Figure 2: The SUSTAIN module’s course directors, Joseph Fagan (left) and Anthony Gampell (right). Photo from @uoa_sustainable_alliance on Instagram. Photo from Anthony Gampell.

STEM as an Engine

While sustainability recognises the environmental, economic, and social boundaries, STEM can provide the practicality needed to operate within them. Sustainability-based issues are inherently complex and thus often cannot be solved without empirical data to establish baselines, technological innovation to develop solutions, and infrastructure for implementation. 

For example, without climate science, we would not have the data to predict temperature increases, sea-level rise, and ecosystem degradation. Technology helps create actionable systems such as satellite monitoring to track island planform change across time, or models to gauge the spectrum of environmental change [5]. Engineering designs physical, resilient solutions, with modern infrastructure moving away from hard, inflexible defences. Finally, mathematics can validate a solution’s capability, progress, and efficiency, providing data on effectiveness and areas for improvement. 

Ultimately, STEM tells us what is happening, why it is happening, and the tools to help solve the issue. Beyond a scientific perspective, STEM being an engine for sustainable development is important for social equity and economic viability, as the solutions and infrastructure it creates have far-reaching impacts [6].  In turn, sustainability has helped STEM to move away from extractive designs that cause long-term environmental degradation towards regenerative, circular practices that encourage systems to flourish [6]. 

SUSTAIN and STEM: Actionable Citizenship

Real-world impact requires more than traditional assessments like tests and essays; fostering genuine student agency and citizenship is core to advancing sustainable development. As such, a novel assignment within the SUSTAIN module is the SUSTAIN Citizenship Passport. After realising that orthodox academic processes do not automatically translate into living sustainably or align with what their lectures promote, Fagan proposed replacing exam weightings with evidence of sustainable actions. Gampell built on this by creating the physical ‘passport’ activity, in which students reflect on and creatively express their learning before further discussing it at ‘border control’ at the end of the semester. The passports are assessed on genuine participation and effort rather than on how well something is written.

Students are provided with a range of options (worth varying points), including growing a plant, volunteering, or writing a UoA Scientific article, with the core goal of having students take sustainability-based actions and think critically about them. For example, the volunteering events students can sign up to often include planting native trees, catchment restoration, and community stream clean-ups. Thus, the Citizenship Passport encourages students to take action and see how their efforts can make a difference on a larger scale. Critically, the passport bridges the gap between the scientific theory students learn and the personal agency the lecturers encourage. 

SUSTAIN and STEM: Campus Implementation

As part of the SUSTAIN module’s goal of making sustainability more actionable for students, a systems thinking approach is taught as a core concept. Systems thinking is a mindset that examines how individual components fit within and interact with a larger framework [7]. Crucially, it moves away from seeing inorganic materialisms as separate, emphasises the interconnectedness of systems, and in an environmental context, de-centres the human perspective to include both living and non-living things [7]. Using this framework further encourages interdisciplinary teamwork, allowing students to integrate diverse perspectives and skills.

Rather than studying sustainability as a theoretical concept, the SUSTAIN module will, from 2027, use a Vertically Integrated Project (cutting across SUSTAIN 100G, 200, and 300) to solve UoA campus issues. Firstly, SUSTAIN 100G students will begin by analysing and collecting data on the campus experience from their own, or marginalised perspectives. Secondly, SUSTAIN 200 students will transform that data into a potential solution. Finally, SUSTAIN 300 students will draft and propose an implementation plan.

By connecting the courses, students do not just write hypothetical essays or develop solutions that lack traction; they have the opportunity to speak directly with UoA staff to pitch feasible, data-backed operational changes. Thus, the Vertically Integrated Project will demonstrate how analytical science and interdisciplinary work together to turn observations into tangible alterations.

How successful has the SUSTAIN module been?

For a module that explicitly moves away from a traditional structure, how do Gampell and Fagan measure the success of the module? Traditionally, STEM measures success through easily quantifiable metrics like key performance indicators or test scores. While these metrics are important in industry, the course directors measure the ultimate success of the SUSTAIN module by how graduates embed sustainability and its principles in their careers. 

Alumni from the SUSTAIN module have taken what they have learned and applied it to a wide array of sectors. From catchment conservation to corporate banking to government policy-making, former students have continued to consider sustainable development in their everyday lives. Furthermore, with growing interest in sustainability after the module, more and more students have become interested in sustainability as a postgraduate research topic. As a relatively young module, it has achieved remarkable success and could open opportunities for broader study pathways in sustainability. 

The SUSTAIN module equips students across all disciplines to recognise potential sustainable developments in their own fields, thereby creating long-term institutional and societal change.

Conclusion

At its heart, the SUSTAIN module redefines sustainability from a vague buzzword into an active, lifelong practice. Through SUSTAIN 100G, 200, and 300, Gampell and Fagan have demonstrated that while STEM provides the tools to understand and address global challenges, long-term solutions require an interdisciplinary mix of minds, systems thinking, and personal responsibility. 

Fagan has put it simply as “doing more with less”, which ultimately means “creating relationships and systems that allow human and more-than-human life to continue to flourish.” While there is no doubt of the connection between sustainability and STEM, inherent in it are people’s own values and morals that motivate them to act.

From actionable work through the Citizenship Passport to proposing feasible solutions at UoA, to implementing changes in the workforce, SUSTAIN emphasises the importance of every discipline’s role in building a brighter future. 

So, what is sustainability? It is action. It is implementation. It is doing something because you care.