Topic 1: Themes and Perspectives in Sustainable Development
Introduces the main issues and how they interact. This topic includes an overview of human development to date and the physical and ecological forces that have shaped it. Also covered is an introduction to the relevant policy responses at local, national and international levels.

Topics 2, 3 and 4: Ecological / Economic / Social Conceptions of Sustainability
These three topics analyse the different approaches to sustainability in detail. The scope ranges from consideration of ecological resilience, conceptions of sustainability in terms of a 'capital stock', to the importance of equity and 'quality of life'. This inter-disciplinary approach reflects the huge scale of the sustainable development problem.

Topic 5: Energy, Climate Change and Sustainable Development
The use of energy has been fundamental to the course of human development. This topic is in two parts. Firstly we explore some implications of the laws of thermodynamics. Secondly we consider the effect of current fossil energy use, in terms of greenhouse gas emission and the policy responses to this.

Topic 6: Indicators of Sustainability
This topic includes both conventional bio-physical indicators and also attempts to calculate 'sustainable income' or 'sustainable economic welfare'.