Sustainable Economic Development
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this urban planning course on applying environmental and economic development approaches to neighborhood-level community work. Through a service learning project, students partner with a community-based non-profit organization to prepare an actual sustainable development plan, testing planning and policy tools against the real constraints of a specific neighborhood and organization. The course covers economic development strategy, environmental planning methods, and management approaches used in urban community development, with course materials including the syllabus, readings, and project assignments used at MIT. It suits students who want to practice applied planning work rather than study theory alone, working directly with a client organization to shape a concrete plan. Materials are free to access under MIT's open license, with no certificate offered through OpenCourseWare.