Minor in Sustainability

The Sustainability minor is intentionally interdisciplinary and includes core classes from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The minor allows for three additional electives chosen from the sciences or social sciences (at least one science elective is required). The goal of the minor is to provide a curriculum that encourages students to learn to communicate and to solve problems of societal relevance that straddle disciplinary boundaries in sustainability and global change.

*Students who want to use this interdisciplinary minor to meet either the natural science or the social science distribution requirement must take four of the six required classes from that division.

Program Management and Advisor

Students who want to declare a Sustainability minor or who want to discuss questions about a Sustainability minor should see the program adviser, Professor Karen Berger (Earth and Environmental Sciences) at karen.berger@rochester.edu

The Steering Committee for the Sustainability minor was comprised of faculty from Anthropology, Chemical Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Philosophy, and Political Science Departments.

Requirements

Prerequisite Statement: Some classes require prerequisites (noted below). AP equivalents or instructor approval is also acceptable.

CORE: Three courses.

Required:

  • EES 103: Introduction to Environmental Science

Choose two from the following list:
If more than two classes are taken, then the additional classes can be counted as an elective for the minor.

  • PHL 230: Environmental Justice (prerequisite: 1 100-level philosophy class)
  • ECO 238: Environmental Economics (prerequisite: ECO 108)
  • PSC 247: Green Markets
  • ANT 224: Anthropology of Development

ELECTIVES: Choose three. At least one elective must be in science or engineering.

  • BIO 104: Ecosystem Conservation and Human Society
    OR
    BIO 263: Ecology (prerequisites: BIO 111 or 113 and MTH 142 or 161)
  • CHE 150: Green Energy (not open to Engineering juniors or seniors)
  • CHE 260: Solar Cells
  • CHE 264: Biofuels
  • ECE/TEE 590: Energy for the 21st Century (open to seniors only, with instructor permission)
  • EES 105: Introduction to Climate Change
  • EES 211: Geohazards and their Mitigation: Living on an Active Planet
  • EES 215: Environmental and Applied Geophysics (prerequisites: EES 101, MTH 142/162)
  • EES 219: Energy and Society (prerequisites: MTH 141 or 161)
  • EES 320: Sustainable Systems
  • HIS 100 or HIS 371: Environmental History
  • HIS 295: Politics of Energy and the Environment
  • PSC 243: Environmental Politics