Below is a sampling of new courses offered by Sustainability Institute affiliated faculty members.
If you are a Sustainability Institute affiliated faculty member and have a new sustainability or resilience course you would like to submit for this listing, send the details to sustainability@osu.edu. Include the course name, number, a brief description, days/times and location of the class, and your name, title and contact information. Please note this listing is intended for new courses.
How to become a Sustainability Institute affiliated faculty member
Spring 2026 Term
Sustainability of the Food Supply Chain, FDSCTE/FABE 3400.01 Credit Hours: 3
In the past few years, we’ve heard more about the “supply chain” and its impacts than ever before. Recent problems with the supply chain have raised new questions. So, what does the supply chain include for food products? How does the food supply chain impact the environment and sustainability?
In this course you will be introduced to each sector of the supply chain from storage, transportation, and manufacturing, to distribution and delivery to the consumer. We will explore the impacts of the food supply chain on sustainability and ways to mitigate its impact on the environment.
Fall 2025 Term
Water Contamination: Sources and Health Impact, PUBHEHS/FDSCTE 7360 Credit Hours: 3; Online, Asynchronous
This course explores water contaminants and their impact on our daily lives, including emerging and fundamental issues, sources of contamination, pathways of transport, public health impacts, and interventions. Topics include: global and regional water issues, agricultural and urban runoff, water-climate-food nexus, harmful algal blooms, micro and nanoplastics, ground water, bottled water, and PFAS among others.
For questions and more information, please contact the course instructors Jiyoung Lee or Molly Mills.
Spring 2024 Term
Ecohydrology in a Changing Climate, EARTHSC 5656 Credit Hours: 3; T/Th 2:20 – 3:40 pm, Derby Hall 048
This course is about physical and ecological processes of plant-water interactions in natural ecosystems. We will cover the principles of water transport in the soil-plant system, plant drought response, and feedbacks of plants to the climate through changing energy-water-carbon cycles. Students will analyze ecohydrological datasets from ground and remote sensing measurements and apply physically based models to analyze plant-mediated land surface processes in the context of climate change.
For questions and more information, please contact the course instructor Yanlan Liu.