This page contains content from the 2008–09 academic year. For current information, visit the Harvard Extension School website at www.extension.harvard.edu.
Organizational Change Management for Sustainability
ENVR E-117
Organizational Change Management for Sustainability (22225)
(Website)
John D. Spengler, PhD, Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation, Harvard School of Public Health. Leith Sharp, MEd, Visiting Scientist, Exposure, Epidemiology and Risk Program, Harvard School of Public Health.
Course tuition: noncredit and undergraduate credit $800, graduate credit $1,725.
Spring term:
Wednesdays beginning Jan. 28, 7:35-9:35 pm, 1 Story Street, Room 306. Optional sections to be arranged.
Online and on-campus options. See Distance Education.
Lecture 1 video.
This course aims to address the real life challenges of environmental sustainability by building change agent capacities of students who operate within myriad institutional and other contexts. The course begins by exploring the wide range of institutionally related environmental impacts and the associated roles of individuals within these settings. Harvard University is used as a primary case study to illustrate institutional practices, including procurement, utility supply and consumption, building design and operations, transportation, and waste production and recycling. Case study materials are used to explore conceptual models for understanding sustainability and institutional behavior; strategies for revealing hidden impacts of institutions; approaches for achieving behavioral change; systems thinking and integrated design approaches; organizational leadership and facilitation; broad strategies for achieving innovation; building organizational learning capacities; and standards, tools, and other resources that have proven useful for achieving effective institutional change. (4 credits)