Last May, Pratt's undergraduate catalog officially added the minor in Sustainability Studies, meaning the program has officially concluded its first year in operation.  It has been a productive year, with heavily enrolled sections of SUST 201 The Sustainable Core, as well as elective seminars such as SUST 405 Production Consumption & Waste and SUST 401 Power Pollution & Profit.  By February, the number of electives in the minor had expanded to include offerings in SSCS, Math & Science, Interior Design, Industrial Design, and Construction Management.  (Click here for a complete list of courses approved in the minor.)

Sustainability courses included explorations of the urban environment.  In September, students in SUST 405 Production Consumption & Waste canoed the Gowanus Canal. After a discussion of the area's history, we entered the water and began paddling up to the northern terminus of the canal before turning south and exploring the foliage, animals, and businesses that call the canal home.  Our journeys revealed floating garbage and the smell of sulphur, but also swimming fish and fishing birds, scrap metal and concrete production alongside flora, fauna, and even some artwork.

The Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies is delighted to offer our new minor in Sustainability Studies. The minor in Sustainability Studies at Pratt deepens the understanding of the interdisciplinary approach to sustainable environmental, economic, and social practices, providing students with a broad understanding of the complex interrelationships between humans and ecosystems and the best practices for protecting environmental quality and fostering social equity. The minor can be combined with any undergraduate major and requires the completion of 15 credits approved in Sustainability Studies.

Students are required to take the common core course SUST 201 The Sustainable Core (offered Monday afternoons from 2-4:50pm this fall) and MSCI 270 Ecology (offered Tuesday mornings from 9:30am-12:20pm this fall).  Students in specific majors may substitute for MSCI 270 the equivalent MSCI 271 for Architecture (offered Friday mornings from 9:30am-12:20pm this fall), or MSCI 280 for Construction Management.

Beyond those two required courses, the minor is designed to encourage students to take 9 credits from a variety of relevant courses taught in SSCS as well as courses in Math & Sciences, Interior Design, and Industrial Design that both relate directly to the goals of the minor and allow students to tailor their coursework to their professional interests. These include SUST 401 Power, Pollution, and Profit; SUST 405 Production, Consumption, and Waste (offered Tuesday afternoons from 2-4:50pm this fall); PHIL 356 Environmental Ethics; INT 332 Environmental Theory (offered Tuesday evenings from 6-8:30pm this fall); IND 487 Sustainability and Production (offered Wednesday afternoons from 2-4:50pm this fall); MSCI 436 Toxics in the Environment (offered Monday evenings from 5-7:50pm this fall); and MSCI 438 Chemistry of Modern Polymeric Materials (offered Thursday afternoons from 2-4:50pm this fall).

This minor is available to all Pratt Institute undergraduates. If you have questions or would like further information, please speak with your advisor or contact the Sustainability Studies co-ordinator Professor Carl Zimring.