Sustainability Studies Minor

Among the most critical societal challenges of the next 50 years are the rapidly growing and linked ecological and social crises arising from stresses on supplies of energy, water, and food. These crises are not simply about the adequacy of supply relative to demand, however; they are also the result of the complex social relations within and among societies, in the past, present, and future. Dealing with such socio-ecological problems therefore requires robust interdisciplinary collaborations among engineers, social scientists, and natural scientists. Moreover, in today’s rapidly-changing economy, college graduates will need to be flexible and adaptable, able to learn new knowledge and skills rapidly, and cognizant of the complex organization of society and technology. The minor in sustainability studies is administered by Rachel Carson College and is designed to foster both analytical ability and provide necessary learning.

The pedagogical underpinnings of this minor are premised on relationships between classroom learning, service learning, and research and application. Broad interdisciplinarity and individual facility in both STEM and social sciences are critical elements at the center of the minor’s core courses. The curriculum is therefore structured to 1) facilitate interdisciplinary academic and research collaborations among faculty and students across multiple UC Santa Cruz divisions (drawing on but outside of the divisional structure); 2) teach and train students in the ecology and sustainability of design and application in the built and natural environment, and the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills and social science knowledge to these ends; and 3) meet undergraduate demand for a sustainability curriculum with focuses distinct from those offered in existing UCSC departments.

Program learning objectives are as follows:

  • Students will understand the causes, features, data, complexities, policies, and practices giving rise to and needed to address the contemporary global socioecological crisis; the role of production, consumption, politics, policies, markets and behavior in this crisis; and options and alternatives for moving toward and achieving sustainability.

  • Students will learn basic applied STEM skills needed for dealing with real-world applications including assessments, measurements, technologies, behavior, and other factors related to the first objective (above).

  • Students will become cognizant of appropriate social science knowledge and methods needed to design and implement social enterprise and service learning projects in sustainability and ecological design and practice.

  • Students will design and conduct interdisciplinary research projects in issues and topics that are related to sustainability, including energy, food, water, the built environment, life-cycle analysis, waste disposal, and recycling, coastal and marine conservation, and natural resource management.

  • Students will design and participate in service-learning projects in collaboration with on- and off-campus units, agencies, and organizations; and apply the knowledge and skills acquired through the minor.

  • No specific prior preparation or prerequisites are required for entry to the minor.

Course Requirements

Substitutes for any of the required courses must be approved by the program director.

Lower-Division Courses

ECE80SSustainability Engineering and Practice

5

CRSN55Rachel Carson College: Service Learning Practicum

2

ECE 80S is offered in the fall. 

Three quarters of CRSN 55 (2 credits per quarter) are required.

Upper-Division Courses

CRSN 151A is offered in the winter. CRSN 151B and CRSN 161 are offered in the spring. CRSN 151C is offered in the fall, and either in the winter or the spring; some years it is offered in all three academic terms. All four courses are required.

CRSN151ASustainability Praxis in the Natural and Built Environment

5

CRSN151BInnovation and Professionalization for Sustainability Designers, Engineers, and Entrepreneurs

5

CRSN151CSustainability Laboratory Tools, Techniques, and Applications

3

CRSN161Education for Sustainable Living Program

5

Upper-Division Electives

Breadth Electives

Take two (2) breadth electives

or

One (1) breadth elective and three quarters of CRSN 152 (2 credits each for 6 credits total).

NOTE: Lecture/lab combinations count as one course

ANTH110KCulture Through Food

5

ANTH110WLand and Waterscapes Entropology

5

ANTH111Human Ecology

5

ANTH135ACities

5

ANTH137Consuming Culture

5

ANTH146Anthropology and the Environment

5

ANTH147Anthropology and the Anthropocene

5

ANTH160Reproductive and Population Politics

5

ANTH161The Anthropology of Food

5

ART125Environmental Art Studio

5

CLTE105The Making and Influencing of Environmental Policy

5

CMMU133Making California: Landscapes, People, Politics, Economy

5

CMMU149Political Economy of Food and Agriculture

5

CMMU156Politics of Food and Health

5

CMMU162Community Gardens and Social Change

5

CMMU186Food and Agriculture Social Movements

5

CMPM80LEntrepreneurial Organization and Leadership

5

EART107Remote Sensing of the Environment

5

EART116Hydrology

5

EART121The Atmosphere

5

EART142Engineering Geology for Environmental Scientists

5

EART146Groundwater

5

EART191AClimate Change Science and Policy

5

EART191BPlanetary Capstone

5

EART191CPractical Geophysics

5

BIOE107Ecology

5

BIOE108Marine Ecology

5

BIOE145Plant Ecology

5

BIOE147Community Ecology

5

BIOE155Freshwater Ecology

5

ECON170Environmental Economics

5

ECON171Natural Resource Economics

5

ECON175Energy Economics

5

ECE175Energy Generation and Control

5

ECE175LEnergy Generation and Control Laboratory

2

ECE176Energy Conservation and Control

5

ECE176LEnergy Conversion and Control Laboratory

2

ECE177Power Electronics

5

ECE177LPower Electronics Laboratory

2

ECE180JAdvanced Renewable Energy Sources, Storage, and Smart Grids

5

ENVS149
/LGST 149
Environmental Law and Policy

5

ENVS152
/POLI 170
International Environmental Politics

5

FMST124Technology, Science, and Race Across the Americas

5

FMST133Science and the Body

5

HIS101COceans in World History

5

HIS177Smoke, Smallpox, and the Sublime: Thinking about the Environment in the 19th Century

5

HIS196FTopics in European Environmental History

5

HAVC141IBe Here Now: Art, Land, Space

5

HAVC141KActivist Art Since 1960: Art, Technology, Activism

5

HAVC143BHistory of Urban Design

5

LALS152Consumer Cultures Between the Americas

5

LGST131Wildlife, Wilderness, and the Law

5

LGST137International Environmental Law and Policy

5

LGST159Property and the Law

5

METX101Sources and Fates of Pollutants

5

METX144Groundwater Contamination

5

OCEA101The Marine Environment

5

OCEA102Oceans and Climate: Past, Present, and Future

5

PHIL125Philosophy of Science

5

POLI132
/LGST 132
California Water Law and Policy

5

POLI174Global Political Ecology

5

PSYC159EPeace Psychology

5

SOCY115Green Governance

5

SOCY119Sociology of Knowledge

5

SOCY125Society and Nature

5

SOCY130Sociology of Food

5

SOCY132Sociology of Science and Technology

5

SOCY167Development and Underdevelopment

5

SOCY173Water

5

SOCY177EEco-Metropolis: Research Seminar in Urban and Environmental Studies

5

SOCY177GGlobal Cities

5

SOCY179Nature, Poverty, and Progress: Dilemmas of Development and Environment

5

Substitutes for any of the required classes must be approved by the program director