Purpose: The purpose of this study was to introduce a sustainability course to interior design students and explore how working with industry could address challenges with integrating sustainability education into and ensuring student motivation in non-studio courses. Design/methodology/approach: This is a case study presenting qualitative evaluation from the 15-week "IAED 342 Sustainable Design for Interiors" course with a sample of 98 third-year interior architecture students at Bilkent University, Turkey. Findings: The findings were analyzed from the perspectives of two processes learning and working with industry. The results revealed that an active learning environment and industry collaboration positively influenced students' awareness of sustainable design, increased their ability to integrate sustainability knowledge to design studio projects and improved academic outcomes. Originality/value: This study is a unique effort by the Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design at Bilkent University by being the first to introduce a sustainability course and create a responsive and social learning environment through industry collaboration. The results of the study highlighted that better outcomes are achieved by working directly with industry than by performing theoretical exercises.