Sustainable Community Development (BS)

Contact the SCD Program Director Peter Dunn (ptdunn@umass.edu) to learn more. Visit Undergraduate Admissions to apply to UMass Amherst as an undergraduate student.

Current UMass students can also make an advising appointment with Prof. Dunn, then declare the major or minor. 

About the Program

In the Sustainable Community Development major, students can explore a variety of perspectives on creating a more sustainable world through planning and design.  The planning and design of a sustainable world is complex, and this major offers students the opportunity to prepare academically to deal with this complexity by drawing on a variety of disciplinary fields and working at a range of scales.  

Students will become familiar with the theories and techniques for creating sustainable communities, conserving the environment, and responding to other social, cultural, economic, and political challenges of the built environment. Perhaps most important, students will gain experience in knowing how to facilitate and lead change in communities. 

Students with this degree are well qualified for positions with non-profit organizations and community development agencies, municipalities, and private firms specializing in site, municipal, and regional level work.  Students are also well-placed to go on to graduate school at UMass, either in the Masters of Landscape Architecture (MLA) program or the accelerated Masters in Regional Planning (MRP), or to other programs and other universities. 

First-year and transfer applicants to UMass can select Sustainable Community Development as their major. Current students can change their major to Sustainable Community Development, or add it as a second major at any time during their freshman or sophomore years. There are no prerequisite classes or minimum GPA requirements. Students from Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, or Maine majoring in Sustainable Community Development may be eligible for in-state tuition through the New England Tuition Break Program.

SustComm students take 8 core classes an 6 classes in an area of concentration. An overview is below, and more detail on major requirements is available in the program handbook.

Core Courses

The core Sustainable community Development curriculum prepare students to understand the dynamics of neighborhoods, cities and landscapes, and to engage communities in envisioning a more socially and environmentally balanced world. All students in the major take the following eight courses:

• SustComm 110 Transforming Your World:  Intro to Community Engagement
• SustComm 140 Awareness of the Visual Environment
• SustComm 232 History of Sustainable Community Development
• SustComm 314 Writing in Community Development & Landscape Architecture
• SustComm 394RI Research Issues in Community Development
• SustComm 543 OR SustComm 544 Landscape Architecture History I OR II
• LandArch 547 & 547L Landscape Pattern & Process, with Lab 
• SustComm 574 City Planning 

Areas of Concentration

Through five concentration options, the Sustainable Community Development program provides historical, theoretical, and professional perspectives in the liberal arts and science fields. Each concentration emphasizes environmental or social issues at a different scale, from construction details and buildings to urban landscapes and regions. Students take six courses in their area of concentration.

The SCD areas of concentration are:

• Built Environment Provides technical language skills for understanding environmental design at the site and building scale, bridging building technology, architecture, and landscape. Aligned with architecture and design fields.
• City and Society Builds a broad social science understanding of how neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions work, and how they can be influenced to better serve a range of social and environmental goals. Aligned with the field of urban planning.
• Climate Change and Green Infrastructure Focuses on the ways that cities and buildings can reduce greenhouse gasses, improve livability and resilience, and enhance ecology through design and planning interventions.
• Landscape Design and Build Provides theoretical and practical knowledge to design and build landscapes in a sustainable way. Designed for students entering the program from the two-year Associate Degree in Landscape Contracting.
• Independently Designed Concentration In consultation with Program Director, it is possible to combine LARP courses from the various standard concentrations to allow a more interdisciplinary focus.

Students declare a concentration when they enter the program, but this may be changed later in consultation with an advisor.

Sustainable Community Development Minor

The Sustainable Community Development Minor prepares students to create a more socially and environmentally balanced world through design and planning. It can be completed with any major.

The undergraduate minor requires successful completion of five courses within the Sustainable Community Development curriculum. View the requirements in the program handbook and make an appointment with an advisor to learn more.