Professional sustainability certificates

Professional certificates

Professional-level courses delivered by ASU’s College of Global Futures are designed specifically for managers, project and team leaders, and those looking to advance in their role or career. Certificates can help you gain expertise to overcome challenges in your current role, or upskill you as you explore career opportunities.

Certificate programs in sustainability

Our professional certificate programs are designed by the same faculty that created the School of Sustainability’s degree programs. Certificates are ideal for professionals who have little formal sustainability education, but want a strong foundation in specific sustainability areas, like corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting, and sustainability strategy and management.

Sustainability Innovation and Strategy Certificate

The Sustainability Innovation and Strategy Certificate equips professionals with the tools to apply innovation frameworks, leverage emerging technologies, and implement strategic sustainability initiatives that create lasting change.

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Principles of ESG and Sustainability for Business

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations are no longer optional; they’re integral components of long-term corporate success. ESG encapsulates a framework that evaluates a company’s impact on the environment, its engagement with society, and the quality of its governance structure.

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Sustainability Analyst Fundamentals Specialization

The specialization, designed for anyone with a high school diploma or greater, introduces common sustainability roles, assesses sustainability challenges that face the planet and employers, and equips learners with the foundational skills needed to address these challenges. Learners who complete the specialization will receive a shareable certificate and be able to make an impact on their organizations with sustainability skills related to goal-setting, reporting and data analysis.

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Climate Conscious Leadership

This professional program does not currently have any upcoming sessions, but will be available as an online, self-paced course soon.

This dynamic online program is designed for mid-career professionals who want to take action on the climate crisis — in their professional and personal lives — but don’t know how. The program will focus on how to effectively become a leader on climate issues within your professional context, to be more strategic and conscious within your organization, and to understand how the broader global context translates into practice.

I am honored to have had this opportunity to learn alongside an inspiring group of professionals from around the world seeking to find their own path to lead their communities and organizations in this desperately needed area of change.

Stacie Zastrow Finance & Accounting, Regenerative Principles & Living Systems

This course helped me realize that I needed to make a change and gave me the courage to go for it. That is a better outcome than I ever imagined.

Joel Hansen Senior Account Executive, Ameresco

I loved this course and I know this is just the beginning of great things!

Tiffany House CEO, Gift Planning Institute

I thoroughly enjoyed the CCL experience.

Karen Jayne CEO, Stardust Nonprofit Building Supplies

The class was FANTASTIC. It was a wonderful 6 weeks and such a great learning experience!

Jessica Ford Director of Development, ASU Foundation

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The Sustainability Opportunity

This course is designed for mid-career professionals in the private sector who want to create a decided advantage in the marketplace by reorienting their abilities. The program will focus on the organizational opportunities that accompany global challenges. Sustainability strategies reduce cost through efficiency, increase revenue and help organizations come out on top in the talent war. Participants will leave with tangible and applied tools as well as a plan for leveraging organizational change!

This professional program does not currently have any upcoming sessions.

It was an excellent program, and I’m really glad that I took the time to be a part of it. I can’t believe how much we covered in such a short time. The program has given me a lot to think about. I’m hoping that this pushes my business into some new directions.

Alisa Bonsignore Director, Clarifying Complex Ideas

My experience at the ASU Sustainability Opportunity over the last three days has been amazing. Really it has brought me back to a systems thinking approach and thinking holistically about where we want to go as a company around sustainability. Not just the things we need to do, but really what are our targets.

Bryce Carnehl Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Hunter Industries

I would absolutely recommend this program to my colleagues. I think that it’s important not only people who work in sustainability but beyond to understand some of the fundamental basics around why this is important for an organization and for an individual.

Brittany Price Director of Sustainable Operations, MGM Resorts International

It was awesome! We are excited to share the knowledge we learned with our team.

Kate Logan Supervising Manager, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens

All of the information has been so valuable. I am really happy I attended!

Andrea Bolyard Group Leader, Public Relations, Bader Rutter

It is a great networking opportunity! It’s also a good way to bounce ideas off of other professionals that are maybe dealing with similar issues … and to learn new ways to approach sustainability and involve your different departments.

Anne Reichman Director, Sustainable Cities Network

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GRI Standards Training Course

Take your organization’s sustainability reporting to the next level with the GRI Standards, the first and most widely adopted global standards for sustainability reporting. This course has been updated to align with the GRI Standards 2021 Update.

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Using a combination of video lessons, interviews, case studies and readings, this course will cover:

How sustainability reporting promotes organizational change.
The GRI organization and how it relates to other standards and frameworks.
Key terms, features and structure of the GRI Standards.
How to engage stakeholders inside and outside your organization.
Material topics, impacts, boundaries and targets for reporting.
How to prepare and communicate about your sustainability report.

Additional benefits include:

Interviews with current sustainability practitioners that bring the reporting concepts to life.
Case studies featuring U.S.-based organizations who report in accordance with GRI Standards.
If you complete this course, you will earn a Certificate of Completion from GRI. If you choose to pursue GRI Certification, this course counts as 3/5 of the optional certification.

… I completed the GRI training course and found it to be one of the best online courses I have ever taken. And I was able to pass the GRI test with a 90%, so thank you!

Joe Holman CEO, ESG Administration LLC

The course was very well organized and interactive with a variety of different media which helped keep it engaging.

Warren Gorowitz Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Hunter Industries

I thought the course was very well structured and contained the right level of content. I also think the flash-cards will be very valuable in preparation for the GRI Exam.

Patrick O’Brien Senior Project Manager, CBRE

My favorite aspect of the course was the company case studies and the interviews with actual people responsible for sustainability reporting for their organizations.

Kristen Johnson Sustainability Technology Manager, U.S. Department of Energy

The course is well written and provides a greater understanding of GRI Standards and clarity in how sustainability practices can be utilized in any industry.

Krystle Golly Sustainability Coordinator, Western University of Health Sciences

Foundational and grounding. I feel equipped to begin the process, and to outline a plan for completing my first sustainability report.

Kathleen Agaton-Cappiello Director, Research, Evaluation & Strategic Learning, Women in Need

It was comprehensive. I liked the mix of more academic descriptions with the real-world experiences of report preparers.

Cara Hayes Senior Program Development Manager, East Africa, TechnoServe

The course was valuable for someone who is trying to transition to more corporate sustainability work.

Corey Nelson Senior Director and Program Lead, Emerging Markets, Marstel-Day, LLC

This course gives a great insight into GRI reporting, sustainability engagement and how the GRI reporting standards can be used as a tool to promote sustainability leadership in organizational change.

David Ucci Senior Construction Project Manager, Medxcel Facilities Management

Sustainable Earth Academy for Small Business

Sustainable Earth offers a series of micro-courses for small businesses and professionals who want to incorporate sustainable business practices into their workplace. Sustainability is the new normal for any business that wants to be successful in the long run; these courses will help you to learn the basics of getting started on your sustainability journey.

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Foundations of Sustainability

Foundations of Sustainability is an online self-paced course that combines video presentations, interactive online activities and readings from the field to help build your foundation of sustainability knowledge and strategy. You’ll learn about sustainability’s three pillars (economy, society and environment), modern sustainability challenges and real-world examples of how organizations are applying sustainability strategies for long-term success.

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Ethical Circular Economy

Earn an Executive Certificate in the ethical circular economy to elevate you and your partners to a regional circular economy and increase your recovery of investment of resources and materials.

The term circular economy describes innovative strategies that work in tandem to design out and eliminate waste throughout product life cycles by making use of existing biological matter, reusable or recycled materials and shared resources. In contrast to a linear “take-make-waste” economy, a circular economy results in financial savings and efficiency within organizations that in turn benefits the communities that they serve.

Explore Ethical Circular Economy

This focused one-day workshop includes:

Mapping exercises on a take-make-waste linear economy.
Practicing adapting to a circular economy model.
Identifying additional stakeholders, gatekeepers, policies and strategies.
A take-home report that includes maps and a synthesis of the workshop.

For more information or to schedule a workshop with your partners, contact [email protected].