This interdisciplinary module equips you to participate actively in sustainability debates. It provides a guide to the mass of information available on environmental issues, including biodiversity conservation, adaptation to climate change, and long-term food security. It encourages you to examine these issues from multiple perspectives, taking a holistic view of environmental systems, including how we value them. An investigation strand runs through the module, in which you’ll look at an aspect of your local environment or consumption behaviour to evaluate the possibilities of future responses to change.
The module consists of three blocks and a project:
Block 1: Biodiversity and conservation
Your presence on planet earth is entirely dependent on biodiversity. Living organisms produce the oxygen in the air you breathe, recycle nutrients and water and make up your food. The sheer variety of form, function, colour and beauty in nature – a record of evolutionary history – has inspired people for the duration of human existence and continues to enrich our lives and our culture. Nevertheless, life on Earth is under threat and needs urgent action. In Block 1, you’ll explore biodiversity, starting with that around you – even on your dinner plate – and move on to look at the nature of global diversity. You’ll examine past, present and future threats to species, and investigate solutions to the ongoing biodiversity crisis. By the end of the block – and based on the latest research in biodiversity and conservation – you’ll appreciate the diversity and importance of life on earth, and the ability to evaluate its threats and propose potential solutions.
Block 2: Climate change
You need to take an interdisciplinary approach to understand climate-change science and politics. You’ll be introduced to the role and workings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and to their summary of the science. This will lead to studying international environmental treaties, culminating in the 2015 Paris Agreement. You’ll learn how to access key data on the status of national emissions, using the UNFCCC's website, and interpret its significance. You’ll also gain a good understanding of the workings of a key set of climate change research and policy tools: integrated assessment models. These bring to life the implications of economic and rights-based approaches to the issue of climate equity. The topic raises questions about our relationship with ‘distant others’, future generations, and the non-human living world. In addition to text, you’ll work with interactive online content, including the world’s first interactive map of a UN climate change conference and a media-rich timeline of environmental history. To conclude the block, you’ll rehearse the role of an environmental journalist, researching and writing an article, again supported by specially commissioned interactive materials.
Block 3: Food security
The quest for global food security has brought into discussion the need for feeding an expected 9–10 billion people by 2050, with adequate and nutritious food for a healthy life. With this aim in the background, you’ll explore multiple facets of food security: limits to food production, landscape management, and policies for access to food. This block will build on the concepts that previous blocks introduced you to – i.e. drivers of biodiversity gains and losses, and the challenge posed by climate change to our food production and management systems. You’ll build on your knowledge of Earth’s natural resources (typically gained in previous modules) and expand on the management conflicts and harmony with Earth and its human inhabitants.
Project work
The project involves three stages threaded throughout the module. First, in Block 1, you’ll study introductory material on a) the biodiversity of the food you eat and b) the benefits provided to us by trees in our environment – you’ll choose one of these threads as the focus for your project work. Using practical and investigative work, you’ll collect data to carry out a mini-project. Second, alongside Block 2, you’ll design an investigation, analyse data and report on your findings appropriately for various audiences. This will involve group work to explore several aspects of the topic before presenting your findings. There are likely to be 6–12 students in your group. Thirdly, alongside Block 3, you’ll carry out an individual project from beginning to completion by applying all your research skills acquired earlier in this module. This project will form a significant part of the end-of-module assessment, including a presentation as a web post.
There are no formal entry requirements for this module.
At The Open University, we believe education should be open to all, so we provide high-quality university education to anyone who wishes to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential.
Even though there are no entry requirements, you’ll need recent experience in a related subject obtained through:
Are you ready for SDT306?
We recommend that you’ve passed:
Plus one of the following:
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You’ll have access to a module website, which includes:
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying SDT306 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
Environment: responding to change (SDT306) starts once a year – in October.
It will next start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2027.
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