Program Overview

Sustainability Certificate

Program Overview

The Sustainability Certificate is an undergraduate certification program that prepares students to preserve planet Earth for future generations by addressing natural resource extraction, production, and consumption.

Program Type and Format

• Certificate
• On Campus

Estimated Time to Complete and Credit Hours

• 2-3 semesters
• 15 credit hours

Program Description

Sustainability literally means capable of being maintained without exhausting or depleting natural resources. The three components to sustainability are:

1. Stewardship of natural resources
2. Economic responsibility
3. Social and community well-being

The certificate prepares students in each of these areas through two required courses that cover global cultures and environments as well as electives from three major course groups, including natural resources conservation, economic responsibility, and social and community well-being.

Program Highlights

• Highly successful faculty with cutting-edge research
• Engaging undergraduate and graduate programs
• Active student organizations related to programs
• High investment in students by faculty
• Students employed in a diverse array of internships and careers

Program Courses

• Sustainability (3 hrs)
  • Introduction to sustainability concepts and practices
  • Includes topics on energy, water, waste, and transportation
  • Students conduct campus-based research projects on an area of sustainability
• Conservation Biology (3 hrs)
  • Principles and values relating to natural biological resources
  • Ecological concepts applied to resource management and protection of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems
• Economics of Natural Resources and Environment (3 hrs)
  • Natural resource management and use
  • Problems of renewable and non-renewable resources, including scarcity and market responses
  • Role of property rights, externalities, benefit-cost analysis, and energy policy with emphasis on Texas
  • Analysis of environmental problems and policy formulation
• Environmental Ethics (3 hrs)
  • Examination of appropriate human interventions in the natural world
  • Topics include the history of ideas behind environmental thought, the legal and moral standing of nature, animal rights and welfare, deep ecology, social ecology, environmental justice
• Earth Science (3 hrs)
  • Principles and processes of physical geography
  • Introduction to mapping, weather and climate, soil and vegetation, and landforms of rivers, coasts, and deserts

Related Programs

• Geography Minor
• Geology Minor

Similar Areas of Study

• Business & Industry
• Public Service
• STEM

College and Department

• College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
• Department of Geography and the Environment