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Environmental and Sustainability Studies, Minor

The Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies

Overview

The minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies is designed to be accessible for every undergraduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, regardless of their college or major.

Students explore interdisciplinary perspectives of environmental and sustainability issues in their core courses and continue to expand their knowledge of environment and sustainability beyond their primary discipline in elective courses.

The Environmental and Sustainability Studies minor was introduced in 2018 and replaced the minors in Environmental Science (Mellon College of Science), Environmental Studies (Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences), and Environmental Engineering & Sustainability (College of Engineering).

Students who pursue the minor will be able to: 
  • Identify humanistic, social, and scientific perspectives for problems of environment and sustainability
  • Distinguish among scientific methods for evaluating problems of environment and sustainability
  • Connect how aspects of history, culture, ethics, language, and arts relate to environment and sustainability, including goals for environmental justice and global climate justice
  • Discuss sources of data about environment and sustainability

Though there is no application process for the minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, students must declare the minor by contacting one of the program advisors of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies program. Core course 66-236 Introduction to Environmental Ideas (9 units) is offered in both the spring and fall semesters and features a smaller, intimate class size. Students are encouraged to declare the Minor or Additional Major as early as possible, so they can receive priority in course registration, though all are welcome to take this course.

Program Requirements

Primary Major School/CollegeMinimum Total Units
Students with primary majors in CFA, Dietrich, Tepper66 units
Students with primary majors in MCS, CIT, SCS69 units

Core Courses (CFA, Dietrich, Tepper - 18 units; MCS, CIT, SCS - 21 units)

Units
24/09-291Environmental Systems on a Changing Planet 1,29-12
or 24/09-381 Environmental Systems on a Changing Planet
66-236Introduction to Environmental Ideas9
1

Offered Spring only

2

MCS, CIT and SCS students must take must take the 12-unit version of Environmental Systems on a Changing Planet (24-381/09-381).

Global course (3 units)

99-xxxGlobal Course3

Statistics & Data Science Course (9 units)

36-200Reasoning with Data 39
3

This requirement can only be fulfilled with a course taken in the Department of Statistics & Data Science at CMU. AP Statistics does not fulfill this requirement. Students with AP credit can place into a higher-level course offered by the same Department, for example 36-202 or 36-290. 

Electives for Environmental & Sustainability Studies (36 units)

For the Minor, select and complete at least 36 Units of eligible electives in consultation with the Program Advisor and/or Program Director. At least 27 out of 36 Units of Electives for the Minor should be “External electives” completed outside of the college where the student’s primary major is housed; this is to encourage students to pursue interdisciplinary breadth. The remaining 9 Units of Electives for the Minor are “Free electives” from any college, including the student's own primary college. 

Example

A student with a primary Major in Art (College of Fine Arts) could complete up to 9 Units of Electives for the Minor within the College of Fine Arts. This means up to 9 Units of Electives could be taken in Music, Design, Architecture, Drama, or Art; the remaining 27 Units of Electives for the Minor must come from outside CFA: from Dietrich, Engineering, Business, or Science.

Electives are vetted by the program director from the CMU course catalog and listed each term based on the following criteria. Additional courses meeting these criteria can be approved by the program director. 

Additional courses from these categories always count as electives: 
  • Any additional courses listed in the category “Earth and Environmental Science” (see Additional Major requirements) can be counted as electives.
  • Any additional courses listed in the category “Political Economy” (see Additional Major requirements) can be counted as electives.
Any further electives should:
  • Broaden the reach of the student’s interdisciplinary explorations in environment and sustainability
  • Thematically, courses should either add to depth from above-listed categories: "Earth and Environmental Science";  “Environmental Humanities”; “Three Unit Interdisciplinary Course”; and/or "Political Economy";
  • Or, electives should increase the student’s interdisciplinary grasp of topics related to environment and sustainability, with particular emphasis on topics related to environmental justice and/or global climate justice.

Double-Counting 

Maximum 2 courses, regardless of units, can be double-counted for the Minor from any other Minor, Major, or Master’s program. This maximum does not apply to General Education courses.

General Education Courses

Courses taken to fulfill a General Education requirement for the student’s college (the college of the student's primary major) are not calculated as “double-counting” for the Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies.

AP credit

AP courses are not counted towards requirements for the Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies.

Study abroad

Courses taken abroad may count towards Electives for the Minor, if accepted for transfer credit by the relevant CMU department and approved by the Program Director.

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