Sustainability Minor

The minor in sustainability empowers students to shape a just and sustainable world through core concepts in (1) systems thinking, (2) justice, (3) sustainability knowledge, (4) integration, and (5) acting for positive change. The sustainability curriculum follows the structure of the Triple Bottom-Line Approach (People/Society/Equity, Profit/Economy, Planet/Environment/Nature. It includes consideration of the impacts of our actions, personally and collectively, on others, as well as a sense of self-efficacy to work toward improving conditions that foster the well-being of people and the environment now and into the future.

 

Sustainability Minor

The minor in Sustainability requires 5 Units, plus an Acting for Positive Change Requirement with embedded reflection. Grade point average of coursework comprising the minor must be no less than 2.00, with no course grade below C- (1.70). Units include:

• SUST101 Introduction to Sustainability

• 1 course in Economic Sustainability, chosen from:

  • ECON211 Economic Development in Asia, Africa, and Latin America

  • ECON230/ENVR230 Environmental Economics

  • ECON234 Urban Economics

  • ECON330 Environmental and Resource Economic Theory

  • GEOG370 Global Climate Investment

  • MGMT348 Environmental Management

  • MGMT353 Sustainability and Accountability in Business

• 1 course in Environmental Sustainability, chosen from:

  • BIOL109 Introduction to Ecology

  • BIOL111 Marine Biology of the Chesapeake Bay

  • CHEM110 Pollutants in the Environment

  • ENVR199 Introduction to Biological Thinking

  • ENVR322 Global Impact of Climate Change

  • GEOG215 Geography of the James River Watershed

  • GEOG250 Planet Earth: Wind, Water, Fire

  • GEOG315 Landscape Ecology

• 1 course in Social Sustainability, chosen from:

  • ANTH250 Anthropology, the Environment and Climate Change

  • ANTH310 Food and Culture

  • DANC230 Ecosomatics and Dance

  • GEOG220 Ecotourism

  • GEOG210 Planet Earth: People and Place

  • PHIL269/ENVR269 Environmental Ethics

  • ENGL299 ST: Imagining Nature

  • ENGL299 ST: Wild Metaphors: Introduction to Environmental Literature

  • ENVR 362 Environmental Law and Policy

  • GEOG320 Power, Space, Territory: Geographies of Political Change

  • GEOG333 Geographies of Amazonia

  • GSS279 ST: Queer Ecologies

  • HIST297/AMST391 ST: Fossil Fueled

  • HIST297 ST: U.S. Environmental History

  • RELG302 Nature Religion

• Capstone course:

  • GEOG345/SUST345 Global Sustainability: Society, Economy, Nature

Approved Acting for Positive Change Requirement.

Electives in Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability cannot be double counted toward the Environmental Studies or Geography Majors or Minors. Sustainability Capstone course (SUST345) also cannot be double counted.

Questions should be directed to the Chair of the Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability.