Sustainability Courses

Spring 2025 |  Examines the economic and political conflict between transportation and the environment. Investigates the role of government regulation, green business and transportation policy as a facilitator of economic development and environmental sustainability. Analyzes a variety of international policy problems, including government-business relations, the role of interest groups, non-governmental organizations, and the public and media in the regulation of the automobile; sustainable development; global warming; politics of risk and siting of transport facilities; environmental justice; equity; as well as transportation and public health in the urban metropolis. Provides students with an opportunity to apply transportation and planning methods to develop policy alternatives in the context of environmental politics. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty:  Coughlin, Salvucci

Spring 2026 | Topics include the exchange of mass, heat and momentum between the soil, vegetation or water surface and the overlying atmosphere; flux and transport in the turbulent boundary layer; and coupled balance of moisture and energy.

• Faculty: D. Entekhabi
• MW 3:00 - 5:30 PM

Spring 2026 | Introduces the basic principles and concepts in atmospheric physics, and climate dynamics, through an examination of: greenhouse gases emissions (mainly CO2), global warming, and regional climate change. Case studies are presented for the regional impacts of climate change on extreme weather, water availability, and disease transmission. This subject is an introduction to regional and global environmental problems for students in basic sciences and engineering. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: E. Eltahir
• TTh 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Fall 2025 | Develops environmental accounting tools including energy, carbon, materials, land use, and possibly others, from small scales (e.g., products and processes) to larger scales, (e.g., companies, nations and global) to reveal how reoccurring human behavior patterns have dominated environmental outcomes. Involves visiting experts and readings in areas such as ethics, economics, governance, and development to frame core issues in human relationship to the environment and future societies. Explores how local actions, including engineering interventions and behavior change, play out at larger scales associated with the concept of sustainability, and how local actions may be modified to realize sustainability. Class is participatory and includes an exploratory project. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

• Faculty: T. Gutowski
• MW 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Spring 2026 | Introduces the essential knowledge for understanding nuclear waste management. Includes material flow sheets for nuclear fuel cycle, waste characteristics, sources of radioactive wastes, compositions, radioactivity and heat generation, chemical processing technologies, geochemistry, waste disposal technologies, environmental regulations and the safety assessment of waste disposal. Covers different types of wastes: uranium mining waste, low-level radioactive waste, high-level radioactive waste and fusion waste. Provides the quantitative methods to compare the environmental impact of different nuclear and other energy-associated waste. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: H. Wainwright
• MW 1:00 - 2:30 PM

Fall 2024 |  Seminar series on current research on energy systems modeling and analysis.

• Faculty: R. C. Armstrong
• T 12:30 - 2:30 PM

Spring 2026 | Investigates social conflict and distributional disputes in the public sector. While theoretical aspects of conflict and consensus building are considered, focus is on the practice of negotiation and dispute resolution. Comparisons between unassisted and assisted negotiation are reviewed along with the techniques of facilitation and mediation.

• Faculty: L. Susskind
• TTh 3:30-5:30 PM

Spring 2026 |  H3 Environmental justice and climate change are pressing contemporary concerns.  Crucial dimensions of the exposure of households to environmental harms and benefits are determined by land use and environmental laws.  Land use and environmental laws are also central to reducing carbon emissions and building environmentally sustainable and resilient communities.  Introduces students to the legal and social science dimension of these two crucial areas of law that is well-covered in the current curriculum. Enrollment limited to 30.

• Faculty: J. Steil
• TTh 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM 

Spring 2025 |  Examines climate politics both nationally and globally. Addresses economic growth, environmental preservation, and social equity through the lens of sustainability. Uses various country and regional cases to analyze how sociopolitical, economic and environmental values shape climate policy. Students develop recommendations for making climate policy more effective and sustainable. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

• Faculty:  J. Knox-Hayes

Fall 2025 | In this team-oriented, project-based subject, students work to find technical solutions that could be implemented to mitigate the effects of natural hazards related to climate change, bearing in mind that any proposed measures must be appropriate in a given region's socio-political-economic context. Students are introduced to a variety of natural hazards and possible mitigation approaches as well as principles of design, including adaptable design and design for failure. Students select the problems they want to solve and develop their projects. During the term, officials and practicing engineers of Cambridge, Boston, Puerto Rico, and MIT Facilities describe their approaches. Student projects are documented in a written report and oral presentation. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• H. Einstein
• T Th 1:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Weds the theory and practice of city design and planning as a means of adaptation with the insights of ecology and other environmental disciplines. Presents ecological urbanism as critical to the future of the city and its design, as it provides a framework for addressing challenges that threaten humanity — such as climate change, rising sea level, and environmental and social justice — while fulfilling human needs for health, safety, welfare, meaning, and delight. Applies a historical and theoretical perspective to the solution of real-world challenges. Enrollment limited.

• Faculty: A. Spirn
• M 2:00 - 5:00PM

Spring 2026 | H3 Offers insight into tension and synergy between sustainability and the real estate industry. Considers why sustainability matters for real estate, how real estate can contribute to sustainability and remain profitable, and what investment and market opportunities exist for sustainable real estate products and how they vary across asset classes. Lectures combine economic and business insights and tools to understand the challenges and opportunities of sustainable real estate. Provides a framework to understand issues in sustainability in real estate and examine economic mechanisms, technological advances, business models, and investment and financing strategies available to promote sustainability. Discusses buildings as basic physical assets; cities as the context where buildings interact with the built environment, policies, and urban systems; and portfolios as sustainable real estate investment vehicles in capital markets. Enrollment for MSRED, MCP, and MBA students is prioritized.

• Faculty: S. Zheng
• TTh 9:30 - 11:00 AM

Fall 2025 | Introduces frameworks for analyzing and addressing inequalities in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, particularly by race and by class. Explores the foundations and principles of the environmental justice movement from the perspectives of social science, public policy, and law. Introduces basic principles of US constitutional and environmental law, with a focus on equal protection and civil rights. Applies environmental justice principles to contemporary issues in urban policy and planning, including effects of and responses to climate change and global heating. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: J. Steil 

Fall 2025 | Assessment of current and potential future energy systems. Covers resources, extraction, conversion, and end-use technologies, with emphasis on meeting 21st-century regional and global energy needs in a sustainable manner. Examines various energy technologies in each fuel cycle stage for fossil (oil, gas, synthetic), nuclear (fission and fusion) and renewable (solar, biomass, wind, hydro, and geothermal) energy types, along with storage, transmission, and conservation issues. Emphasizes analysis of energy propositions within an engineering, economic and social context. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: K. Shirvan
• T Th 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Fall 2025 | Issues in international development, appropriate technology and project implementation addressed through lectures, case studies, guest speakers and laboratory exercises. Students form project teams to partner with community organizations in developing countries, and formulate plans for an optional IAP site visit. (Previous field sites include Ghana, Brazil, Honduras and India.) Recitation sections focus on specific project implementation, and include cultural, social, political, environmental and economic overviews of the target countries as well as an introduction to the local languages. Enrollment limited by lottery; must attend first class session.

• Faculty: L. Hsu
• MW 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Fall 2025 | Examines efforts in developing and advanced nations and regions. Examines key issues in the current and future development of urban energy systems, such as technology, use, behavior, regulation, climate change, and lack of access or energy poverty. Case studies on a diverse sampling of cities explore how prospective technologies and policies can be implemented. Includes intensive group research projects, discussion, and debate

• Faculty: D. Hsu
• T Th 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Fall 2025 | Examines transportation policymaking and planning; its relationship to social and environmental justice; and the influences of politics, governance structures, and human and institutional behavior. Explores the pathway to infrastructure, how attitudes are influenced, and how change happens. Examines the tensions and potential synergies among traditional transportation policy values of individual mobility, system efficiency, and "sustainability." Explores the roles of the government; analysis of current trends; transport sector decarbonization; land use, placemaking, and sustainable mobility networks; the role of "mobility as a service;" and the implications of disruptive technology on personal mobility. Assesses traditional planning methods with a critical eye, and through that process considers how to approach transportation planning in a way that responds to contemporary needs and values, with an emphasis on transport justice.

• Faculty: J. Aloisi
• F 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Presents methods for resolving facility siting disputes, particularly those involving renewable energy. After completing four modules and a competency exam for MITx certification, students work in teams to help client communities in various cities around the United States. Through direct interactions with the proponents and opponents of facilities subject to local opposition, students complete a stakeholder assessment and offer joint fact-finding and collaborative problem-solving assistance. The political, legal, financial, and regulatory aspects of facility siting, particularly for renewable energy, are reviewed along with key infrastructure planning principles. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15.

• Faculty: L. Susskind, J. Chun
• F 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Fall 2024 | Studies interactions between planners and institutions at different scales, from local to global/transnational. Emphasizes historical and institutional approaches to development planning.

• B. Rajagopal
• T, Th 2:30 - 4:00 pm

Fall 2024 | Urban analytics draws upon statistics, visualization, and computation to better understand and ultimately shape cities. This course emphasizes telling stories about cities and neighborhoods covering a set of fundamental concepts of descriptive approaches, quantitative and spatial analysis in R, and principles of reproducible data analysis. Students learn to communicate the results of visualization and analysis for use in decision-making and policy development and to critique those processes.

• Faculty: Cong
• MW 10:00 - 11:30 AM

Fall 2025 | How can integrated inter-scale design – from the systems level (e.g., energy systems, workforce systems, mobility systems) to the neighborhood level (e.g., street design, building design), the community level (e.g., engagement systems), and the “device” level (e.g., energy storage) – be used to co-create (with communities) green-economy based local economic development strategies? This workshop class aims to answer this question (taught in parallel with an Architecture Urban Design Studio) in collaboration with local government (NYC Economic Development Corporation, EDC) and a local community organization. The subject is driven by the theory of change that just urban transitions require work at the intersection of a range of needs and opportunities driven by the climate crisis, including designing: for waterfront resilience, systems for energy transitions (e.g., battery storage, vehicle electrification), and approaches to maximize community benefits (e.g., workforce training for “green jobs”, entrepreneurial development, cooperative ownership models). 

• Faculty: J. Phillip Thompson, L. Shepherd

Fall 2025 | This under/graduate-level reading seminar focuses on the critical intersections between Indigenous knowledge systems, water resources management, and environmental justice. The course centers readings in genres of Indigenous futurisms to cover the basics of Indigenous water and energy planning. Through the lens of these genres, guest lectures, discussions, and case studies, students will understand the emergent trends in the development of traditional ecological knowledge. At the end of the course, students will propose speculative projects to scale community-based water planning interventions and initiatives towards utility scale to support the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous governments.

• Faculty: J. Knox-Hayes, J. Pierite
• F 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Studies the basic principles of techniques for reconstructing the history of ocean climate from marine sediment cores, corals, ice cores, and other paleoclimate archives. Examines this data in the light of proposed climate change mechanisms. Micropaleontological, isotopic, geochemical, and mineralogical changes are used to infer changes in seawater composition, atmospheric chemistry, and climate. Observations are interpreted as consequences of changes in ocean temperature, circulation, and chemistry, and are used to evaluate theories proposed to account for glacial/interglacial cycles. Focuses on the past two million years, but major processes and events from the past 100 million years are also included.

• Faculty: E. Boyle

Fall 2025 | Introduces the atmospheric chemistry involved in climate change, air pollution, and ozone depletion using a combination of interactive laboratory and field studies and simple computer models. Uses instruments for trace gas and aerosol measurements and methods for inferring fundamental information from these measurements. Students taking the graduate version complete different assignments.

• Faculty: R. Prinn, S. Ono
• T Th 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Fall 2025 | Examines the role of science in US and international environmental policymaking. Surveys the methods by which scientists learn about the natural world; the treatment of science by experts, advocates, the media, and the public and the way science is used in legislative, administrative, and judicial decision making. Through lectures, group discussions, and written essays, students develop a critical understanding of the role of science in environmental policy. Potential case studies include fisheries management, ozone depletion, global warming, smog, and endangered species. Students taking graduate version complete different assignments. Limited to 22.

• Faculty: Solomon, Knox-Hayes
• F 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Discusses theory and evidence on environmental externalities and regulatory, tax, and other government responses to problems of market failure.

• Faculty: J. Moscona, B. Olken
• TTh 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Fall 2025 | Provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and policy responses to the global climate and energy crises. Discusses the role of energy in world economies, paying particular attention to low- and middle-income countries, as well as the impacts of climate change on those economies. Considers how access, cost, reliability, and environmental harm drive or hinder economic growth, the political influences on the energy sector, the impacts of climate change on low- and middle-income countries, and the role of energy in mitigating future impacts of climate change. Also discusses global climate solutions, including the role of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process, trade policy, climate finance, business strategies to reduce emissions, and business strategies to help people adapt to a changing climate. Students taking graduate students complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: H. Kala, C. Wolfram
• MW 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Spring 2026 | H4 Investigates the role of the private sector in developing economies, highlighting how solving market failures can improve overall welfare. Covers constraints faced by firms in developing economies: contract enforcement, corruption, political risk, human rights, IP and infrastructure. Uses case studies to discuss successful firms and innovative solutions to these constraints, including public-private partnerships, the role of technology, the role of finance and impact investing.

• Faculty: T. Suri
• TTh 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Spring 2026 |  Analyzes business and public policy issues in energy markets and in the environmental markets to which they are closely tied. Examines the economic determinants of industry structure and evolution of competition among firms in these industries. Investigates successful and unsuccessful strategies for entering new markets and competing in existing markets. Industries studied include oil, natural gas, coal, electricity, and transportation. Topics include climate change and environmental policy, the role of speculation in energy markets, the political economy of energy policies, and market power and antitrust. Two team-based simulation games, representing the world oil market and a deregulated electricity market, act to cement the concepts covered in lecture. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 60.

• Faculty:  C. Knittel, C. Wolfram
• TTh 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Explores decision making and leadership. Analyzes the dilemmas and decisions characters face in a selection of plays, stories, and films. Provokes reflection on what constitutes effective and moral reasoning in critical moments of both life and leadership. Restricted to Sloan Fellow MBAs.

• Faculty: C. Turco
• F 10:00 - 12:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Introduces and analyzes competing explanations and claims about inequality within US workplaces; reviews evidence regarding the effectiveness of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and policies; and investigates how race, gender, and other identities may affect employees' experience in work organizations. Significant class time is devoted to experiential exercises to develop skills for interacting effectively with diverse others, managing teams and critical conversations, and advocating thoughtfully for change. Weekly assignments include written reflections based on readings and social science research. Restricted to Sloan MBA students.

• Faculty: K. Blackburn, E. Kelly
• T 4:00PM-7:00PM

Fall 2024 | Explores technological, behavioral, policy, and systems-wide frameworks for innovation in transportation systems, complemented with case studies across the mobility spectrum, from autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility to last-mile sidewalk robots. Students interact with a series of guest lecturers from CEOs and other business and government executives who are actively reshaping the future of mobility. Interdisciplinary teams of students collaborate to deliver business plans for proposed mobility-focused startups with an emphasis on primary market research. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: J. Zhao, J. Moavenzadeh
• M W 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Fall 2024 | Experiential study of the climate for innovation and determinants of entrepreneurial success. Students work in teams of four with the top management of a company to address real-world business challenges. Students gain insight as to how companies build, run, and scale a new enterprise. Focuses primarily on scale-ups operating in emerging markets. Restricted to MBA students; all other graduate students by permission of instructor only. *Project must be related to sustainability to be counted as an elective for the certificate.

• Faculty: Johnson
• TR 2:30-4:00PM

Fall 2024 | Explores a range of ethical issues and challenges that arise in organizations and financial practice. Provides fundamental theories typically used to evaluate ethical dilemmas and references both real situations and hypothetical examples. Highlights the importance of ethical values and their impact on financial regulation for professional practice. Discusses the various factors that influence ethical behavior, such as family, religious values, personal standards and needs, senior leadership behavior, norms among colleagues, organizational expressed and implicit standards, and broader community values. Restricted to students in the Master of Finance Program.

• Faculty: J. Cohen, E. Golding
• Th 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Fall 2025 | Examines how law, economics, and technological change shape public policy, and how law can sway technological change; how the legal system responds to environmental, safety, energy, social, and ethical problems; how law and markets interact to influence technological development; and how law can affect wealth distribution, employment, and social justice. Covers energy/climate change; genetic engineering; telecommunications and the role of misinformation; industrial automation; effect of regulation on technological innovation; impacts of antitrust law on innovation and equity; pharmaceuticals; nanotechnology; cost/benefit analysis as a decision tool; public participation in governmental decisions affecting science and technology; corporate influence on technology and welfare; and law and economics as competing paradigms to encourage sustainability. Students taking graduate version explore subject in greater depth.

• Faculty: N. Ashford, Caldart
• T Th 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Spring 2025 |  Examines managing work in the 21st century in the interests of both people and profits through the context of rising inequality, technological change, globalization, and the growth of the gig economy. Students evaluate various business and policy interventions intended to improve work through critical analysis of the evidence, interviews with workers and evaluations of firms, and guest speakers. Guests include business leaders at leading-edge firms and labor leaders experimenting with new ways of providing workers a voice in the workplace. Draws on materials from the MIT Task Force on Work of the Future and the online course Shaping Work of the Future

• Faculty:  A. Stansbury
• TTh 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Fall 2025 | H1 Experiential opportunity to practice new leadership skills, such as deep listening, being present (mindfulness), and generative dialogue. In weekly coaching circles, each student has one full session to present their current leadership edge and receive feedback from peer coaches. Includes an additional action learning project.

• Faculty: O. Scharmer
• Th 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Spring 2025 | This experiential Action Learning Lab is focused on work, community and culture in rural and urban regions of the United States. The Lab stems from concern about the economic, cultural, social and geographic issues that are tearing at the fabric of America. Students work with dynamic local leaders determined to change the trajectory of their communities. Deep discussions in the classroom combined with field-work in rural regions and urban centers throughout the U.S. aim toward understanding and transcending the American divides.

• Faculty: L. Hafrey, C. McDowell
• W 2:30 - 5:30 PM

Spring 2026 | Investigates the different perspectives a general manager must take, how to integrate those perspectives, and the role of leadership in setting and realizing goals. Students work intensively in teams and with multiple faculty, using a deep dive into the challenges faced by a major global firm operating in complex global markets. Restricted to Executive MBA students.

• Faculty: D. Ancona, E. Kelly, G. Perakis, N. Repenning, H. Samel, J. Sterman, A. Verdelhan

Spring 2026 | Introduces system dynamics modeling for the analysis of business policy and strategy. Provides the skills to visualize an organization in terms of the structures and policies that create dynamics and regulate performance. Uses causal mapping, simulation models, case studies, and management flight simulators to help develop principles of policy design for successful management of complex strategies. Considers the use of systems thinking to promote effective organizational learning. Restricted to Executive MBA students.

• Faculty: N. Repenning

Spring 2026 | H3 Focuses on the planning, processes, and activities of supply chain management for companies involved in international commerce. Students examine the end-to-end processes and operational challenges in managing global supply chains, such as the basics of global trade, international transportation, duty, taxes, trade finance and hedging, currency issues, outsourcing, cultural differences, risks and security, and green supply chains issues. Highly interactive format features student-led discussions, staged debates, and a mock trial. Includes assignments on case studies and sourcing analysis, as well as projects and a final exam.

• Faculty: S. Willems
• TTh 1:00 - 2:30 PM

Spring 2026 | Provides a unifying framework for analyzing strategic decisions in manufacturing and service operations. Covers decisions in technology, facilities, vertical integration, human resources, sourcing, supply chain, and other strategic areas. Examines how decisions in these areas can be made to align with business strategy, and emphasizes the concept of operations as a source of competitive advantage. Discusses operations strategy within the firm, across the supply chain, and for growth and new business models. 

• Faculty: K. Zheng
• Multiple. TTh 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM OR 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Spring 2026 | H3 Introduction to systems thinking and system dynamics modeling applied to strategy, organizational change, and policy design. Students use simulation models, management flight simulators, and case studies to develop conceptual and modeling skills for the design and management of high-performance organizations in a dynamic world. Case studies of successful applications of system dynamics in growth strategy, management of technology, operations, public policy, product development, and others. Principles for effective use of modeling in the real world. Meets with 15.873 first half of term when offered concurrently. Students taking 15.871 complete additional assignments.

• Sustainability Certificate Requirement
• Faculty: V. Yang, H. Rahmandad
• Multiple times offered.MW10:00 AM - 11:30 AM OR 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Fall 2024 | Introduces governance and science aspects of complex environmental problems and approaches to solutions. Introduces quantitative analyses and methodological tools to analyze environmental issues that have human and natural components. Demonstrates concepts through a series of in-depth case studies of environmental governance and science problems.

• Faculty: A. Siddiqi
• F 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Fall 2024 | Establishes a foundation for formulating, analyzing, and executing strategies to develop and commercialize new products and services in technology-intensive industries. Develops and applies rigorous frameworks to examine the interaction between patterns of technological change, market dynamics, and the development of internal firm capabilities. Topics include profiting from innovation, the role of intellectual property, platform strategy, government regulation, and innovation policy. Applies concepts in various industry and case settings with an emphasis on addressing issues most relevant for today's changing economic landscape and fostering innovation for social progress, such as clean energy, environmental management, healthcare, and digitalization.

• Faculty: J. Pless
• MW 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Spring 2026 | H3  15.S05 explores Consumer-centric Energy and Climate Innovations; such as technologies and services that strategically enhance building efficiency and electrification; incorporate site solar, battery storage, and electric vehicles; and are enabled to integrate with today's increasingly renewable electric grids. Such innovations provide a foundation for a New Era for Energy Management.With enabling support from the instructors, materials, and assignments, class members examine emerging New Era of Energy Management technology, analytic, business, and policy innovations:

• Faculty: H. Michaels
• TTh 1:00 - 2:30 PM

Spring 2026 |  H4 Opportunity for group study by graduate students on current topics related to management not otherwise included in curriculum.

• Faculty: B. Soltoff
• T 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Spring 2026 | H4 The two main objectives of this course are 1) to understand the psychodynamics and other factors in the empirical research on happiness and 2) to develop the skills and habits to enhance the student’s own happiness. Albert Schweitzer once said, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.” In this course, students will read some of the most relevant research on the topic and self-administer surveys that will enable them to understand their own happiness. In-class activities and weekly assignments will allow students to practice the intentional pursuit of happiness. Who should take this course: This course is open to Sloan Fellows and second-year MBA students. It will be limited to 32 students to encourage more personal and group discussion. This course is appropriate for anyone who is interested in personal growth as part of leadership development. Students will discuss personal experiences, survey results, and reflect -- individually and in small groups. Instructors and students will form a supportive environment for sharing professional and personal goals. Please join only if you are prepared to be fully engaged in introspective exercises in order to understand and possibly change your existing

• Faculty: S. Neal, R. Pozen
• T 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM

IAP 2026 |  Firms, investors, and regulators increasingly rely on ESG data. But how can we effectively measure the ESG performance of firms? And how can we effectively use this information for strategic decision making? This two-day course helps managers, investors, and anyone working with ESG data to understand how those measure are constructed, what their pitfalls are, and how they can be used in strategic decision making. Students of this class will learn how firms report on ESG metrics, how ESG ratings are built, and how investors use them. The program makes use of case studies and worked examples. It also builds on the findings of MIT’s Aggregate Confusion Project.

• Faculty: F. Berg, R. Verdi

IAP 2025 |  Group study of current topics related to management not otherwise included in curriculum.

• Faculty: B. Thomas

Spring 2026 | In this course, students study climate change while gaining a foundation in leadership: the practice of mobilizing people – from any organizational position, with or without authority, and across boundaries – to take on tough realities that demand change.
This course integrates theory with practice: By grappling with the uncertainty, loss, and conflict that arise organically in the context of climate change, students gain first-hand experience with the dynamics of problem-solving in complex systems. In particular, students not only explore the social, political, and economic dimensions of climate change, but they also learn diagnostic tools such as stakeholder mapping and group dynamics, as well as action strategies for managing ambiguity, inspiring action, and cultivating shared responsibility. Students also explore what it takes on a personal level to manage the tumult of leadership.

• Faculty: B. Leshchinskiy

Fall 2025 | Examines design, selection, and combination of machine elements to produce a robust precision system. Introduces process, philosophy and physics-based principles of design to improve/enable renewable power generation, energy efficiency, and manufacturing productivity. Topics include linkages, power transmission, screws and gears, actuators, structures, joints, bearings, error apportionment, and error budgeting. Considers each topic with respect to its physics of operation, mechanics (strength, deformation, thermal effects) and accuracy, repeatability, and resolution. Includes guest lectures from practicing industry and academic leaders. Students design, build, and test a small benchtop precision machine, such as a heliostat for positioning solar PV panels or a two or three axis machine. Prior to each lecture, students review the pre-recorded detailed topic materials and then converge on what parts of the topic they want covered in extra depth in lecture. Students are assessed on their preparation for and participation in class sessions. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited.

• Faculty: A. Slocum
• T Th 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Fall 2024 | Introduces the essential knowledge for understanding nuclear waste management. Includes material flow sheets for nuclear fuel cycle, waste characteristics, sources of radioactive wastes, compositions, radioactivity and heat generation, chemical processing technologies, geochemistry, waste disposal technologies, environmental regulations and the safety assessment of waste disposal. Covers different types of wastes: uranium mining waste, low-level radioactive waste, high-level radioactive waste and fusion waste. Provides the quantitative methods to compare the environmental impact of different nuclear and other energy-associated waste. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: C. Forsberg

• MW 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Spring 2025 | Students carry out projects on a material of their choice and study its technical, humanistic, and environmental origins and trajectories of development through historical methods; evaluate its current status within a social and humanistic context; and then imagine and evaluate potential futures. Projects supported by topics and scholarship in sociotechnical systems, social innovation, environmental history and justice, equity-based human-centered design, and futures literacy. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: C. Ortiz, E. Spero, J. Cohen
• MW 12:00 – 1:30 PM

Fall 2025 | Covers quantitative techniques to address principles of substitution, dematerialization, and waste mining implementation in materials systems. Includes life-cycle and materials flow analysis of the impacts of materials extraction; processing; use; and recycling for materials, products, and services. Student teams undertake a case study regarding materials and technology selection using the latest methods of analysis and computer-based models of materials process. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: J. Gregory, K. Daehn, A. Arowosola

Fall 2025 | Critical introduction to key contemporary positions in urbanism to the ends of researching, representing, and designing territories that respond to the challenges of the 21st century. Provides an overview of contemporary urban issues, situates them in relation to a genealogy of urban precedents, and constructs a theoretical framework that engages the allied fields of architecture, landscape architecture, political ecology, geography, territorial planning, and environmental humanities. Comprised of three sections, first section articulates a framework on the urban as both process and form, shifting the emphasis from city to territory. Second section engages a series of related urban debates, such as density/sprawl, growth/shrinkage, and codes/exception. Third section calls upon urban agency in the age of environment through the object of infrastructures of trash, water, oil, and food. Limited to 25.

• Faculty: R. Ghosn
• W 2:00 - 5:00 pm

Fall 2025 | Presents artistic intelligence and modes of creative production as ways to contribute to and critically engage with climate science. In conversation with local stakeholders, students develop hybrid projects of art and design that negotiate between pragmatics and fiction to envision solutions to the climate crisis. Case studies and class participation examine dialectics between aesthetics and scientific knowledge related to environmental care and repair. Includes prototyping and publishing spatial, digital, and material experimentations to generate new work individually and/or collaboratively by way of diverse media explorations. Visiting speakers and field trips accompany lectures, readings, class discussions, and presentations. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. Lab fee required. Limited to 12.

• Faculty: Consult G. Urbonas
• MW 9:30 am - 12:30 pm

Fall 2025 | Introduction to the study of the thermal and luminous behavior of buildings. Examines the basic scientific principles underlying these phenomena and introduces students to a range of technologies and analysis techniques for designing comfortable indoor environments. Challenges students to apply these techniques and explore the role energy and light can play in shaping architecture. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version.

• Faculty: C. Reinhart
• MW 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Fall 2024 | Examines the contemporary challenges and history of city planning on three continents - Africa, Asia, and South America. Students study a number of city plans, from the 'informal' settlements of Delhi and Nairobi, the modernist master plans of Brasilia and Baghdad, to climate action plans in various cities. Explores the relationship between dwelling and building in the design of cities, in conjunction with the environmental, social, political, and intellectual environments at the time of their planning. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

• Faculty: H. Gupta
• T 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

Fall 2025 | This course explores the difference between innovation, social innovation, and systems change for social impact. Students interested in navigating complex environmental and social problems will explore frameworks and case studies from real systems change innovators to develop a more comprehensive view of complex problems and the systems they are part of —systems that often keep those problems in place. In the course, you will apply experiential tools and methods to interrogate your own call to action, strengths, and gaps to address complex problems or needs. You will gain an understanding of the importance of understanding problems from the impact target’s perspective and explore innovative ways to create a scalable movement that ultimately can change a system. The final deliverable from the course is writing a case study on system change based on detailed actor mapping and interviews where you share your deeper understanding of a system you care about.

• Faculty: Yscaira Jimenez, Svafa Grönfeldt and Jenny Larios Berlin
• T 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Spring 2025 | H4 Presents the key elements required for new technical ideas and business practices to be successfully deployed in an open economy, subject to international trade and external environmental costs. Examines the challenges of climate change and increased international competitiveness as they relate to innovation. Offers recommendations for major policy changes to how innovation is encouraged in the United States and the global economy. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

• Faculty: J. Deutch
• TF 9:30 - 11:00 AM

Fall 2025 | Explores how climate is construed in the contemporary media in order to gain a better understanding of how views of climate change are shaped and received in the public sphere.

• Faculty: K. Tarker
• T 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) use ambient-temperature water to transfer thermal energy between sources and sinks—a highly efficient system for building decarbonization. Subject offers technical lectures based on professional trainings. Topics covered include: HVAC, heat pumps, geo-exchange, ambient loops, thermal energy storage, waste energy recovery, techno-economic analysis, policy, industry standards, case studies, thermal systems modeling, and networks.  Class is project-based and transdisciplinary. Students undertake a feasibility/test-fit study of a potential TEN at a local site, gaining first-hand knowledge of how to decarbonize clusters of buildings. Graduate version requires additional work. Enrollment limited to 20.

• Faculty: S. Murcott

Spring 2026 | Surveys energy technologies including solar, wind, and hydro power; cooking; indoor heating; irrigation; and agricultural productivity through an international development context to impart energy literacy and common-sense applications. Focuses on compact, robust, low-cost systems for meeting the needs of household and small business. Provides an overview of identifying user needs, assessing the suitability of specific technologies, and strategies for implementation in developing countries. Labs reinforce lecture material through activities including system assembly and testing. Team projects involve activities including connecting with pre-selected community partners, product design and analysis, and continuing the development of ongoing projects. Optional summer fieldwork may be available. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited by lottery; must attend first class session.

• Faculty: J. Maldonado
• MWF 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Fall 2025 |  Reviews the contributions of energy systems to global greenhouse gas emissions, and the levers for reducing those emissions. Lectures and projects focus on evaluating energy systems against climate policy goals, using performance metrics such as cost, carbon intensity, and others. Student projects explore pathways for realizing emissions reduction scenarios. Projects address the climate change mitigation potential of energy technologies (hardware and software), technological and behavioral change trajectories, and technology and policy portfolios. Background in energy systems strongly recommended. Students taking the graduate version explore the subject in greater depth.

• Faculty: J. Trancik
• T Th 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Spring 2026 | Examines internal and external entrepreneurship driven by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, aiming to utilize digital innovations that lead to societal change. Probes a range of AI-generated business models and opportunities, exploring challenges in key sectors such as digital health, sustainability, fintech, and the decentralization of society and commerce by developing sustainable and economically viable solutions. Content includes blockchain, privacy technology, data markets, and AI advancements like Web3 and distributed machine learning. Cases illustrate examples of both successful and failed businesses, as well as difficulties in deploying and diffusing products. Guest speakers provide real-world insights into entrepreneurship. As a final project, students work in teams to develop a business plan executive summary for one of the featured technologies. Enrollment is limited; please see subject website for details.

• Faculty: R. Raskar, P. Agrawal, S. Karaman
• Th 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Leading experts guide discussions of how to safeguard the world against the greatest threats to our future. Topics range from the overt perils of pandemic and nuclear proliferation to the underlying coordination failures responsible for climate change, and from technological stagnation to transformative AI. Draws on the history of invention and science communication to explore which technologies are most likely to shape the future and how inventors and developers can influence outcomes, with the goal of determining how to accomplish as much good as possible. Emphasizes science writing and communication. Students write three op-eds on key issues and participate in a group project aiming to coordinate effective action. Students taking the graduate version complete additional work.

• Faculty: K. Esvelt, M. Specter
• W 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Spring 2026 | Follow on to MAS.858. Introduces intersections between space technology and sustainable development by examining technical, policy and social aspects of seven space technologies: satellite earth observation; satellite communication; satellite positioning; human space flight and micro gravity research; space technology transfer; fundamental scientific space research; and small satellites. Lectures introduce the UN Sustainable Development Goals and show linkages to seven space technologies from the perspective of development practitioners. Students read scholarly papers, write weekly responses, give presentations, and write a research paper.

• Faculty: D. Wood
• M 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Spring 2026 | H3 Explores how logistics management improves response to humanitarian crises stemming from natural disasters, armed conflicts, epidemics, and famine. Class sessions combine online and class lectures, practical exercises, case discussions, and guest speakers. Provides students from various backgrounds with knowledge of the humanitarian context and fundamental supply chain concepts, as well as practice applying new knowledge in developing and communicating plans and policies to address realistic problems.

• Faculty: J. Goentzel
• MWTh 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Spring 2026 | H4 Introduces key strategies that elevate procurement from a transactional function to a strategic role, enabling participants to make informed decisions that drive supply chain continuity, resilience, and competitiveness. Subject focuses on innovation, particularly the application of artificial intelligence in procurement. Participants explore various use cases of AI in procurement, aiming to improve decision-making and optimize procurement strategies. Balances theoretical foundations, case-based discussions, and real-world applications; designed for individuals with limited or no procurement experience. Equips learners with the skills to manage supplier relationships effectively, adopt collaborative strategies, and leverage cutting-edge technologies to build resilient, sustainable supply chains.

• Faculty: J. Rice
• MW 10:00 - 11:30 AM

Fall 2024 | Examines how science fiction is deployed as a political tool for enacting change in the present and how it has emerged as a privileged symbolic field for the expression of hopes and anxieties that drive both culture and tech industries. Explores how societies around the globe — both mainstream and in the periphery — are confronting a triple crisis that threatens not only civil order but also the very existence of certain forms of life: financial collapse which increased the awareness of mass inequality; climate change and loss of biodiversity; and the rise of ethno-nationalisms, which threaten representative democracies.

• Faculty: E. Nelson
• T 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm