Sustainability Minor Overview

Beginning Fall 2023, Sonoma State University is offering a new and distinct Minor in Sustainability. The minor is hosted by the Geography, Environment, and Planning department, and it includes options to take classes from 10 different departments representing four of our Schools at SSU. The path is straight-forward, very interdisciplinary, and offers a breadth of courses which allows students to tailor their choices to their own interests. After completing Sustainability and Development (GEP 206) students will take at least one class from each of the three focused aspects of sustainable development plus their choice of one more from any of the three focused aspects:

• Sustainability in Nature and Built Environments: Environmental Systems
• Sustainability in Social, Economic, Business and Political Systems: Environmental Stewardship
• Sustainability in Culture, Ethics, and Equity: Environmental Justice

Environmental Systems

Course number	Course information
CHEM 300	Chemistry and Sustainability (3 units) (GE UD B)
GEOL 301	Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands (3 units) (GE UD B)
GEOL 302	Climate Change (3 units) (GE UD B)
GEP 201	Global Environmental Systems (3 units) (GE LD B)
GEP 351	Natural Hazards (3 units)  (GE UD B)
GEP 362	Environmental Impact Assessment  (4 units)
GEP 373	Energy, Technology, and Society (4 units)

Environmental Stewardship

Course number	Course Information
ECON 322	Urban Economics (4 units) PR: ECON 204 and ECON 205
ECON 381	Natural Resource and Environmental Economics (4 units) PR: ECON 204 and ECON 205
GEP 321	Parks and Protected Areas (3-4 units)
GEP 323	Natural Resources and Development  (4 units)
GEP 325	Global Food Systems: Scarcity and Sustainability (4 units)
GEP 326	Water Law, Policy, and Management (3-4 units)
GEP 360	Introduction to Planning (4 units)
POLS 314	Environmental Political Theory (4 units)
POLS 421	Federal and Intergovernmental Relations  (3-4 units)
POLS 481	Politics of Regulation and Land Use (4 units)
POLS 483	Politics of Wealth and Poverty
SOCI 328	Sociology of the Environment (4 units) Open to SOCI & to major/minor GEP

Environmental Justice

Course number	Course information
ANTH 345	Nature and Society (4 units)
GEP 110	Communication of Environmental Issues (3 units) (GE LD A1)
GEP 324	Climate Change and Society (4 units)
GEP 332	Environmental Literature (3-4 units)
GLBL 110	Communication of Global Social Issues (3 units) (GE LD A1)
NAMS 240	Trauma and Healing in the Anthropocene: Race, Species and Environment (3 units) (GE LD E)
NAMS 346	Philosophic Systems and Sacred Movements in Native North America (3 units) (GE UD C)
PHIL 203	Global Justice (3 units) (GE LD C2)
PHIL 301	Philosophy of Science and Technology  (4 units)
PSY 485	Ecopsychology (4 units) PR: Majors and PSY 250
SOCI 329	Sociology of Climate Change (4 units) Open to SOCI & to Major/Minor/GEP
SOCI 482	Environmental Justice and Policy  (4 units) Open to SOCI & to Major/Minor/GEP
GEP 330	Environmental History (4 units)