Program Overview

Program Overview

The BA Environment and Sustainability program is focused on the interaction between societies and the global and local environment, building on core ideas from the natural and social sciences. This degree is unique for its interdisciplinary and justice-focused approach to issues like climate change, access to clean water, biodiversity loss, and our reliance on disposable and single-use items.

Program Details

You will be challenged to examine environment and sustainability issues from a variety of academic, policy, business, and community perspectives, and to craft creative approaches to solving them. Classes are taught by a wide range of instructors, from experts exploring how forests, oceans, and the Arctic are being altered by climate change to those studying the political, economic, and cultural drivers of the climate crisis.

Program Structure

The Environment and Sustainability program encourages you to see the world as a whole, through local and global perspectives, and to consider how you can act responsibly to foster a truly sustainable society. The critical thinking and problem-solving skills you will develop are ideally suited to future work in policy, with Non-Government Organizations, and in developing new and better sustainability models.

Key Questions

You will explore questions like:

• How does colonialism continue to shape access to clean water, air, and healthy ecosystems?
• Why are problems like climate change so hard to solve?
• What solutions for pressing environmental and social problems exist, and what is holding them back?
• How are wealth, racial, and gender inequalities tied to environmental change?
• Which efforts to create social change have succeeded and why?
• Who decides what is worth saving, and are those the right people?

Program Testimonial

The Environment and Sustainability program combines both the science and human aspects of environmental problems, which are very interconnected, as noted by Alison Fung, Climate Adaptation Analyst, Government of Yukon.