sustainability Minor

The Department of Natural Sciences, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and the Zicklin School of Business offer a joint interdisciplinary program in Environmental Sustainability that satisfies Baruch College’s Tier III minor requirement. The Environmental Sustainability minor is suitable for both business and liberal arts students who have an interest in developing a critical understanding of interactions between human society and the broader global ecosystem. The program emphasizes economic, legal, and philosophical issues of environmental sustainability.

The prerequisite to this minor is one of the following options:

• completion of a course that satisfies the Scientific World CUNY Pathways requirement and a one-semester college natural science course that fulfills the Pathways Life and Physical Sciences requirement

  • many students take this path by completing ENV 1003 and ENV 1004! This is the recommended entry route to the minor for those with majors outside of the natural sciences.

• Declaration of a Biological Sciences major

• Departmental Permission. Note completion of ENV 1003 and 1004 is the recommended entry route to the minor for those with majors outside of the natural sciences.

To complete the minor in environmental sustainability (11--12 credits) students must take one course at the 3000-level or above in environmental studies (ENV) offered by the Department of Natural Sciences, any other course from the electives listed below, and a required capstone course (ENV 4005, ENV 4900, or IDC 4010/H; Feit seminars (IDC 4050H) may also count if related to environmental issues).

Program Prerequisite (one group required, does not count toward 11 - 12 credits for minor)

• ENV 1003L Fundamentals of Ecology & ENV 1004 Fundamentals of Ecological Research or 

• BIO 1015L Fundamentals of Biology - Genetics, Evolution, and Ecology & BIO 1016 Fundamentals of Biology - Laboratory Research in Genetics, Evolution, and Ecology

• BIO 3001 Principles of Biology II

• Departmental permission

Required Capstone Course (one required)

• ENV 4005 Ecosystem Sustainability (4 credits)

• ENV 4900 Topics in Environmental Science (4 credits)

• IDC 4010/IDC 4010H The Susan Locke Interdisciplinary Capstone in Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change (4 credits)

• IDC 4050 (if related to environmental topic)

Natural Science Electives  (at least one required)

• BIO/ENV 3009 Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development (4.5 credits) 

• BIO/ENV 3016 Environmental Modeling (4 credits)

• BIO 3020 Biology of Invertebrates (4 credits)

• BIO/ENV 3030 Principles of Evolution: Processes, Patterns, and the History of Life (4 credits)

• BIO/PSY 3032 Animal Behavior (4 credits)

• BIO 3040 Plants in Action (4 credits)

• BIO 3050 Freshwater Ecology (4 credits)

• BIO/ENV 3050 Freshwater Ecology (4 credits)

• ENV 3001 Introduction to Environmental Science (4 credits)

• ENV 3002 Energy Conservation (4 credits)

• ENV 3003 Human Conservation (4 credits)

• ENV 3005 Economic and Legal Aspects of Ecology (4 credits)

• ENV 3008 Air and Water Pollution (4 credits)

• ENV 3015/3015L Tropical Reef Ecology (4 credits)

Electives (no more than one from this list)

• CIS 3700 Green IT* (3 credits)

• ECO 3511 Contemporary Economic Development (3 credits)

• GEOG 3009 Introduction to Human Geography (3 credits)

• GEOG 3036 World Regional Geography(3 credits)

• JRN 3800 Environmental Reporting (3 credits)

• LAW 3122 Law and the Environment*(3 credits)

• LAW 3400 Law, Business and Sustainability*(3 credits)

• PAF 3442 The Environment, Political Choices, and Public Policy(3 credits)

• PHI 3200 Environmental Ethics(3 credits)

• POL 3317 The Politics of Energy and the Environment(3 credits)

• PSY 3185 Environmental Psychology(3 credits)

*For the purposes of this program, this course counts as an Arts and Sciences course.

For more information, contact Professor Chester Zarnoch.  You can download the Minor Declaration form here.