Interdisciplinary Cooperation
and Collaboration in Undergraduate
Sustainability-Based Programs:
A Canadian Example of Environment
and Urban Sustainability (EUS)
Michal Bardecki and Andrew Millward
Abstract While much of the literature on urban sustainability tends to focus on the
importance of protecting natural systems and determining engineering and technical
solutions, many of the central challenges to envisioning and delivering appropriate
and meaningful sustainability lie within social, cultural, and political structures.
This paper draws on the insights related to the development and implementation
of the undergraduate program in Environmental and Urban Sustainability (EUS) at
Ryerson University (Toronto). The conceptual framework of the program reflects
the need for a broad foundation of sustainability education which spans disciplinary
boundaries. EUS has blended new and existing teaching configurations, and has
embraced both cross-disciplinary and disciplinary content and academic structures
in its curriculum development and course offerings. The key to success has been
the merging of existing course offerings from fourteen disciplinary areas as part of
the core of the EUS program structure. Since the program operates concurrent with
existing academic departments and schools (each of which has at least one of its
own programs), developing cooperation and collaboration, while vital to program
success, has been an enduring challenge. Within this context, the paper discusses the
motivations and processes of ongoing program and curriculum development.
Keywords Education · Undergraduate program · Urban sustainability ·
Curriculum · Interdisciplinary
M. Bardecki (B) · A. Millward
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Ryerson University,
350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
e-mail: bardecki@ryerson.ca
A. Millward
e-mail: millward@ryerson.ca
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_25
399
and Collaboration in Undergraduate
Sustainability-Based Programs:
A Canadian Example of Environment
and Urban Sustainability (EUS)
Michal Bardecki and Andrew Millward
Abstract While much of the literature on urban sustainability tends to focus on the
importance of protecting natural systems and determining engineering and technical
solutions, many of the central challenges to envisioning and delivering appropriate
and meaningful sustainability lie within social, cultural, and political structures.
This paper draws on the insights related to the development and implementation
of the undergraduate program in Environmental and Urban Sustainability (EUS) at
Ryerson University (Toronto). The conceptual framework of the program reflects
the need for a broad foundation of sustainability education which spans disciplinary
boundaries. EUS has blended new and existing teaching configurations, and has
embraced both cross-disciplinary and disciplinary content and academic structures
in its curriculum development and course offerings. The key to success has been
the merging of existing course offerings from fourteen disciplinary areas as part of
the core of the EUS program structure. Since the program operates concurrent with
existing academic departments and schools (each of which has at least one of its
own programs), developing cooperation and collaboration, while vital to program
success, has been an enduring challenge. Within this context, the paper discusses the
motivations and processes of ongoing program and curriculum development.
Keywords Education · Undergraduate program · Urban sustainability ·
Curriculum · Interdisciplinary
M. Bardecki (B) · A. Millward
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Ryerson University,
350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
e-mail: bardecki@ryerson.ca
A. Millward
e-mail: millward@ryerson.ca
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_25
399