Sustainable Practices

is an organizing theme for the course offered by the Geography Department at PSU, it is the Spannocchia Foundation's mission to operate the estate as a sustainable enterprise, and it is one of the major initiatives of Portland State University. The course, Tuscany: Sustainability in City and Country, looks at different scales of sustainability from the local to the region – from the estate of Spannocchia to the ways in which connections between city and county in Tuscany have created a place that embodies social and environmental sustainability. From the built environment of hilltowns and compact cites, to the agricultural systems that provide local food and serve as a symbol of food traditions rooted in dense and vibrant social systems, Tuscany provides an example of a region with a sense of place that embodies sustainable practices. Spannocchia operates as an organic farm, and provides the staff and guests with the bulk of food, water, and power that they consume on the estate—sustainability is at the core of their operating principles. The course reading materials and projects allow students to explore sustainability as an operative concept at several levels of analysis.