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Step One: Identify potential graduate work contexts and their sustainability connections 

Goal: Identify real-world contexts where students could have an impact on sustainability-related issues.

How to: Fill out the ‘Impact Sheet’ (Note: this template functions as a starting point for subsequent steps. All templates are provided at the PDF link below.)

1. Select one course that you’re currently teaching.
2. Identify at least 3 main topics you cover in the course. For each topic, start a new 'Impact Sheet'.
3. Think of work-life scenarios where these competencies might be applied by your students after graduation and what a potential sustainability impact could be.

Example:

A course focusing on traffic simulation theory and the use of simulation tools.

• Something you teach: Traffic simulation.
• Context (Industry): Bus operator.
• Sustainability-Related Activities: Bus route optimisation (used to respond to route tenders).
• Sustainability Impact: Reducing car traffic, and increasing public transport usage.

Step Two: Examine the contexts deeper to find resources, tools and inspiration for sustainability integration 

Goal: Generate ideas on resources, models, and tools that can support the teaching of sustainability within your context. A good idea is to look for easily accessible ideas. 
Inspirational questions might be: "Who could you invite as a guest speaker to your lecture to talk about sustainability themes?” or  “Is there any data related to sustainability that could help the students learn about the topics you teach?" 

How to:

1. Review your “Impact Sheet” from step one and reflect on each topic's potential real-world context.
2. Think about resources, models, or tools that could help teach these topics. Examples include simulations, industry-standard frameworks, and case studies. 
3. Especially valuable are any methods or tools (direct or indirect) that would allow the students to evaluate or measure the sustainability impact being discussed.

Step Three: Generate new course content (examples, lectures, assignments etc.) drawing inspiration from the two previous steps.

Goal: Transform your ideas from step two into ideas for teaching methods and assignments. This step is still an ideation. From the ideas, you can then choose one or more for implementation.

How to:

1. Using the context and tools identified, create activities, assignments, or projects that allow students to practise these skills in your course setting. (Sample template provided at the PDF link below.)
2. For each topic, list possible methods that emphasize active learning and problem-solving, such as:
   • Case studies based on real-world problems.
   • Group projects that simulate industry challenges.
   • Hands-on activities like labs, simulations, or field visits.
      

Essentially, teachers take the opportunity to identify different ways to integrate sustainability into an existing course, while keeping the course’s original learning outcomes.

Final Steps

After completing the three steps, teachers are encouraged to analyse their results on the templates and consider how they can update their courses via different approaches.

The approaches are as follows:

1. Contextualising: Simply explain how the content taught in the course contributes towards sustainability. No actual content changes are needed.
2. New content: Add sustainability-related content, such as lectures or reading materials, to the course. Typically, this means removing some existing content to maintain a consistent course workload.

3. Assignments and exercises: Assignments and exercises are the best ways to help students to understand sustainability content. Linking assignments to real-world challenges with a sustainability impact helps students see the connections between their discipline and sustainability. 

   Teachers can either modify existing assignments by incorporating new viewpoints, and evaluating the outcomes from a sustainability perspective, without altering the fundamental aspects of the assignment, or, set new assignments with a stronger focus on sustainability.