Sustainability is woven into academics in every college at Colorado State University. Students can choose to take courses that focus on or include sustainability and/or pursue an undergraduate or graduate sustainability major, minor, or concentration in a number of fields. The School of Global Environmental Sustainability offers several interdisciplinary minors open to any student at CSU.
Learning Outcomes
CSU Institutional Learning Outcomes were officially adopted by Faculty Council on November 5, 2019. There are five institutional learning outcomes with sustainability, equity, and inclusion woven throughout. Sustainability is explicitly mentioned in two learning outcomes:
Creativity – “Education for creativity includes the development of an understanding of the ways in which the arts and sciences support expression of the diversity of the human experience and human community, and the development of the ability to apply creative skills in problem-solving; it stimulates the imagination to inform new ways of understanding our place in the world and contributes to innovative solutions addressing the challenges we face locally and globally.”
Collaboration – “Education for collaboration is oriented toward the effective and sustainable stewardship of human, economic, and environmental resources”.
CSU Institutional Learning Outcomes (PDF)
In addition to the Institutional Learning Outcomes, some colleges also have sustainability learning outcomes.
College of Business: “An understanding of the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability and how to measure, report, and manage sustainability in organizations.”
College of Engineering: “The broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context.”
College of Agricultural Sciences
- Majors
- Environmental Horticulture (B.S.)
- Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (B.S.)
- Soil and Crop Sciences (B.S.)
- Animal Sciences (B.S.)
- Landscape Architecture (B.S)
- Minors
- Concentrations
College of Health and Human Sciences
- Majors
- Construction Management (B.S.)
- Nutrition and Food Science (B.S)
- Social Work (B.S)
- Minors
- Concentrations
- Human Development and Family Studies – Prevention and Intervention Sciences Concentration
College of Liberal Arts
- Majors
- Anthropology (B.A.)
- Geography (B.A.)
- Women’s & Gender Studies (B.A)
- Ethnic Studies (B.A.)
- Minors
- Concentrations
- Anthropology – Archaeology Concentration
- Anthropology – Cultural Anthropology Concentration
- Political Science – Environmental Politics and Policy
- Sociology – Environmental Sociology
- Anthropology – Biological Anthropology Concentration
College of Natural Sciences
- Concentrations
- Chemistry – Sustainable Chemistry Concentration
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences
- Minors
- Concentrations
Intra-University Programs
- Minors
Walter Scott Jr. College of Engineering
- Majors
- Minors
Warner College of Natural Resources
- Majors
- Ecosystem Science and Sustainability (B.S.)
- Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology (B.S.)
- Forest and Rangeland Stewardship (B.S.)
- Natural Resource Management (B.S.)
- Restoration Ecology (B.S.)
- Geology (B.S.)
- Human Dimensions of Natural Resources (B.S.)
- Watershed Science and Sustainability (B.S.)
- Natural Resource Tourism (B.S.)
- Minors
- Concentrations
- Forest and Rangeland Stewardship – Forest Biology Concentration, Forest Fire Science Concentration, Forest Management Concentration, Rangeland, and Forest Management Concentration
- Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology – Wildlife Biology Concentration, Fisheries, and Aquatic Sciences Concentration, and Conservation Biology Concentration
- Natural Resource Tourism – Global Tourism Concentration
- Watershed Science & Sustainability – Watershed Data Concentration
- Watershed Science & Sustainability – Watershed Science Concentration
- Watershed Science & Sustainability – Watershed Sustainability Concentration
College of Agricultural Sciences
- Majors
- Agricultural and Resource Economics (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Agroecosystems Management (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Natural Resource and Environmental Economics (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Horticulture (Ph.D.)
- Soil and Crop Sciences (Ph.D.)
- Concentrations
College of Business
- Majors
- Concentrations
College of Health and Human Sciences
- Majors
- Construction Management (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Nutrition and Food Science (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Master of Social Work/Master of Public Health Dual Degree
- Concentrations
- Construction Management – Construction Engineering and Management Concentration
- Education, Equity and Transformation – Construction Management Concentration
College of Liberal Arts
- Majors
- Anthropology (M.A.) (Ph.D.)
- Ethnic Studies (M.A)
- Concentrations
- Anthropology – Humans and the Environment Concentration
- Anthropology – International Development Concentration
- Anthropology – Interdisciplinary Studies Program in Resilience of Social Ecological Systems Concentration
- Certificate Programs
College of Natural Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences
- Majors
- Concentrations
Intra-University Programs
- Majors
- Concentrations
- Certificates
Walter Scott Jr. College of Engineering
- Majors
- Atmospheric Science (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Chemical Engineering (Ph.D.)
- Civil Engineering (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
Warner College of Natural Resources
- Majors
- Forest Sciences (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Rangeland Ecosystem Science (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Natural Resource Stewardship (M.S.)
- Ecosystem Sustainability (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Ecosystem Science & Sustainability (PSM)
- Watershed Science (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Geoscience (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Conservation Leadership (M.S.)
- Human Dimensions of Natural Resources (M.S.) (Ph.D.)
- Tourism Management (M.S.)
- Concentrations
- Certificates
Sustainability-focused courses in the inventory below have a primary and explicit focus on sustainability, including the interdependence of ecological, social, and economic systems. This includes:
- Foundational courses with a primary and explicit focus on sustainability (e.g., Global Environmental Sustainability Seminar, Introduction to Sustainability, Global Sustainability and Health).
- Courses with a primary and explicit focus on the application of sustainability within a field (e.g., Issues in Environmental Economics, Foundations of Sustainable Enterprise, Sustainable Practice – Design and Construction). As sustainability is an interdisciplinary topic, such courses generally incorporate insights from multiple disciplines.
- Courses with a primary and explicit focus on a major sustainability challenge (e.g., Science of Global Climate Change, Glaciers and Climate Change, Introduction to Sustainable Energy). The focus of such courses might be on providing knowledge and understanding of the problems and/or the tools for solving them.
Courses that include sustainability are also included in the inventory. These courses are not explicitly focused on sustainability but the course incorporates a unit or module on sustainability or a sustainability challenge, includes one or more sustainability-focused activities, or integrates sustainability challenges, issues, and concepts throughout the course.
The School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES) is a campus-wide school that was founded in 2008 to confront global changes in the environment by providing the cross-college infrastructure to better integrate and more fully capitalize on the University’s historic strength in environmental research and education.
Environmental problems are no longer isolated within one field of study. The School positions CSU to address the many interrelated challenges to global sustainability. Issues include food security, poverty, inequality, water quality and use, desertification, clean energy, climate change, biodiversity, globalization, industrial ecology, sustainable engineering, population growth, and urbanization. SoGES offers several interdisciplinary minors.
https://sustainability.colostate.edu/education-and-training/