Sustainability Studies
Become the kind of environmentally focused leader the world needs in sectors from agriculture to life sciences to transportation by finishing your bachelor’s degree online with a focus in sustainability.
Through the UWW Interdisciplinary Studies program you can tailor your degree with online classes in food and farming, sustainable community, business and entrepreneurship, economics, public health, social justice, and more.
Program Benefits
- You’re in the Driver’s Seat: Design your own degree concentration through your perfect mix of 100% online courses, and optional blended, or on-campus offerings to fit your busy life. Plus, most of our courses are asynchronous, meaning you can complete them on your schedule.
- Accelerate Your Degree: Bring in or earn up to 105 credits for your prior coursework, prior learning, and life and work experience to accelerate your degree, saving you time and money.
- Cross Disciplinary Boundaries: Craft your individualized concentration to suit your goals and interests, from taking online courses in health to study the intersection of wellness and the environment, to focusing on online business courses to manage a farm or run your own green business.
- Community College Friendly: Learn about the Mass Transfer Gen Ed Foundation and benefit from our 50-year history of support for community college students.
- Boston Children's Hospital and Mass General Brigham employees: Receive a 10% discount and more. Learn more about how you can benefit from our employer partnerships.
Your Future in Sustainability
With an Interdisciplinary Studies degree focused in sustainability, you can carve out your niche in the growing field of sustainable food and farming, start a sustainable business, or use your new knowledge to launch sustainability initiatives in areas from healthcare to manufacturing.
- $71,160: Median annual wage for farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers
- $73,570: Median annual wage for sustainability specialists.
- $67,150: Median annual wage for social and community service managers.
Flexible, Cross-Disciplinary Courses
You will study with top-notch instructors from the UMass Stockbridge School of Agriculture, the UMass Isenberg School of Management, the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences, and the departments of Political Science, Economics, Communication, Anthropology, Geoscience, and more.
To give you an idea of the types of online sustainability and related courses that you could choose from, here is a sampling offered over the past few years.
Dept | Number | Title |
---|---|---|
STOCKSCH | 100 | Botany for Gardeners |
STOCKSCH | 101 | Insects & Related Forms |
STOCKSCH | 104 | Plant Nutrients |
STOCKSCH | 106 | Soil Science and Management |
STOCKSCH | 108 | Intro Botany |
STOCKSCH | 110 | Sustainable Horticulture |
STOCKSCH | 111 | Introductory Plant Pathology |
STOCKSCH | 117 | Agricultural Chemistry |
STOCKSCH | 119 | Designing a Backyard Homestead |
STOCKSCH | 120 | Organic Farming and Gardening |
STOCKSCH | 165 | Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems |
STOCKSCH | 166 | Practical Beekeeping |
STOCKSCH | 171 | Plagues, Food and People: Ecology of Food and Disease |
STOCKSCH | 172 | Plants in Our World |
STOCKSCH | 184 | Raising Dairy Goats Sustainably |
STOCKSCH | 186 | Introduction to Permaculture |
STOCKSCH | 200 | Plant Propagation |
STOCKSCH | 209 | Holistic Fruit Production |
STOCKSCH | 211 | Pasture Management |
STOCKSCH | 258 | Urban Agriculture |
STOCKSCH | 263 | Agricultural Leadership and Community Education |
STOCKSCH | 266 | Farm Management, Planning & Marketing |
STOCKSCH | 268 | Small Farm Husbandry: Cows, Sheep & Goats for Meat Production |
STOCKSCH | 269 | Small Farm Husbandry: Pigs & Poultry |
STOCKSCH | 270 | Sustainable Soil and Crop Management |
STOCKSCH | 280 | Herbs, Spices & Medicinal Plants |
STOCKSCH | 281 | Topics in Herbalism I |
STOCKSCH | 282 | Topics in Herbalism II |
STOCKSCH | 290B | Cultivation of Edible Mushrooms |
STOCKSCH | 290N | Native American Food Systems |
STOCKSCH | 290Q | Sustainably Raising Poultry |
STOCKSCH | 290R | Industrial Hemp Production |
STOCKSCH | 297L | Introduction to Food and Agricultural Law |
STOCKSCH | 297PA | Pastured Poultry |
STOCKSCH | 315 | Greenhouse Management |
STOCKSCH | 320 | Organic Vegetable Production |
STOCKSCH | 354 | Nonprofit Management of Community-based Farming Programs |
STOCKSCH | 355 | Community Food Systems |
STOCKSCH | 365 | Hydroponics |
STOCKSCH | 378 | Introductory Agroecology |
STOCKSCH | 379 | Agricultural Systems Thinking |
STOCKSCH | 386 | Sustainable Site Design & Planning |
STOCKSCH | 387 | Global Food Systems |
STOCKSCH | 397FJ | Social Permaculture for Food Justice |
STOCKSCH | 510 | Management and Ecology of Plant Diseases |
STOCKSCH | 580 | Soil Fertility |
STOCKSCH | 581 | Integrated Pest Management |
STOCKSCH | 587 | Phyto/Bioremediation |
SUSTCOMM | 232 | History of Sustainable Community Development: Indigenous Subsistence vs. Globalized Superabundance |
SUSTCOMM | 335 | Plants In Landscape |
ANTHRO | 208 | Human Ecology |
BCT | 397X | Communicating Building Science and Sustainability |
BCT | 414 | Sustainable Building and LEED Certification |
BCT | 597Q | Living Labs: Solving for Carbon Neutrality with High Performance Buildings |
MANAGMNT | 366 | Foundations of Sustainable Enterprise |
MARKETNG | 470 | Sustainability Marketing |
ECON | 308 | Political Economy of the Environment |
CE-ENG | 510 | Public Transportation Systems |
CE-ENG | 597U | Water Planning Under Climate Change |
CE-ENG | 597WF | Offshore Wind Federal Permitting: A Developer's Perspective |
CE-ENG | 597WT | Modeling Wind Turbines with the FAST Code |
GEOGRAPH | 102 | Diversity, Globalization, and Sustainability: Introduction to Human Geography |
GEOGRAPH | 110 | Introduction to Climate Science |
GEOLOGY | 103 | Introduction to Oceanography |
LANDARCH | 591I | Sustaining Green Infrastructure Planning and Design |
NRC | 126 | Insects & Human Society |
NRC | 232 | Principles of Arboriculture |
NRC | 235 | Sensible Pruning for Beginners & Experts |
NRC | 310 | Community Forestry |
PUBHLTH | 203 | Introduction to Environmental Health Sciences |
EHS | 565 | Environmental Health Practices |
EHS | 567 | Environmental Compliance Regulations |
REGIONPL | 585 | Planning for Climate Change |
REGIONPL | 590X | Case Studies in Urban and Rural Climate Adaptation |
RES-ECON | 121 | Hunger in a Global Economy |
RES-ECON | 262 | Environmental Economics |
WGSS | 220 | Sustainability, Gender, and the Global Environment |