Sustainability

Driven by rapidly growing demands for food, water, materials and fuels, humans have changed Earth more deeply and extensively in the last decades than in any other period of time. All over the world, natural resources, environmental quality, and biodiversity are being outstripped by the ever-expanding ‘ecological footprint’ of human activities. Meanwhile, the global population exceeds seven billion, and continues to increase. The development of effective management and environmental restoration strategies to reverse degradation of environmental systems while meeting increasing human demands on natural resources requires scientific insights and methods from various disciplinary approaches. The Sustainability major, therefore, includes methodological and theoretical frameworks from across the natural sciences, as well as from the social sciences. The Sustainability major is interdisciplinary and provides a unique combination of specializations so that students develop insights and knowledge that can be effectively applied to a range of sustainability issues. Students majoring in Sustainability will primarily graduate with a bachelor of science (BSc).

LUC’s major in Sustainability provides students with a foundation in the environmental sciences, which includes courses from the disciplines of ecology, Earth sciences, mathematics, chemistry, and information sciences. Because sustainability ultimately exists within a human context, however, this natural science framework is intricately linked to the social sciences, and includes courses in, for example, public policy, environmental law, and international development. In addition to providing a theoretical and applied understanding of Sustainability, the BSc major includes methodological training in quantitative analysis, field work, and computer modeling.

Methodology courses:
Field Methods in Environmental Sustainability,
Quantitative Research Methods,
Geographic Information Systems,
Tools of the Trade: Sustainability Research