BEE 3299 Sustainable Development

Questions? You can reach Dr. Richards at Brian.Richards@cornell.edu

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This website gives prospective students an introduction to the why, how, who, where, and when of BEE 3299/5299 Sustainable Development, a fully online asynchronous course.

Note: Graduate & professional students must enroll in BEE5299 that "co-meets" and is integrated with BEE3299, with a few additional requirements. For simplicity in this webpage, "BEE3299" refers to both 3299 and 5299 sections unless otherwise distingushed.

Specific details of the course flow, schedule, and administration can be found in the Course Syllabus (PDF link).

Why take BEE329/5299?

You’re probably reading this on the screen of an electronic device. Have you ever wondered where the resources came from to build a device like this (or to build the factory that built it)? Or where the electricity that powers it comes from? Or more deeply, what are the environmental, economic, and social impacts, costs, and benefits of these resource flows? These questions help us understand the sustainability of a product or process, and this course is an introduction to how these kinds of questions are answered. You will learn how to conduct a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) to determine how environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable a system of your choosing is (more on that below).

Student feedback:

Overall, I found this class very enlightening and it definitely challenged me to use critical thinking skills when emulating the LCA's on my own! I appreciate having this "primer" for sustainable development as knowledge of this content is useful for any field.
The class was really eye-opening and informative. I'd never looked into sustainability at such an in-depth scale as this before and it really helped me to see the various realms of sustainability.
I see BEE3299 offering students ownership of an LCSA from start to finish, practical applications, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Through ideating and researching a self chosen project for an LCSA, students are given the opportunity to apply their learnings from readings and videos to real-world products or systems. As the student’s LCSA progresses, it becomes apparent that sustainability of any product or system is multifaceted, intricate, and not neatly confined to one discipline. This student-led discovery is enlightening and sparks curiosity about sustainability in a greater context outside the scope of this class and even our day-to-day lives.

How does BEE3299/5299 work?

BEE3299 is - and always has been - a solely online asynchronous course. This means no lectures (over zoom or in person). There are also no exams. Sequential course modules that become available during the semester include all that you need: learning objectives, readings, examples, occasional video clips, and rubrics specific to each assignment. Your written assignments are uploaded for grading and, most importantly, commenting.

A key distinctive of this course is that you will select products or systems of interest to you and will carry out a semester-long LCSA on that topic. As part of this process, you will be building a Digication web portfolio of your project. This provides a place where the members of your ~10 person peer group can read, learn from, and constructively comment on your project as it progresses. Utilization of office hours is optional (but certainly recommended). The scoring system is structured so that we drop your lowest-scoring major assignment, and several extra credit options are available. It is offered for 3 credit hours, with student-selected options for letter or pass/fail grading.

Student feedback:

I thought the course was great - at the beginning I had no idea how I was going to do an entire LCSA, but here I am having done it.
I really appreciate how each week we focus on a different aspect of the same problem - it really makes things click and allows our work to be a culmination rather than random parts put together.

Who takes - and teaches - BEE3299/5299?

Students in BEE3299 are sophomores, juniors, and seniors (along with a few extramural students) from across the university. A science/engineering/technical background is NOT required. As noted above, grad/professional students now register in the integrated BEE5299, following the same course flow but with a few deeper requirements. Students are grouped into peer groups (with typically around 11-12 members). Peer group members learn the diversity of their peers' projects, and provide constructive feedback from a range of majors and backgrounds.

Each peer group has a permanent Undergrad TA who will be your first point of contact if you have questions. Your team of TAs previously excelled in BEE3299 but also remember what it was like to go through the course. The Undergrad TA team is absolutely essential to the success of BEE3299! Several Head TAs (undergrads who previously excelled as TAs) and a Grad TA help guide and train the TA team and also help answer some of the more challenging questions that arise.

Your instructor is Dr. Brian K. Richards from the Department of Biological & Environmental Engineering. He has over 40 years experience in carrying out sustainability-oriented research at the agriculture-environment interface. He has led the course since 2019. It is important to acknowledge the years of work invested in visionary course development beginning in 1998 by Dr. Norman Scott, then by Dr. Michael Walter, and most recently by Dr. Allison Truhlar. Over time they forged the extremely effective pedagogical approach that is the core of the course's success.

Student feedback:

The lessons were very easy to follow and the TAs were very helpful and never intimidating. They were always happy to help and very supportive.
I think that the peer comments were surprisingly helpful, and that the TA's left really insightful and helpful feedback for each assignment.
I thoroughly enjoyed this class! As someone who has always steered away from anything that even remotely involves science and numbers, this class truly changed my perspective on sustainability.

Where does BEE3299/5299 take place?

Being solely on-line, students have taken BEE3299 from anywhere there is internet access. Office hours are offered in both in-person and over zoom.

Student feedback:

Clarity of instruction was a major component of this course that helped me learn the information. It was very organized, and this was important to me given that this class is not in person
I really like the class works to foster a small sense of community within the class by allowing students to share their work on Digication. It was very exciting to be able to see the work of my peers and be a part of my peer group's progress throughout the semester.

When will BEE3299/5299 next be offered?

Watch for us in Spring 2026!

Student feedback:

I enjoyed this class. It was a different way of learning that allowed me to express my interests and learn new and interesting sustainability perspectives on various systems.
I just completed [a] sustainability survey, and I was amazed at how much I learned in BEE 3299! The survey asked an array of questions ranging from environmental life cycles to sustainable development, and I was surprised at how many concepts I could recognize and think critically about.
I loved this course! I felt like I finished the semester with a body of work that I was very proud to call my own.
I believe that one important thing BEE 3299 offers its students is creative freedom ... Through the opportunity to explore my curiosities and the continued encouragement from the teaching team, I produced an inquiry that I was proud of and learned a lot from.
I see BEE 3299 as an opportunity for students to not only better explore their personal and professional interests but also learn how to conduct holistic and detailed research within a specific framework and present timely deliverables ... the perfect combination of independent thinking and structured support, allowing students from all backgrounds to learn how to conduct independent research and promote intrinsic goals.

And last of all, a student's end-of-semester "Letter to January self" with advice about embarking on the course:
Take a deep breath and stay curious. You’re about to enter a course that will not hand you answers, but will give you something more powerful: the tools to ask better questions. Be ready to unpack assumptions, deal with contradictory data, and challenge neat solutions. Don’t be discouraged when things feel ambiguous, this is what real sustainability work looks like. And most importantly, remember that your values shaped by your family, your heritage, your studies, and your desire to create change, are just as important as your calculations. Let them serve as drive and fuel for what you can accomplish.

Course overview is copyright (C) 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023,2024,2025 Brian Karl Richards Version 25.05.28
Student feedback taken from anonymous university- and course-administered surveys and student communications.

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