Global Collaboration for Sustainability: The Food-Water-Energy Nexus in Italy

Global Collaboration for Sustainability: The Food-Water-Energy Nexus in Italy

Course Number
DYNM 7660 900
Course Code
DYNM7660900
Course Key
81699
Instructor
Prerequisites
Permits to register for this travel course will be issued upon receipt of a signed Travel Agreement.
Primary Program
Course Note
This course departs the US May 26th and returns on June 4th Special session: 05/22/2023 to 06/30/2022
Course Description
This travel courses has a pre-departure zoom session: date TBA.  Travel dates are departing the US on the night of Friday, May 26th and returning to the US on the afternoon of Sunday, June 4th. There is also a zoom wrap up session on Monday, June 19th from 6-9 pm.
  
Environmentalist Paul Hawken challenged a class of 2009 college graduates that they would have to "figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating."  That theme is at the heart of this course.    

While we have seen an uptick in corporate initiatives, government policies, and NGO activity related to multiple sustainability challenges, the world remains well off track on numerous Sustainable Development Goals which come due in 2030.  Our quality of life, and that of future generations, increasingly hinges on the development and implementation of sustainable solutions to the enormously complex environmental and social problems embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals -- particularly around the food-water-energy nexus. 


This course is designed to foster the thinking, and the collaborative spirit, that is needed to address those enormous problems. It involves focusing on a critical global sustainability problem with vast social, cultural, and environmental dimensions -- in this case, the need to balance global food, water, and energy needs in a manner that allows the world to feed nearly 10 billion citizens by 2050 while preserving the environment for future generations (i.e. achieving the healthy people, healthy planet balance).  It also involves collaboration and the exchange of ideas between multi-disciplinary leaders and students from multiple countries, and perspectives on how to manage diverse views and sustainability initiatives that are extremely relevant to the success of today’s organizations (i.e. how to lead “big change” with urgency for competitive advantage). 



DYNM 7660 will explore the food-water-energy nexus in Italy amid a culture that literally celebrates food, with additional emphasis on the systemic challenge of global food loss and waste.  The course will involve a special session with experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome – the hub of agriculture and food security research for the world – and additional sessions on food, water, energy, sustainability and innovation topics with international students and food system experts at the University of Bologna (the oldest University in the world) and the Future Food Institute led by food system leader Sara Roversi.  Potential side trips include tours of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and balsamic vinegar producers, a pasta producer, FICO/Eataly.  Students will have some time to explore the wonders of Bologna on their own as well.
Subject Area Vocab