Sustainability Certificate Campus

Campus Majors
Certificate Programs
Sustainability (Certificate)

Go Green with a Sustainability Certificate

In today's world, it's essential to go green, which means living and working sustainably. Public opinion, political pressure, emerging business opportunities, and ecological realities have created sustainability-focused career options in nearly every major job sector. Southern New Hampshire University's sustainability certificate provides undergraduate students with the knowledge, skills and practical experience needed to succeed in these careers.

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See Yourself Succeed in a Sustainability-Focused Career

Our program blends insights from environmental science, the environmental social sciences and other sustainability-focused fields into a uniquely practical learning experience that is more than merely interdisciplinary.

As a private, nonprofit university, SNHU has one mission - to help you see yourself succeed. The benefits of earning your sustainability certificate at SNHU include:

Supportive community. Join the SNHU campus community of students who are closely connected with faculty and staff dedicated to your success.
Affordability. SNHU is one of the most affordable private, nonprofit universities in New Hampshire, and students who qualify could receive up to $20,000 in grants and scholarships. (This scholarship amount is only for students who do not need a visa to study in the U.S.)
Accessible faculty. Learn from highly credentialed faculty who are experts in their fields and interact with you in the classroom, dining hall, fitness center and the stands.
Opportunity. Tap into our nationwide network of alumni and strong connections with employers for internship and career opportunities.
Campus experience. Enjoy more than 50 student clubs, champion Division II athletics and fun events on our 300-acre campus in Manchester, NH, named a "Best Place to Live" by Money magazine.

Internships & Outcomes

Sustainability-focused careers are on the rise in the U.S. and around the world. Many of them fall into a job category that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will continue to grow faster than the average for all occupations for some time to come.

SNHU's sustainability certificate offer many one-of-a-kind features designed to meet the demand in today's job market for sustainability-focused professionals, especially when combined with a major in Business Administration (particularly the Organizational Leadership or Small Business Management concentrations), International Business, Communication,Law and Politics, Operations and Project Management or Sociology.

Use your sustainability skillset to land a job in many different types of businesses, consulting firms, government agencies, public interest advocacy groups and other professional settings.

Curriculum

The Sustainability Certificate is not for students enrolled in the Compliance and Sustainability Concentration of SNHU's B.S. in Environmental Science. The curriculum includes some general introductory coursework, a capstone experience and your choice of a number of specialized course options, including environmental science, ecological principles, sustainability strategies for business, U.S. environmental law and more.

Our faculty includes distinguished teachers, scholars, and practitioners with many years of experience working in and with some of the most prominent private firms, public institutions and not-for-profit organizations worldwide. For example, Dr. Paul Barresi, an environmental lawyer and political scientist who also has a background in science-based natural resource management, has helped to advise Fortune 500 companies in complex environmental compliance and sustainability matters at one of New England's leading law firms. Dr. Joseph Corbin III, an environmental and natural resource scientist, is an expert on hazardous waste remediation whose research has had important implications for scientists' understanding of how cleanups succeed at contaminated sites throughout the world. Dr. Michele Goldsmith, a behavioral ecologist, studies the impact of ecotourism on mountain gorillas in Uganda with the help of SNHU student research assistants and National Geographic Society grants. Dr. Frank Catano, an interdisciplinary sociologist with expertise in human environments and community development, has worked in and with some of the most prominent not-for-profit organizations in New Hampshire for more than 30 years. More than one of the professors in our program has been nominated for an SNHU Excellence in Teaching Award.

Degree Courses
ENV 100 Introduction to Sustainability How sustainable are modern human lifestyles? What would the world be like if they were more sustainable? How could we create such a world through the choices that we make as citizens, professionals, and consumers? Students leave traditional academic disciplines behind as they seek answers to these questions in this more than merely interdisciplinary course. By learning how to diagnose and to prescribe effective responses to sustainability challenges large and small using systems thinking, backcasting, and other holistic strategies, students also learn how they can contribute to the emergence of societies that facilitate, enhance, and sustain indefinitely the well-being of human individuals, their communities, and their environments.
ENV 445 Sustainability Capstone Experience This course offers students an opportunity to build upon the themes of ENV 100 in contexts of relevance to their career goals using the insights into human systems and environmental systems acquired throughout their courses of study at SNHU. Students may fulfill the requirements of this course wholly on-campus in a traditional classroom setting or partly off-campus in a pre-professional experience.
Choose one of the following:
ENV 101 Environmental Science This course provides an introduction to the scientific aspects of the environmental field. The first part of the course introduces students to the foundations of environmental science, while the second part concentrates on the application of these foundations to real life environmental problems. Therefore, the course not only engages the fundamentals of environmental science but also shows students how science informs sustainability, environmental policies, economics and personal choice.
SCI 219 Environmental Issues This course covers a variety of environmental topics in a manner specifically designed for the non-science major. It provides a fundamental understanding of the various processes necessary to support life on Earth and examines how human activities and attitudes (individual, traditional, cultural and others) generate environmental issues that threaten these processes. Topics include ecology, populations, agriculture, desertification and deforestation, water and ocean pollution, air pollution including ozone depletion and acid rain, global climate change, natural resource depletion, solid and hazardous wastes, energy including fossil fuels and nuclear power, economics and sustainability.
Choose one of the following:
BIO 315 Ecological Principles and Field Methods This course introduces students to the principles of ecology and practical methods used in the field. Students will explore theoretical topics in the ecological systems including the level of the population, community and ecosystem; energy flow and biogeochemical cycles; and the concept of sustainability. Students will read literature and conduct research projects in the field and will use critical thinking to evaluate research, design studies, present findings and debate on the issues.
BIO 340 Human Health and the Environment This course examines major environmental health problems in industrialized and developing countries, and evaluates possible future approaches to control of these issues. Topics include dose and response to pollutants, agents and vectors of contamination (air, water, and soil), susceptible populations and risk analysis, the scientific basis of policy and decisions, and emerging global health problems.
ENV 305 Global Climate Change This interdisciplinary course brings students up to date on what is known and not known about the causes and consequences of global climate change, and about viable response options. Topics include analysis of climate drivers such as greenhouse gas emissions, and land-use changes, and investigation of some climate system responses such as increased storm intensity and increased surface temperature. Students also explore some of the societal and economic impacts of global climate change. By reference to the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, paleoclimate studies, and other authoritative sources, students learn how to separate fact from fiction in the often publicized debate about the dynamics of global climate change and about how we should respond to it.
Choose one of the following:
ENV 322 Environment and Development How can businesses, governments, and civil society organizations work together to build environmentally sustainable economies and livable local communities in an increasingly crowded and globalized world? Students in this interdisciplinary course use insights drawn from the social sciences to identify assumptions about human nature and nurture that lead to environmentally unsustainable economic and development practices, then apply those insights to the practical problems of building robust national economies and healthy local communities worldwide, with an emphasis on less developed countries. Students spend part of the course playing and critiquing their own performance in Stratagem, a computer-assisted simulation game, in which they assume the roles of government ministers in a less developed country and try to chart a course of environmentally sustainable development for that country over more than half a century.
SOC 318 Sustainable Communities How do we build a society fit for living? This course looks to the field of environmentally sustainable community development (ESCD) for answers to this question. Students explore the principles and practices of ESCD using pattern-mapping of community needs, site visits, and other experiential learning tools that turn communities into classrooms, and bring the challenge of building environmentally sustainable communities to life. In the process, students identify assumptions that lead to unsustainable social practices, and develop the skills necessary to help create livable local landscapes and sustainable local futures through individual and community action.
Choose one of the following:
ENV 372 Sustainability Strategies for Business How can businesses contribute to the environmental sustainability of human societies without sacrificing the bottom line? This broadly interdisciplinary, systems-based course draws insights from the natural sciences, social sciences, and other fields to explore a full range of strategic options relevant to businesses large and small in nearly every economic sector. Students spend nearly half of the course in a group-based simulation in which they assume the roles of the principals of consulting firms competing with rival firms to design a sustainability-focused strategic facility siting and environmental management plan for adoption by their client's board of directors using a version of The Triple Bottom Line Tool, a web-based platform designed by sustainability experts to help investors, decision-makers, and economic development professionals to enhance and to communicate investment performance across a broad array of environmental and other investment impacts.
SCI 333 Waste: Sources, Reduction, & Remediation Waste is a major issue in nearly all aspects of society and understanding it is essential when considering the environment and sustainability. This class will focus on how waste is produced, how to reduce this pollution and how to clean it up once it is released. In addition to the physical science, we will examine the impact of waste on the economy, society and public health.
Choose one of the following:
POL 349 Comparative Environmental Law and Sustainable Development How effective is environmental law as a strategy for achieving sustainable development? How does its diversity across countries and cultures constrain the ability of businesses, governments, and civil society organizations to achieve environmental sustainability goals in an increasingly globalized world? This interdisciplinary course examines the many legal, political, cultural, and other factors that shape the answer to these questions, using China, India, Russia, and the United States as illustrative examples. Students explore the implications of these factors not only for businesses, governments, and civil society organizations pursuing sustainability goals within their own countries, but also for their counterparts in other countries to whom the former are linked through bilateral trade relationships and global supply chains.

Program Outcomes

Campus Undergraduate Costs

Undergraduate Day Students Tuition Financial Aid Teaser Image

We believe that college should change your life, not break the bank. That's why more than 90 percent of our students receive some form of financial aid, and students who qualify could receive up to $20,000 in grants and scholarships.

University Accreditation

Southern New Hampshire University is a private, nonprofit institution accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges as well as several other accrediting bodies. More...

Sustainability Certificate