Learning for a Sustainable Future (FutureLearn)

Learning for a Sustainable Future (FutureLearn)

Join a personal and professional global learning journey towards a sustainable future. What on Earth could be more important? Grow your knowledge of sustainability. Climate change, gender equality, health, social equity, and inclusion are issues that affect us all, impacting human well-being and economic stability. How to live a sustainable life affects – and connects - us all.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

On this five-week course, you’ll develop an informed personal response to these major challenges as you’re supported to take positive actions towards a sustainable future.
You’ll learn more about current global issues and consider how we can all take action, personally or locally.
The course has an additional strand for those working in formal or informal education, who want to bring some of the activities and issues covered in the course into their own teaching.
Take action
You’ll learn practical ways to explore values and empower people to examine the ways in which they could take local action on global-scale problems.
Working in this way, starting from where you are within your own context, and sharing this with others throughout the course helps us all to develop a new and collective way of thinking for a sustainable future.
Discover how to work towards a sustainable future
You’ll build your understanding of and knowledge of sustainability and the global challenges that we face and experience within our lives, as you learn from experts at the University of Edinburgh, Learning for Sustainability Scotland and other participants on the course.
By the end of the course, you’ll be more confident and ready to take steps towards a sustainable future.

What topics will you cover?

  • Disruption and Reorienting our Thoughts.
  • Thinking Deeply: Values, beliefs and local issues.
  • Understanding Broadly: Systems thinking and wider positioning
  • Taking Action: From knowing to doing
  • Futures Thinking: Reflection and planning

Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Explore the complex, intersectional and contested nature of sustainability.
  • Discuss the importance of values in shaping personal attitudes and behaviour towards sustainability.
  • Identify and share practical ways to develop opportunities to take local action on global-scale problems.
  • Understand the impacts of society and culture on system-wide transformation.
  • Examine education and learning techniques and share additional creative approaches to support transformative learning in life and work.
  • Reflect on personal engagement and development and create and share plans for future actions.

Who is the course for?
This course is designed for anyone with an interest in sustainability – and that should be all of us, of course!
You may find the course particularly useful if you are involved in education at any level but no formal experience is required.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Medical Equipment Donations to Low Resource Settings (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
St George's, University of London

Medical Equipment Donations to Low Resource Settings (FutureLearn)

Learn how to plan a medical equipment donation to a low-resource setting that's appropriate, sustainable, and has a real impact. Navigate the pitfalls of planning and organising donations of medical equipment. Unavailability of essential clinical equipment can be a serious problem in low-resource settings. On this course, developed in collaboration with the Tropical Health Education Trust (THET), you‘ll learn best practices in planning a donation of medical equipment to a low-resource setting.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Causes of Climate Change (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Bergen

Causes of Climate Change (FutureLearn)

Learn the physical processes behind climate variation around the world to better understand the causes of climate change. Uncover the past, present, and future of the causes of climate change. This free online course provides the basis for understanding the underlying physical processes governing climate variations in the past, present and future.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Chemical Engineering: Shaping a Sustainable Future (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Chemical Engineering: Shaping a Sustainable Future (FutureLearn)

Learn how chemical engineering can help to solve global challenges and explore its role in delivering sustainable development. Understand how chemical engineers can provide sustainable solutions. Chemical engineers are leading the way in providing answers to global challenges such as climate change, food security, and effective healthcare. On this two-week course, you will be introduced to the exciting world of chemical engineering. You’ll explore how chemical engineers develop and design chemical manufacturing processes to provide sustainable solutions.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Clinical Supervision: Planning Your Professional Development (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Clinical Supervision: Planning Your Professional Development (FutureLearn)

Identify your own learning needs as a clinical supervisor and create a personal development plan to address them. Reflect on your clinical supervision practice and plan your personal development. This online course will focus on identifying your learning needs as a clinical supervisor or practice educator, and provide advice on creating a personal development plan to address them.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Teaching Climate and Sustainability in Primary Schools: An Outdoor Learning Approach (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Reading

Teaching Climate and Sustainability in Primary Schools: An Outdoor Learning Approach (FutureLearn)

Build your confidence teaching climate and sustainability outdoors and develop ideas to implement in your school. Discover the importance of climate education and outdoor learning. Children around the world are demanding comprehensive and up-to-date education on climate and sustainability. Most teachers agree climate change education should be compulsory in schools, yet many feel ill-equipped to teach it.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Renewable Energy: Sustainable Electricity Supply with Microgrids (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Renewable Energy: Sustainable Electricity Supply with Microgrids (FutureLearn)

Explore approaches to electrification, microgrids, and how to harness this form of renewable energy to achieve sustainability. Learn and assess different electrification approaches from around the world. On this two-week course, you will learn how electricity is generated globally and explore different approaches to electrification. You will then learn technical aspects of electrification options via a national grid, off grid, micro and mini grids and reflect on the barriers to affordable, clean and fair access to electricity.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Sustainability Through Film (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
INTO FILM

Sustainability Through Film (FutureLearn)

Engage and empower your students when teaching sustainability, using film analysis and basic filmmaking principles. Use film and filmmaking to provide meaningful lessons in sustainability. Film is an engaging way to reach young people on any topic or subject, bringing important topics to life and adding context to learning. With that in mind, Into Film presents this two-week course showing you how to teach learners aged 5 to 19 about sustainable practices using short films.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Using Systems Thinking to Tackle the Climate and Biodiversity Crisis (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Reading

Using Systems Thinking to Tackle the Climate and Biodiversity Crisis (FutureLearn)

Discover how switching to a systems mindset could help overcome the global environmental challenges we face today. Take a big picture approach to the climate and biodiversity crisis. With crises as vast, complex, and interconnected as climate change and biodiversity loss, focusing on one aspect of the problem will never be enough. Systems thinking offers a new way of seeing and understanding environmental issues, which could radically change how we go about tackling them. On this two-week course from the University of Reading, you’ll learn what systems thinking is and how it could transform your approach to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Introduction to Sustainable Practices in Food Service (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
International Culinary Studio

Introduction to Sustainable Practices in Food Service (FutureLearn)

Create a more sustainable food service business and make a difference to your bottom line, your stakeholders, and the environment. Improve your sustainable practices within your organisation. Sustainability isn’t just about ‘greening’; sustainability actually means ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.’ On this course, you’ll look at general global sustainability concepts, issues, and concerns, before focusing on sustainability specifically within food service and what you can do to reduce your impact.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Making Climate Adaptation Happen: Governing Transformation Strategies for Climate Change (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Groningen,Global Center on Adaptation

Making Climate Adaptation Happen: Governing Transformation Strategies for Climate Change (FutureLearn)

Explore how adaptive governance could help policymakers plan for and manage sudden environmental changes. Learn the governance tools to respond to climate change. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing governing bodies across the globe. On this course, you will be introduced to climate science, the societal effects of climate change, and the responses already available in the form of climate adaptation.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Sustainable Cities: Governing Urban Adaptation Under Climate Change (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Groningen,Global Center on Adaptation

Sustainable Cities: Governing Urban Adaptation Under Climate Change (FutureLearn)

Discover expert governance strategies for preparing urban areas to face the challenges posed by climate change. Learn how cities can successfully adapt to environmental change. In this course, you will investigate how governance strategies and policies for making cities more sustainable and resilient in the face of increasing climate risks can be financed and implemented.

Self Paced
3 Weeks