Academic Catalog

Sustainability (Minor)

The Minor in Sustainability provides students with an interdisciplinary framework for understanding and addressing the environmental, social, and economic challenges facing contemporary society. The program emphasizes systems thinking and evidence‑based decision‑making to examine how human activities interact with natural and built environments and how sustainable solutions can be developed at local, regional, and global scales.

Students completing the minor explore core sustainability concepts such as resource management, environmental stewardship, social equity, economic resilience, and long‑term planning. Coursework integrates perspectives from the natural sciences, social sciences, and applied disciplines, and may include experiential learning through projects, case studies, or community‑focused activities that emphasize real‑world problem solving.

The Sustainability minor complements a wide range of majors, including Biology, Environmental Science, Health Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, and the social sciences. It is well suited for students interested in careers or graduate study related to sustainability, environmental management, public policy, urban planning, education, corporate responsibility, and community development.

To complete the minor, students must earn 18 credit hours as follows;

Required Courses9
SUST 2204Introduction to Sustainability3
SUST 2100Systems Thinking and SDG's3
STEM 2600Energy & Alt Fuels3
Select three of the following:
SUST 4100Comm Resilience & Env Justice3
SUST 4915Comm Resilience & Env Justice3
STEM 3600Energy Sys & Adv Alt Fuels3
ENVS 3000Env Monitorin & Restoration3
ENVS 4100Renewable Energy & Society3
SOCI 3090Population and Society3

All courses applied to the minor must be completed with a grade of C or better.