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 | 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 | 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 | 209 | Holistic Fruit Production |
STOCKSCH | 211 | Pasture Management |
STOCKSCH | 258 | Urban Agriculture |
STOCKSCH | 265 | Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems |
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 | 280 | Herbs, Spices & Medicinal Plants |
STOCKSCH | 281 | Topics in Herbalism I |
STOCKSCH | 290B | Cultivation of Edible Mushrooms |
STOCKSCH | 290N | Native American Food Systems |
STOCKSCH | 297AL | Agricultural Leadership & Community Education |
STOCKSCH | 297L | Introduction to Food and Agricultural Law |
STOCKSCH | 297PA | Pastured Poultry |
STOCKSCH | 315 | Greenhouse Management |
STOCKSCH | 320 | Organic Vegetable Production |
STOCKSCH | 350 | Sustainable Soil and Crop Management |
STOCKSCH | 354 | Nonprofit Management of Community-based Farming Programs |
STOCKSCH | 355 | Community Food Systems |
STOCKSCH | 356 | Food Justice and Policy |
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 | 497D | Sustainable Site Design |
STOCKSCH | 510 | Management and Ecology of Plant Diseases |
STOCKSCH | 566 | Soil Formation, Classification and Land Use |
STOCKSCH | 580 | Soil Fertility |
STOCKSCH | 581 | Integrated Pest Management |
STOCKSCH | 587 | Phyto/Bioremediation |
SUSTCOMM | 335 | Plants In Landscape |
SUSTCOMM | 533 | Urban Greening Theory & Practice |
ANTHRO | 208 | Human Ecology |
ARTS-EXT | 509 | Greening Your Nonprofit Arts Organization |
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 |
MANAGMNT | 391E | Environmental Law |
MARKETNG | 491SM | Marketing Sustainable Business |
ECON | 308 | Political Economy of the Environment |
CE-ENG | 510 | Public Transportation Systems |
CE-ENG | 597S | Transportation Sustainability |
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 | Global Environment Change |
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 |
POLISCI | 397ES | Environmental and Sustainability Politics |
PUBHLTH | 203 | Introduction to Environmental Health Sciences |
PUBHLTH | 497F | Food Justice |
EHS | 565 | Environmental Health Practices |
EHS | 567 | Environmental Compliance Regulations |
REGIONPL | 585 | Planning for Climate Change |
RES-ECON | 121 | Hunger in a Global Economy |
RES-ECON | 262 | Environmental Economics |