Decision Making for Sustainable Energy

All people and societies face challenges and opportunities for living sustainably in our world. We must make many difficult and complex decisions in our lives as individuals, citizens, and leaders. Through participation in this course, students will develop the tools and knowledge to make wiser decisions. Students will work through three real sustainable energy problems: How could you reduce the carbon footprint of an average person in the US to the global per capita average? How can Stanford reach its carbon Net Zero goals for various sources of emissions? and How could you make the US electric power sector 100% carbon free by 2035? For each problem, students will work separately and together to identify possible options; evaluate the range of costs and benefits of each; identify economic, social, environmental, and technological barriers and opportunities. They will learn what information is relevant, how to get and use it, how to make and justify good decisions in the context of sustainability. Grading for this initial offering of this course will be satisfactory/NC, based on completing multiple individual and group assignments in a way that meets course standards. The course is accessible to all undergraduate students, including frosh and sophomores.