Minor in Sustainability and Environmental Justice

Are you interested in building a society that enables all people to flourish without depleting the systems upon which all life depends?

The minor in Sustainability and Environmental Justice (SEJ) invites students from all majors to think about how to live together in ways that sustain diverse human societies without depleting the earth, and why it is important to connect struggles for justice among humans with the ethical and political standing of nature.

Incorporating elective courses from departments and programs across campus, the SEJ minor provides students with the knowledge and skills to think about the intersections between social and environmental movements, and to draw on the insights of various disciplines to work toward a more just and sustainable future for all.

Minor Requirements

Students completing the Sustainability and Environmental Justice (SEJ) minor must complete a total of 25 credits comprised of:

Foundations course (5 credits)
Elective courses (15+ credits)
Capstone seminar (3-5 credits)

At least 15 of these credits must be courses at the 300- or 400- level. A minimum 2.0 grade is required in each course applied to the minor.

Foundations Course

All students in the SEJ minor must take ENVIR 200, Sustainability and Environmental Justice, which introduces these two concepts in environmental thought and explores the overlap and tension between them.

Course Code	Course Title	Credits
ENVIR 200	Sustainability and Environmental Justice	5 credits

Elective Courses

Elective courses fall into two categories; “Sustainability” and “Environmental Justice” drawn form across the university curriculum, allowing students to tailor their SEJ studies to the issues and approaches most important to them. Students must take at least 5 credits in each category, with a maximum of 5 credits total at the 100- or 200- level. At least 15 credits must be from outside the student’s major requirements.

Sustainability

Course Code	Course Title	Credits
AIS 306	Contemporary Indigenous Environmental Issues	5
ANTH 378	Sustainability, Resilience, and Society	5
ANTH 461	Historical Ecology	5
ANTH 488	Agroecology	5
ARCH 431	Energy and Environmental Systems for Buildings	3
ATMOS 100	Climate, Justice, and Energy Solutions	5
ATMOS 111	Global Warming: Understanding the Issues	5
ATMOS 211	Climate and Climate Change	5
B E 220	Cities, Health, and Well-being	3
BIOL 315*	Biological Impacts of Climate Change	3
BIOL 476*	Conservation Biology	3
CEE 349*	Case Studies in Environmental Engineering	3
CEE 356	Quantitative and Conceptual Tools for Sustainability	4
CEE 357*	Environmental Engineering	5
CEP 200	Introduction to Community and Environmental Planning	5
CEP 302	Environmental Response	5
CHEM E/ENVIR/M E 341*	Energy and Environment	3
ECON/ENVIR 235	Introduction to Environmental Economics	5
ECON 435*	Natural Resource Economics	5
ECON 436*	Economics of the Environment	5
ENTRE 443	Environmental Innovation Practicum	2
ENV H 306	Health and Sustainability	3
ENV H/G H 418	Understanding and Managing the Health Risks of Climate Change	3
ENV H 472	Environmental Risk and Society	3
ENV H 479/G H 420	Climate Change and Public Health Practice	3
ENVIR 239	Sustainability: Personal Choices, Broad Impacts	5
ENVIR 388	Sustainability Seminar	1
ENVIR 420	People, Planet, and Profit in Sustainable Cannabis Production	5
ESRM 100	Introduction to Environmental Science	5
ESRM 101	Forests and Society	5
ESRM 150	Wildlife in the Modern World	5
ESRM 200	Society and Sustainable Environments	5
ESRM 201	Sustaining Pacific Northwest Ecosystems	5
ESRM/ENVIR/ECON 235	Introduction to Environmental Economics	5
ESRM/SBSE 300	Principles of Sustainability	2
ESRM/ENVIR 362	Introduction to Restoration Ecology	5
ESRM 381	Management of Outdoor Recreation and Amenities	4
ESRM 465	Economics of Conservation	3
FHL/FISH 250	Marine Biology	5
FISH 200	Freshwater Ecology and Conservation	3 or 5
FISH/ECON 230	Economics of Fisheries and Oceans	5
FISH 323	Conservation and Management of Aquatic Resources	5
FISH 400	Seminar in Freshwater Sustainability	3
FISH 425*	Sustainable Aquaculture	5
GEOG 205	Our Global Environment: Physical and Human Dimensions	5
GEOG 270	Development & Environment	5
GEOG 370	Environmental Conservation: Geographic Perspectives	5
GEOG/LSJ 467	Law, Justice & the Environment	5
GEOG 473	Geographies of Energy and Sustainability	5
JSIS B 351	The Global Environment	5
JSIS B 352	Sustainability and Global Business: Leading in a Changing World	5
JSIS B 357	The Geopolitics of Energy	5
JSIS B/ENVIR/SMEA 433	Environmental Degradation in the Tropics	5
JSIS B 455	International Environmental Policy	5
L ARCH 210	Environmental Design & Sustainability	5
L ARCH 212	Designing the Future	5
NUTR/ENVIR 312	Food System Sustainability and Resilience	3
OCEAN 102	The Changing Oceans	5
OCEAN 409*	Marine Pollution	3
PHIL 417	Advanced Topics in Environmental Philosophy	5
POL S 458	Climate Politics	5
SBSE 210	Concepts in Bioproducts Sustainability	4
SMEA/JSIS B 103	Society and the Oceans	5
SMEA/ENVIR 201	Climate Governance: How Individuals, Communities, NGOs, Firms, and Governments Can Solve the Climate Crisis	5

* indicates registration restrictions which may include course prerequisites

Environmental Justice

Course Code	Course Title	Credits
AES/ANTH/ENVIR 211	Environmental Justice	5
AES/ANTH 487	Environmental Justice: Cultures and Politics of Environmental Justice	5
AIS 307	Indigenous Literature and the Environment	5
AIS 385	Indigenous Ecologies and Climate Change	5
ANTH 309	Indigenous Epistemologies and Oceanic Canoes	5
ANTH/ENVIR 459	Culture, Ecology, and Politics	5
ARCTIC/JSIS B 391	Climate Change – An International Perspective: Science, Art, and Activism	5
ATMOS 100	Climate, Justice, and Energy Solutions	5
CEE 420	Engineering, Environment, and Justice	3
CEP 460	Planning in Context	5
CHID 234	Environmental Justice and the Humanities	5
ENGL 265	Intro to Environmental Humanities	5
ENGL 365	Literature and the Environment	5
ENV H 417	Case Studies in Children’s Environmental Health Disparities	3
ENV H 448	Community Air Pollution	3
ENV H 475	Environmental Justice and Population Health	3
ENVIR 361	Environmental Justice Issues: Regional Perspectives	5
ENVIR 380	Wilderness in the Anthropocene	5
ENVIR 386	Environmental Justice Seminar	1
ENVIR 100	Introduction to Environmental Studies	5
ENVIR/JSIS B 212	Global Environmental Justice	5
ENVIR/ESRM 466	Climate Justice	4
ESRM 371/ENVIR/SOC 379	Environmental Sociology	5
ESRM 421	Role of Culture and Place in Natural Resource Stewardship	5
FRENCH 228	The Water Crisis in Literature and Film	3
G H/ENV H 220	Global Environmental Change and Public Health	3
GEOG 272	Geographies of Environmental Justice	5
GEOG 472	Race, Nature, and Power	5
GERMAN 365	Environmental Justice in German Literatures and Cultures	5
HSTCMP 221	Global Environmental History, Feast, and Famine	5
HSTCMP/ARCTIC 321	At the Top of the World: Arctic Histories	5
HSTAA/ENVIR 221	US Environmental History: Ecology, Culture, Justice	5
HSTAS/JSIS A 303	Divided Lands/Divided Lives: An Environmental History of Southeast Asia	5
HSTAA/AIS/ENVIR 308	American Indians and the Environment	5
HSTAA/AIS 311	The Indigenous History and Environment of the Salish Sea	5
L ARCH 211	Design Justice	5
PHIL/ENVIR 243	Environmental Ethics	5
PHIL 343	Ethics and the Environment	5
PHIL/ENVIR 417	Advanced Topics in Environmental Philosophy	5
SMEA 474	Environmental Justice in a Changing World	3

Capstone Seminar

The Capstone seminar provides a chance to work collectively with SEJ minors majoring in other fields on a topic such as climate change, biodiversity conservation, or community-engaged research. Students must choose one of the following courses for a total of 3-5 credits.

Course Code	Course Title	Credits
ATMOS 495	EarthGames Studio	3-5
ENVIR/JSIS B 435	Climate Justice and Universities	5
ENVIR 439	Attaining a Sustainable Society	5
ENVIR/ESRM 460	Power, Privilege, and Preservation	5
ENVIR 480	Sustainability Consulting Practicum	5
SMEA 473	Practicum in Community-Engaged Ecocultural Research	3