Environmental Sustainability

In order to succeed in today’s world of rapidly declining natural resources, shifting climate conditions, and growing supply chain transparency, students must develop a clear understanding of how their business decisions will impact the environment and future generations. Companies that embed sustainability practices into their culture and operations have been shown to have lower capital costs, increased financial performance, more engaged employees, and higher levels of customer loyalty: sustainability has become a primary driver for innovation and business success in the 21st century.

Sponsored by: Math & Science and Arts & Humanities

Faculty Contacts: Joanna Carey and Jon Dietrick

Required Courses

Choose any four (4) of the following courses: 

• NST 2020 Case Studies in Ecological Management or NST 2040 Case Studies in Sustainable Food Systems
• NST/HSS 2080 Socioecological Urban Systems **
• NST/HSS 2090 Ecological Systems: Feeding the Modern US**
• NST 2011 / ECN 2611 Socio-Ecological Systems and Disaster Resilience**
• NST/HSS 2012 Water Systems
• SES (no number yet) Prairie Systems 
• CVA 2003 From Babson to New Delhi
• CVA 2036 Waste, Consumption, and Environmental Justice
• CVA 2057 Narratives of Sustainability
• ECN 3675 Environmental Economics
• ENV 4600 Climate Change Politics and Policies
• ENV 4605 Global Environmental Activism
• ENV 4610 Art and Ecology in the Anthropocene
• EPS 4515 Affordable Design & Entrepreneurship
• EPS 4527 Social Entrepreneurship by Design
• FIN 3535 Financing and Valuing Sustainability
• HSS 2040 Environmental Politics
• LIT 4676 Imagining Nature, Imagining Ourselves
• LIT 4682 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights
• LVA 2030 Place and Landscape in American Literature
• LVA 2062 Suburban America in Literature and Culture
• MDS 4620 Mediating the Wild
• MKT 4525 Sustainable Marketing
• OIM 3522 Sustainable Operations and Innovation (formerly MOB 3522 Leading & Managing Sustainability)
• PHL 4609 Nature, Technology, and Values
• POL 4630 Critical Race Studies
• SCN3630 Economic Botany 
• SCN3615 Ecology of Animal Behavior
• SCN 3665 Global Climate Change

The Environmental Sustainability concentration is ideal for:

• Students interested in a career in social entrepreneurship
• Students interested in a career in science and innovation
• Students interested in complementing their other concentrations to differentiate themselves

The Environmental Sustainability concentration will provide students with the tools to become sustainability leaders, and students working in this concentration are challenged to recognize points of integration and points of tension between the needs of the planet and all its inhabitants and ecosystems, as well as the demands of business and economic growth.