We present an intermediate-level course on sustainable physics, which combines lectures and student projects. Sustainable physics concepts are progressively introduced through both a global and a specialized perspective: climate change and building design. The lectures and hands-on activities on both topics show how they share common concepts and provide complementary points of view. Climate change mitigation and adaptation are touched on via student group projects, where they are asked to tackle a specific question of their choosing via reviews of the literature, modeling, or experiments.

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See supplementary material online for a set of exercises and problems which can be studied in class or given as homework or exams, as well a the lecture notes for the sustainable building design part of the course.
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During this activity, students often choose to investigate the hometown of one group member. When they present their work to the class, this results in a large variety of locations, which is a way of promoting diversity.
47.
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We restrict ourselves to locally implementable energy sources and chose not to discuss hydroelectric or nuclear power, for instance.
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Guyaju and the Loess Plateau in China, Matmata in Tunisia (which featured in some Star Wars movies), or Petra in Jordan have examples of such troglodyte houses. The Lalibela Church in Ethiopia and the Chand Baori well in India are magnificent historical examples of such an architecture. The Villa Vals (Switzerland) designed by Bjarne Mastenbroek, the Städel Museum (Germany) designed by Schneider + Schumacher, the Earthscraper project (Mexico) by KNKR Aquitectura, or one of Ewha Womans University's buildings (South Korea) designed by Dominique Perrault are more contemporary examples.
56.
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During the projects, students often like to tackle a subject that is relevant in their life. They are sometimes inspired by building techniques or sustainable solutions that are used in their home countries or regions. Explaining this to their classmates favors intercultural exchanges.
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Student projects that the authors agreed to publicize will be accessible through the course's webpage: <http://lptms.u-psud.fr/wiki-cours/index.php/Physics_of_sustainable_development>.
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Supplementary Material

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