Starting in Fall 2012, the George Washington University offers a new 18-credit Minor in Sustainability, open to all undergraduate students (classes 2014 and later). The initiative to implement the new minor was coordinated by GW’s Institute for Sustainability, of which the EEM program is a part.
The undergraduate minor in sustainability allows students to explore the challenges of sustainability and to think about how to develop solutions to pressing issues at the local, regional, and global scale. It introduces students to the concepts, principles, and issues that inform the sustainability paradigm and will also integrate classroom and community-based learning and research in a program that prepares students to apply the sustainability perspective to their future endeavors.
The new Sustainability Minor includes several innovative features such as a groundbreaking team-taught introductory course (SUST 1001 Introduction to Sustainability), with faculty from several schools participating, and an experiential learning component that will serve as a culminating experience for junior or senior students.
The 18-credit Minor in Sustainability includes a number of innovative features. Unlike other Universities where environmental studies or environmental management may be housed in a single school, the GW vision seeks to be genuinely cross-disciplinary.
To encourage the participation of all schools and faculty, and to allow students to experience inter-disciplinary methods and approaches to sustainability, students are required to take a minimum of 6 credits (including the inter-disciplinary introductory course) outside their home school and discipline. Additionally, between 0-3 credits of experiential learning will be required as a culminating experience for juniors or seniors. In order to give students a holistic view of sustainability, students are required to take at least 3 credits in each of the three tracks.
For more information on the new sustainability minor, click here: Sustainability Minor Brochure