Introduction

Please click here to see Sustainability department information.

The sustainability minor is interdisciplinary, drawing on the expertise across CLAS departments: anthropology, biology, chemistry, communication, economics, environmental sciences, geography, geology, history, economics, philosophy, physics and political science. The core courses are taught by a faculty team who will present sustainability concepts from socio-ecological and systems perspectives.  

These program requirements are subject to periodic revision by the academic department, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences reserves the right to make exceptions and substitutions as judged necessary in individual cases. Therefore, the College strongly urges students to consult regularly with their major, minor and CLAS advisors to confirm the best plans of study before finalizing them

Program Delivery

• This is an on-campus program.

Declaring This Minor

• Please see your advisor.

General Requirements

Students must satisfy all requirements as outlined below and by the department offering the minor.

• Click here for information about Academic Policies

Program Requirements

1. Students must complete a total of 18 credit hours chosen from the approved courses.

2. Students must complete a minimum of 12 upper-division (3000-level and above) credit hours in the minor, from the approved courses.

3. Students must earn a minimum grade of C- (1.7) in all courses that apply to the minor and must achieve a minimum cumulative minor GPA of 2.0. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to minor requirements.

4. Students must complete a minimum of nine credit hours with CU Denver faculty chosen from the approved courses below. (*Note: In the required 9 credits of course, "SUST 4960" is not an in-person course. Instead, the course requirements can be completed through an internship, research project, or substituted with a 4000+ level course with a sustainability emphasis.)

Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations

1. Students should consult with the Sustainability advisor before registering for any courses applicable toward the minor. *Graduate-level courses and cross-lists may be used with prior consent from the advisor.

2. Credits counted for another major or minor program can be counted toward the Sustainability Minor with approval from the advisor, though no course may be used to fulfill more than two graduation requirements. 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Complete the following required courses:		9
ENVS 1342	Environment, Society and Sustainability
SUST 3010	Sustainability: Past, Present, and Future
SUST 4960	Capstone in Sustainability
Take three courses (nine credit hours) from the following list of pre-approved elective courses.		9
Anthropology
Architecture
Biology
Business
Chemistry
Communication
Economics
Environmental Sciences
Geography/Geology
History
Physics
Philosophy
Political Science
Public Health
Total Hours		18

Anthropology 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
ANTH 1302	Introduction to Archaeology
ANTH 1303	Introduction to Biological Anthropology
ANTH 2102	Culture and the Human Experience
ANTH 3301	World Prehistory
ANTH 3512	Human Evolution
ANTH 4560	Human Ecology

Architecture

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
ARCH 3700	Special Topics Design (topic must be approved by Sustainability minor advisor)

Biology 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
BIOL 1550	Basic Biology: Ecology and the Diversity of Life
BIOL 3330	Plant Diversity
BIOL 3411	Principles of Ecology
BIOL 3521	Vertebrate Biology
BIOL 3650 & BIOL 3651	General Microbiology and General Microbiology Lab
BIOL 4154	Conservation Biology
BIOL 4335	Plant Structure and Development
BIOL 4345	Flora of Colorado
BIOL 4415	Applied Microbial Ecology
BIOL 4425	Biogeography

Business 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
MGMT 4950	Special Topics in Management (topic must be approved by Sustainability minor advisor)
MKTG 4950	Special Topics (topic must be approved by Sustainability minor advisor)

Chemistry

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
CHEM 1474	Core Chemistry: Chemistry for Everyday
CHEM 4700	Environmental Chemistry

Communication 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
COMM/INTS 4611	Rhetoric of Global Food Policy

Economics

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
ECON 4530	Economics of Natural Resources
ECON 4540	Environmental Economics
ECON 4770	Development Economics

Environmental Sciences

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
ENVS 1044	Introduction to Environmental Sciences
ENVS/PHYS 3082	Energy and the Environment

Geography/ Geology

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
GEOG 1102	World Regions Global Context
GEOG 1202	Introduction to Physical Geography
GEOG 1602	Urban Studies and Planning
GEOG/ENVS 3232	Weather and Climate
GEOG 3412	Globalization and Regional Development
GEOG/GEOL 4010	Landscape Biogeochemistry
GEOG/GEOL 4020	Earth Environments and Human Impacts
GEOG 4060	Remote Sensing I: Introduction to Environmental Remote Sensing
GEOG 4080	Introduction to GIS
GEOG 4085	GIS Applications for the Urban Environment
GEOG 4090	Environmental Modeling with Geographic Information Systems
GEOG 4230	Hazard Mitigation and Vulnerability Assessment
GEOG 4265	Sustainability in Resources Management
GEOG 4280	Environmental Hydrology
GEOG 4301	Population, Culture, and Resources
GEOG 4305	Water Quality and Resources
GEOG 4335	Climate Change & Society
GEOG 4350	Environment and Society in the American Past
GEOG 4420	The Politics of Nature
GEOG 4450	Urban Food and Agriculture: Perspectives and Research
GEOG 4640	Urban Geography: Denver and the U.S.
GEOG/ENVS 4720	Climate Change: Causes, Impacts and Solutions

History 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
HIST/ETST 3297	Social History of Asian Americans
HIST 3345	Immigration and Ethnicity in American History
HIST/ETST 3350	Colonial Latin America
HIST 3360	Denver History
HIST 3366	Nature and Power in American History
HIST/ETST 3396	History of the American Indian
HIST 3451	Introduction to African History
HIST 3460	Modern Latin American History
HIST 3470	Intro to East Asia: Since 1800
HIST 3480	Introduction to European History
HIST 3606	Science, Technology, and Society in the Modern World
HIST 4032	Globalization in World History Since 1945
HIST 4217	Consumer Culture
HIST 4226	Capitalism in America
HIST 4227	American West
HIST 4236	Colorado Mining and Railroads
HIST 4240	National Parks History
HIST/ETST 4411	Modern Mexico
HIST 4417	Commodities and Globalization
HIST 4421	Modern China
HIST 4431	Modern Japan
HIST 4451	Southern Africa
HIST 4461	The Modern Middle East
HIST 4503	Topics in History of Science
HIST 4504	Animals in U.S. History

Physics 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
PHYS 3082	Energy and the Environment
PHYS 4400	Scientific Instrumentation

Philosophy

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
PHIL 3430	How to think green: Environmental Ethics

Political Science

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
PSCI 3022	Political Systems of the World
PSCI 3034	Race, Gender, Law and Public Policy
PSCI 3035	Political Movements: Race and Gender
PSCI 3042	World Politics
PSCI 3914	The Urban Citizen
PSCI 4009	Politics of the Budgetary Process
PSCI 4014	Media and Politics
PSCI 4025	Local Governance and Globalization
PSCI 4085	Comparative Governance: Environment and Society
PSCI/ETST 4144	Indigenous Political Systems
PSCI/ETST 4146	Indigenous Politics
PSCI 4206	Social Movements, Democracy and Global Politics
PSCI 4207	Theories of Social and Political Change
PSCI/WGST 4215	Women's Rights, Human Rights: Global Perspectives
PSCI 4216	International Politics: Human Rights
PSCI 4226	The United Nations in World Affairs
PSCI/WGST 4248	Gender, Development and Globalization
PSCI 4276	Conflicts and Rights in International Law
PSCI 4326	Advanced International Political Economy: Globalization
PSCI 4354	Environmental Politics
PSCI 4365	Global Ecological Crises
PSCI 4545	Immigration Politics
PSCI 4645	Comparative Political Leadership
PSCI 5217	Human Rights: Theory and Practice
PSCI 5468	Research Methods in Political Science

Public Health

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
PBHL 3020	Introduction to Environmental Health

To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.