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Matthew Cohen
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Furman University, Greenville, USA

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Original article
Published: 28 July 2020 in Sustainability Science
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Hundreds of sustainability programs have emerged at universities and colleges around the world over the past 2 decades. A prime question for employers, students, educators, and program administrators is what competencies these programs develop in students. This study explores convergence on competencies for sustainability programs. We conducted a Delphi study with 14 international experts in sustainability education on the framework of key competencies in sustainability by Wiek et al. (Sustain Sci 6: 203–218, 2011), the most frequently cited framework to date. While experts generally agreed with the framework, they propose two additional competencies, suggest a hierarchy of competencies, and specify learning objectives for students interested in a career as sustainability researcher. The refined framework can inform program development, implementation, and evaluation to enhance employability of graduates and facilitate comparison of sustainability programs worldwide.

ACS Style

Katja Brundiers; Matthias Barth; Gisela Cebrián; Matthew Cohen; Liliana Diaz; Sonya Doucette-Remington; Weston Dripps; Geoffrey Habron; Niki Harré; Meghann Jarchow; Kealalokahi Losch; Jessica Michel; Yoko Mochizuki; Marco Rieckmann; Roderic Parnell; Peter Walker; Michaela Zint. Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework. Sustainability Science 2020, 16, 13 -29.

AMA Style

Katja Brundiers, Matthias Barth, Gisela Cebrián, Matthew Cohen, Liliana Diaz, Sonya Doucette-Remington, Weston Dripps, Geoffrey Habron, Niki Harré, Meghann Jarchow, Kealalokahi Losch, Jessica Michel, Yoko Mochizuki, Marco Rieckmann, Roderic Parnell, Peter Walker, Michaela Zint. Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework. Sustainability Science. 2020; 16 (1):13-29.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Katja Brundiers; Matthias Barth; Gisela Cebrián; Matthew Cohen; Liliana Diaz; Sonya Doucette-Remington; Weston Dripps; Geoffrey Habron; Niki Harré; Meghann Jarchow; Kealalokahi Losch; Jessica Michel; Yoko Mochizuki; Marco Rieckmann; Roderic Parnell; Peter Walker; Michaela Zint. 2020. "Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework." Sustainability Science 16, no. 1: 13-29.

Journal article
Published: 01 December 2019 in Sustainability
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Weatherization assistance programs have been in existence in the United States for decades, but they are commonly managed and implemented by local government organizations. Furman University, a small liberal arts college, occupies a unique position as an institution of higher education that runs a weatherization program through its sustainability center. In this article we present a case report on Furman's Community Conservation Corps (CCC), which has been weatherizing low-income households in Greenville, South Carolina, for nearly a decade. We provide background on weatherization assistance programs, the history of Furman's CCC, nine years of energy-use data for all weatherized homes, and additional program outcomes. We conclude with recommendations for initiating and scaling weatherization assistance programs within the higher education context.

ACS Style

Avery Slifer; Hannah Dailey; Matthew Cohen. Opportunities and Benefits of a University-Based Weatherization Assistance Program: The Case of Furman University's Community Conservation Corps. Sustainability 2019, 12, 296 -303.

AMA Style

Avery Slifer, Hannah Dailey, Matthew Cohen. Opportunities and Benefits of a University-Based Weatherization Assistance Program: The Case of Furman University's Community Conservation Corps. Sustainability. 2019; 12 (6):296-303.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Avery Slifer; Hannah Dailey; Matthew Cohen. 2019. "Opportunities and Benefits of a University-Based Weatherization Assistance Program: The Case of Furman University's Community Conservation Corps." Sustainability 12, no. 6: 296-303.

Original article
Published: 04 February 2019 in Sustainability Science
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Urban sustainability visions must address diverse challenges spanning social and ecological issues yet urban visions are often weak in sustainability, demonstrating a need for a strong and holistic assessment of visioning processes, their outputs, and outcomes. Through a case study of a community visioning process for an urban neighborhood-scale open space in South Carolina, United States, this paper presents key insights from a novel approach for assessing the sustainability of visioning projects, framed around a program evaluation logic model. It describes a mixed-methods assessment of the case including: (1) a qualitative analysis of the visioning process that inspects the quality of the participatory process that generated the vision; (2) a content analysis of the vision report—the process output—that analyzes the sustainability content of the stakeholders’ ideas; and (3) a quantitative natural capital assessment that compares the vision against alternative plausible scenarios proposed by stakeholders to the visioning process’ outcomes and evaluates the ecological integrity of the vision. The research finds that the vision was crafted through a fair participatory process that created stakeholder satisfaction, that the vision emphasizes social capital and equity and justice over other sustainability ends, and that the neighborhood vision may generate stronger ecosystem services than other proposed options suggesting opportunity for positive feedbacks. Despite a positive assessment, the assessment used here showed there was room to co-create a stronger vision of a sustainable future that strives to achieve multiple sustainability principles across human and natural systems. Contributing to the literature on urban sustainability assessment, this paper demonstrates a novel and holistic approach to assessing sustainability of local urban planning processes and their outcomes and concludes with recommendations for streamlining such assessments to better inform policy decisions before they are made.

ACS Style

Matthew Cohen; John E. Quinn; Demi Marshall; Tim Sharp. Sustainability assessment of a community open space vision. Sustainability Science 2019, 14, 1565 -1580.

AMA Style

Matthew Cohen, John E. Quinn, Demi Marshall, Tim Sharp. Sustainability assessment of a community open space vision. Sustainability Science. 2019; 14 (6):1565-1580.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Matthew Cohen; John E. Quinn; Demi Marshall; Tim Sharp. 2019. "Sustainability assessment of a community open space vision." Sustainability Science 14, no. 6: 1565-1580.

Journal article
Published: 04 December 2018 in Sustainability
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Despite growing interests in sustainable urban development, planning lacks unifying themes or directives for achieving sustainability in cities. While professional rating systems provide some guidance, they can be context-specific by country and may at best target weak sustainability as their intended outcome. The United Nations’ New Urban Agenda attempts to offer a singular vision for urban sustainability, and its language appears flexible enough to apply across contexts. In this research, we explore the extent that emergent themes from the New Urban Agenda can guide urban planning for sustainability, specifically in the United States (U.S.). We develop inductive codes from the New Urban Agenda and compare these emergent themes to the content of Asheville, North Carolina’s (U.S.) comprehensive plan, Living Asheville as well as to the STAR Community rating system (Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities). We ask how well the New Urban Agenda can align with conventional U.S. planning processes and whether it offers value beyond the contributions of industry-standard practices like STAR Communities. We find that the New Urban Agenda voices common urban sustainability goals while making some new contributions, particularly in areas such as equity and governance. We conclude that in contexts like the U.S., the New Urban Agenda might be best carried out by integrating it into already existing frameworks like STAR, which have already been widely implemented. These conclusions are based on a reading of one case study city, and future research should analyze and compare themes of the New Urban Agenda and STAR and analyze case studies of multiple certified cities.

ACS Style

Matthew Cohen; Geoffrey Habron. How Does the New Urban Agenda Align with Comprehensive Planning in U.S. Cities? A Case Study of Asheville, North Carolina. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4590 .

AMA Style

Matthew Cohen, Geoffrey Habron. How Does the New Urban Agenda Align with Comprehensive Planning in U.S. Cities? A Case Study of Asheville, North Carolina. Sustainability. 2018; 10 (12):4590.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Matthew Cohen; Geoffrey Habron. 2018. "How Does the New Urban Agenda Align with Comprehensive Planning in U.S. Cities? A Case Study of Asheville, North Carolina." Sustainability 10, no. 12: 4590.

Review
Published: 08 November 2017 in Sustainability
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As the world rapidly urbanizes, there is much focus on achieving sustainability outcomes within cities. Accomplishing this goal requires not only envisioning sustainable cities and implementing strategies, but it also demands assessing progress towards sustainable urban development. Despite a growing literature on sustainability assessment, there is room to further understand the application of sustainability assessment in urban contexts. This paper presents a systematic review of urban sustainability assessment literature to (1) identify the most common methods used for urban sustainability assessment, (2) identify the most common framings for urban sustainability assessment, and (3) identify the most common categories for organizing indicators that measure urban sustainability. This research finds that urban sustainability assessment in general lacks a unifying framing and that it could be better aligned with common sustainability principles. The paper provides recommendations for future urban sustainability assessment research, including the employment of mixed-methods research among other strategies. In closing, this research offers a generic framework around which to structure urban sustainability assessment and within which to assign indicators for measuring progress towards sustainable urban development.

ACS Style

Matthew Cohen. A Systematic Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Literature. Sustainability 2017, 9, 2048 .

AMA Style

Matthew Cohen. A Systematic Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Literature. Sustainability. 2017; 9 (11):2048.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Matthew Cohen. 2017. "A Systematic Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Literature." Sustainability 9, no. 11: 2048.

Journal article
Published: 08 May 2017 in Challenges in Sustainability
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ACS Style

Matthew Cohen; Arnim Wiek. Identifying Misalignments between Public Participation Process and Context in Urban Development. Challenges in Sustainability 2017, 5, 1 .

AMA Style

Matthew Cohen, Arnim Wiek. Identifying Misalignments between Public Participation Process and Context in Urban Development. Challenges in Sustainability. 2017; 5 (2):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Matthew Cohen; Arnim Wiek. 2017. "Identifying Misalignments between Public Participation Process and Context in Urban Development." Challenges in Sustainability 5, no. 2: 1.

Journal article
Published: 03 July 2015 in Sustainability
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In public planning processes for sustainable urban development, planners and experts often face the challenge of engaging a public that is not familiar with sustainability principles or does not subscribe to sustainability values. Although there are calls to build the public’s sustainability literacy through social learning, such efforts require sufficient time and other resources that are not always available. Alternatively, public participation processes may be realigned with the sustainability literacy the participants possess, and their capacity can modestly be built during the engagement. Asking what tools might successfully align public participation with participants’ sustainability literacy, this article describes and evaluates a public participation process in Phoenix, Arizona, in which researchers, in collaboration with city planners, facilitated sustainability conversations as part of an urban development process. The tool employed for Visually Enhanced Sustainability Conversation (VESC) was specifically designed to better align public participation with stakeholders’ sustainability literacy. We tested and evaluated VESC through interviews with participants, city planners, and members of the research team, as well as an analysis of project reports. We found that the use of VESC successfully facilitated discussions on pertinent sustainability issues and embedded sustainability objectives into the project reports. We close with recommendations for strengthening tools like VESC for future public engagements.

ACS Style

Matthew Cohen; Arnim Wiek; Braden Kay; John Harlow. Aligning Public Participation to Stakeholders’ Sustainability Literacy—A Case Study on Sustainable Urban Development in Phoenix, Arizona. Sustainability 2015, 7, 8709 -8728.

AMA Style

Matthew Cohen, Arnim Wiek, Braden Kay, John Harlow. Aligning Public Participation to Stakeholders’ Sustainability Literacy—A Case Study on Sustainable Urban Development in Phoenix, Arizona. Sustainability. 2015; 7 (7):8709-8728.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Matthew Cohen; Arnim Wiek; Braden Kay; John Harlow. 2015. "Aligning Public Participation to Stakeholders’ Sustainability Literacy—A Case Study on Sustainable Urban Development in Phoenix, Arizona." Sustainability 7, no. 7: 8709-8728.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2015 in Curriculum and Teaching
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ACS Style

Matthew Cohen; Daniel Schugurensky; Arnim Wiek. Citizenship Education through Participatory Budgeting: The Case of Bioscience High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Curriculum and Teaching 2015, 30, 5 -26.

AMA Style

Matthew Cohen, Daniel Schugurensky, Arnim Wiek. Citizenship Education through Participatory Budgeting: The Case of Bioscience High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Curriculum and Teaching. 2015; 30 (2):5-26.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Matthew Cohen; Daniel Schugurensky; Arnim Wiek. 2015. "Citizenship Education through Participatory Budgeting: The Case of Bioscience High School in Phoenix, Arizona." Curriculum and Teaching 30, no. 2: 5-26.