With ice shelves cracking, green energy options expanding and the international political debate over climate change heating up, the environment is making headlines more than ever before. Coupled with that is the discussion around environmental sustainability, which impacts nearly all aspects of life.

Starting this fall, Brock University undergraduate students will have the option of minoring in environmental sustainability through a new offering by the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ERSC).

Combining economics with social and environmental sciences, environmental sustainability explores how to protect the natural environment and ecological health while maintaining or improving the quality of human life.

The transdisciplinary ESRC at Brock has been home to a graduate program in Sustainability Science and Society since 2014, the new minor will give Brock undergraduates their first opportunity to take dedicated courses in the field.

Sustainability Science and Society graduates Brodie Hague and Christine Janzen.

The minor is open to Brock students in any program and will focus on the problem-solving skills needed as businesses and governments adhere to new environmental legislation and society adapts to a changing world.

Two new online courses will be offered this September: Introduction to Environmental Sustainability (ENSU 2P01) and Environmental Sustainability in Practice (ENSU 2P02). Third-year classes will be added to the calendar in the coming years. While the ENSU courses are open to everyone, non-environmental sustainability minors will have to wait until July 20 to register.

To complete the minor, students will be required to take 1.5 ENSU credits, and 2.5 additional credits from a list of approved courses from 15 departments and centres across campus.

“Searching through the undergraduate calendar, we realized that many departments and centres integrate environmental sustainability concepts into their courses,” said ESRC Director Ryan Plummer. “As environmental sustainability is a transdisciplinary field of study, it was obvious that we should collaborate with these units across campus.”

“We’re hoping to continue adding courses from our own research centre and other units across Brock,” Plummer said.

The creation of the minor coincides with the fifth anniversary of the ESRC this year.