definitions of sustainability, embrace a mindful, conscious lifestyle, and recognize impacts on environment and communities. Examine climate change, deforestation, water challenges, and the need for numbers.

Explore how climate change harms underserved communities, the role of capitalism and materialism, and how a circular economy and triple bottom line guide sustainable business.

Explore sustainability as a triple bottom line across economic, social, and environmental pillars, safeguarding human rights and promoting long-term development with accountability for damages.

Explore the evolving meaning of sustainability, balancing environment and people, and contrast the linear economy with the donut model proposed by Kate Robert.

Fossil fuels form from decomposing plants and animals and remain a nonrenewable energy source dominating 85% of energy. They cause environmental and health harms, including air pollution and case examples.

Explore Svati Bhogle's work with TIDE and SustainTech, pioneering decentralized, clean energy solutions and participatory technology development to boost energy access and livelihoods in rural India.

Explore how the Selkoe Foundation uses decentralized renewable energy and social enterprise models to democratize access to lighting, health care, and livelihoods through inclusive financing.

Explore wind energy from site selection to long-term energy yield forecasting for utility scale wind farms. Learn about grid integration, environmental considerations, and community involvement in emerging markets like India.

Explore how renewable energy addresses climate change and why a circular economy, transforming how we design, make, and use products and food, leads to a prosperous, resilient long-term economy.

Explore renewable energy concepts through a hands-on experiment, building blocks of sustainability in a self-paced online course.

Expose greenwashing from the consumer perspective and introduce extended consumer responsibility (ECR) alongside extended producer responsibility (EPR), previewing sustainability communications from organizational and producer viewpoints.

Examine how green branding can mislead shoppers and learn practical steps to spot false eco claims, verify transparency, and assess company ethics to avoid greenwashing.

Question brands with life cycle assessment to trace raw materials, processing, transport, use, packaging, and end of life. Define sustainability, ensure company-wide commitment, and collaborate with stakeholders to counter greenwashing.

Use sustainability reporting as a transparent, data-backed self-evaluation of environmental and social efforts. Verify claims with evidence across materials, packaging, supply chain, manufacturing, and lifecycle assessment.

Explore breaking barriers in gender, income, and inequality as you study the three P's of sustainability, with a podcast case study of enterprises taking action to close the gender gap.

Trace the origins of sustainable development and explain the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit, and show how businesses balance social impact, environmental footprint, and economic value.

Explore the gender wage gap as median earnings differences between men and women, and examine Iceland and Rwanda's policies that reduce income inequality.

Explore how gender and income inequality affect sustainability and profitability, highlighting Mondelez's zero pay gap, 33% leadership diversity, 50% women on the shop floor, and women-led entrepreneurship in India.

Highlighting a women-led manufacturing team, the interview covers waste segregation, zero-waste practices, computer skills development, and empowerment through savings and bike riding.

Learn waste-to-resource concepts through segregation of dry and wet waste and composting organic material, and examine life cycles and waste management infrastructures with the waste picker community.

Segregate waste to prevent methane buildup and landfill fires (methane is 23 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide), protect waste pickers, and promote yellow-bag disposal and low‑carbon solutions.

Trace the lifecycle of a plastic bottle from crude oil to packaging, use, and disposal, and explore recycling and a take, make and reuse model to reduce ocean plastic waste.

Trace the journey of organic waste and learn how segregating wet waste enables composting, turning scraps into black gold and reducing landfill waste.

Explore the life cycle of stainless steel straw. Emissions reach 140.91 g CO2 per straw, vs 1.10 g for plastic, requiring about 128 uses to abate emissions, with high recyclability.

Examine the end of life of bamboo toothbrushes, their compostable body, and how disposal timing and reuse ideas reduce plastic waste.

Explore how Hasirudala and Hasirudala Innovations advance waste management in India by integrating the informal sector into decentralized systems, informing public policy, and creating sustainable livelihoods.

Discover how sustainability communications blend authenticity, integrity, and responsible practice to educate society, move beyond price-focused marketing, and deliver impact via creative digital storytelling.

Explore how brand equity grows from shared value and consumer perception, how to communicate that value, and distinguish it from CSR while evaluating brands on the Good On You platform.

Explore how climate reality leaders use toolkit and presentation kit to communicate climate change and mobilize communities globally. Learn how acts of leadership translate knowledge into action.

Explore how climate leader Nita Ganguly promotes sustainability by turning waste into wealth through school environmental labs, waste segregation, composting, and community outreach.