Skip to Main Content

Sustainability Resources for Faculty and Students: Environment & Sustainability

Carbon Footprint Calculators

eBooks

Open Education Resources (OERs) & Open Access (OA)

ABC of Sustainable Development (MERLOT) (IntechOpen) open textbook.

An Introduction to Sustainable Business (MERLOT),  licensed under CC BY NC-SA.

"Biodiversity" in Healing Earth (MERLOT),  licensed under CC BY NC-SA.

Building a Sustainable Business (MERLOT).

"Describe Sustainability and the Way It Creates Business Value" in Principles of Accounting, Volume 2: Managerial Accounting (BCcampus Open Publishing). 

Environmental Biology (BCcampus Open Publishing), licensed under CC BY .

Environmental Science in the 21st Century (Texas A&M), Open Source Textbook.

Forests and Food: Addressing Hunger and Nutrition Across Sustainable Landscapes  (MERLOT),  licensed under CC BY.

Good Corporation, Bad Corporation: Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Economy (BCcampus Open Publishing), licensed under CC BY NC-SA.

Green IS: Building Sustainable Business Practices (MERLOT),  licensed under CC BY NC-SA.

Introduction to Environmental Science  (MERLOT),  licensed under CC BY NC.

Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science Book 1 (BCcampus Open Publishing), licensed under CC BY NC.

Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science, Book 2 (BCcampus Open Publishing), licensed under CC BY NC.

Northern and Indigenous Health and Healthcare (BCcampus Open Publishing), licensed under CC BY NC.

Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation (Open Textbook Library), licensed under CC BY.

Sustainability in the arts and humanities (OER Commons) course licensed under  CC BY NC SA.

Sustainability, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (MERLOT), licensed under CC BY NC SA.

 

The links below will take you directly to the portions of databases that contain materials relevant to Earth & Environmental Sciences. Licenses vary. Verify individual items.

Geosciences LibreTexts (open-access texts)

InTech - Environmental Sciences (open textbooks)

InTech - Earth & Planetary Sciences (open textbooks)

HippoCampus.org - Environmental Science (multimedia content including videos, animations, and simulations)

MIT Open Courseware - Earth Science (open courseware)

Open Educational Resources from the Penn State College of Earth & Mineral Sciences (open courseware)

Open Learn - Nature & Environment (supplemental materials for educators, including articles, podcasts, videos, games, and much more)

UMass Boston OpenCourseWare - Environmental, Earth, and Ocean Sciences (open courseware)

PhET Interactive Simulations (free interactive math and science simulations).

The National Science Digital Library (educational resources)

Web Resources

Earth & Environmental Science Research Overview

From the National Science Foundation. This research helps us comprehend our effects on the environment and how the environment in turn responds to impacts of our activities.

Encyclopedia of Earth

From Agriculture to Wildlife, this “free, fully searchable online resource on the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society” is one of the most reliable sources for environmental and policy information on the web.

Environmental News Network (ENN)

This site features news stories, audio and video clips, quizzes and polls, and in-depth features on topics such as green building and socially responsible investing. Searchable and browsable.

Environment at a Glance

"The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development has a new platform devoted to how different nations measure up when it comes to environmental indicators related to air quality or climate change (such as carbon footprint or CO2 emissions). Users can compare countries’ progress, sort data by nation or indicator, compare trends, and more." From Library Journal

Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume 2

On November 23, 2018, the US government released Volume II of its Fourth National Climate Assessment report (NCA4), which "provide[s] a thorough examination of the effects of climate change on the United States." This report is a follow up to NCA4 Volume I, which was released in 2017 and focused on assessing the science of climate change.

A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems

This project of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara provides "critical information for evaluating where certain activities can continue with little effect on the oceans, where other activities might need to be stopped or moved to less sensitive areas, and where to focus efforts on protecting the last pristine areas."

Inside Science

News articles and video content about current scientific research geared toward the average web user. Content is divided into basic categories: News, Video, Opinion, Blog, and Browse Topics.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | USAGov

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) works to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts

Plants Database

Images, characteristics, and distribution information for plants in the U.S. and its territories are included in this database. Searching is made easy through a variety of options and includes both scientific and common names.

Science.gov

"...provides a search of over 36 scientific databases and 200 million pages of science information with just one query, and is a gateway to 1,850+ scientific Websites."

Scorecard - The Pollution Information Site

Investigate pollution topics, “get an in-depth pollution report for your county, covering air, water, chemicals, and more.” Sponsored by Environmental Defense.

 

Terms of Environment

This glossary from the Environmental Protection Agency "defines in non-technical language the more commonly used environmental terms appearing in EPA publications, news releases, and other Agency documents available to the general public, students, the media, and Agency employees." Includes abbreviations and acronyms. Searchable and browsable.

USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Provides "research and technical assistance in support of sound management and conservation of biological systems in the western United States." Includes access to current research, news, fact sheets, and more. Searchable.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

(WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, is the "largest private nonprofit" oceanographic institution in the world. Provides WHOI's research activities, staff, ships, and educational programs along with news and information on ocean and coastal-related topics. The Know Your Ocean section provides access to documents, reports, and archived data of great potential usefulness for research papers.

World Wide Science.org

Search across 28 scientific databases from 18 countries in this "Global Science Gateway." Includes published research findings in energy, medicine, agriculture, environment, and the basic sciences. Maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information.