North American collegiate sustainability programs
North American collegiate sustainability programs are institutions of higher education in the United States, Mexico, and Canada that have majors and/or minors dedicated to the subject of
Canada
Acadia University
Acadia University is located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, offers an undergraduate major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. This major gives students the skills they need to make the changes necessary to create a more "sustainable and just society".[1] There are four concentration areas (Sustainable Community Development, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Sustainability, Environmental Thought and Practice, and Environmental Advocacy, Education, and Activism) and two different degree options (a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Recreation Management) offered within the major. Additionally, the university is home to the Arthur Irving Academy for the Environment which organizes sustainability programs on the campus.[2]
Dalhousie University
Trent University
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia offers an Environment and Sustainability major at its Vancouver campus. This major promotes an understanding of the variety of factors that affect life on the planet now and in the future.[9] Some courses that are part of the major include The Global Climate System as well as Environment and Resources. The University of British Columbia also has the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability that focuses on creating and implementing solutions to the "challenges of urban development".[10]
Mexico
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)
Also known as
United States
Northeast
Columbia University
Drew University
Located in
Philadelphia University
Located in
Unity College
Wilson College
Located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Wilson College is a women's college that offers two sustainability majors. Business Sustainability and Environmental Management[20] integrates sustainability practices into the business world. Environmental Sustainability[21] focuses more on solving environmental problems. Wilson has a Center for Sustainable Living that works with the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living (which serves as an environmental educational facility as well as a produce farm).[22]
Southeast
Eastern Mennonite University
Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, offers a major in Environmental Sustainability.[23] This program focuses on forward-looking sustainability practices and requires students to choose one of two areas of study: Environmental Science Concentration (focuses on traditional environmental sciences) or Environmental and Social Sustainability Concentration (combines concepts from the first concentration and incorporates sociological aspects).
Furman University
Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, offers a major in Sustainability science.[24] The focus of this major is to prepare and educate students on how to enhance the long-term quality of life. This program offers nearly 30 different elective courses along with the required coursework. All of the elective courses are broken into three different categories: Environmental Security, Human Security, and Sustainable Production and Consumption. Furman University also has the Sustainability Planning Council (SPC)[25] and the David E. Shi Center of Sustainability,[26] which both focus on promoting sustainability throughout the campus.
University of Florida
The
Central
Aquinas College
Baldwin Wallace University
Located in Berea, Ohio, Baldwin Wallace University offers a major and minor in Sustainability.[33] This academic program focuses on preparing students to create solutions to the world's current environmental and social problems through courses such as Sustainable Food and Green Business. In addition to their undergraduate program, Baldwin Wallace University also has a Master of Business Administration in Sustainability.[34]
Maharishi University of Management
The
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, offers a fully online Master of Arts in Sustainable Design Program.[36] MCAD was the first art and design school with a fully online program in sustainability. The college and program are fully accredited by both the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and the National Association of Schools of Art + Design (NASAD). The program covers cutting-edge theories to practical applications and leadership strategies, and emphasizes systems thinking, biomimicry, business, lifecycle analysis, and collaboration. Every student completes an independent thesis project and presentation.
Northland College
Ashland, Wisconsin, is the site of Northland College that offers both a major and a minor in Sustainable Community Development.[37] Both programs are geared toward students who wish to be agents of change for communities in the way of sustainability. Courses include Methods of Sustainable Community Development and Capitalism, Justice, and Sustainability. Northland is one of five colleges that are part of the Eco League (a group of colleges dedicated to the pursuit of sustainability education) and offers a campus sustainability work study program[38] to its students.
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, offers both a major and minor in Sustainable Systems.[39] These programs focus on how to enhance systems so that they're more sustainable using technology and enterprise. Students can choose from over forty different courses in three different clusters: Systems Analysis for Sustainability, Sustainable Design and Technology, and Sustainable Enterprise that cover a broad range of themes (including the built environment, mobility, and food systems). Additionally, the University of Michigan has an Office of Campus Sustainability[40] and includes the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute.[41]
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University has a Sustainabity department.[42]
West/Southwest
Arizona State University
The ASU School of Sustainability at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, offers the BA, BS, MA, MS, and PhD in Sustainability.[43] Other degrees offered are the Master of Sustainable Solutions (applied non-thesis program) and the Executive Master in Sustainability Leadership (13-month executive degree). Through the university's online platform, students may also pursue a BA in Sustainability and a Master of Sustainability Leadership degree. It is the first School of Sustainability in the United States, founded in 2006.[44] Several sustainability programs are found in other colleges at ASU, including Business, Engineering, Public Service and Community Solutions.
Cal Poly Pomona
The Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies at
Prescott College
Prescott College has offered a PhD degree in Sustainability Education using a cohort-based limited-residency model since 2005. Doctoral students complete most of the work offsite in three stages. Foundational coursework in pedagogy, sustainability science, and social science research methods are completed via virtual classroom space. Elective courses are designed by the students and overseen by degreed mentors found by the students. The research work and writing are traditional, with a doctoral committee made up of a chair and two other members, plus an external reader. Each cohort of doctoral students also meets onsite for a week twice per year. Doctoral student work, including dissertation proposals, is highlighted at a Sustainability Symposium held on campus every April.[46]
Prescott College is also home to a MS in Resilient and Sustainable Communities, a MS in Sustainable Food Systems, and an MBA in Sustainability leadership. These asynchronous programs were developed at Green Mountain College as the first online sustainability programs of their kind--the MBA in 2006, the MS in Sustainable Food Systems in 2011, and the MS in Resilient and Sustainable Communities in 2013--and were absorbed by Prescott College after Green Mountain College closed in 2019. The MS programs feature "a bioregional approach to distance education," asking students to apply what they learn online to their own communities and regions. This bioregional approach was originally designed in 2006 for Green Mountain College's MS in Environmental Studies (which also moved to Prescott College); the pedagogical model is described in Laird Christensen' "Teaching Bioregional Perception--At a Distance," in The Bioregional Imagination, edited by Tom Lynch, Cheryll Goltfelty, and Karla Armbruster (Georgia UP, 2012). In addition to grounding their lessons in local case studies, students also get to know other professionals working in their regions through assignments designed to create rich local networks. [47] [48] [49]
Additional programs
Most of the schools above did not start out with a sustainability focused major. Many started with a major that was related to sustainability or a sustainability minor that eventually evolved into the major(s) they have today. Therefore, the following table not only represents colleges that have sustainability related majors and minors but colleges that have a good chance of developing sustainability majors in the future.
References
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{{cite web}}
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