Environmental Policy

In the Environmental Policy concentration, you will integrate knowledge gained from many disciplines and learn practices that balance environmental results, public interests and the economy. Government officials, business leaders, advocacy groups and academics all benefit from the ability to develop and implement workable environmental policies.

This concentration provides you with the knowledge needed to understand what factors are considered in the development of environmental policies, and offers real-life insights into the challenges of implementing these policies. The courses are taught by instructors with years of experience in environmental policy development and implementation.

Graduates with the Environmental Policy concentration are employed in government, business, non-governmental organizations and academia.

Student research

Your capstone project is a culmination of your classroom, research and internship experiences in the MES program. Your methods and results are unique to your professional and academic goals. Take a look at abstracts by recent MES students with a concentration in Environmental Policy to understand the breadth of capstone topics and formats.

• Environmental Policy Abstracts

Every student in the Master of Environmental Studies (MES) program creates a research poster designed to showcase their capstone project. The selection of posters listed below is representative of the range of research projects undertaken by recent students in the Environmental Policy concentration.

• The History of Environmental Justice in the United States, and an Analysis and Case Study of New Jersey's 2020 Environmental Justice Law by Jonah McDowell ‘25
• Green Space Access in Nicetown-Tioga: An Analysis of Environmental Justice Challenges and Policy Solutions by Rebecca Carrillo ‘25
• Scaling Community Solar In Pennsylvania: A Case Study of Roadblocks and Opportunities in Philadelphia by Gwendolyn K. Cochran ‘25
• Harnessing Carbon Markets to Promote Sustainable Nitrogen Management in Indian Agriculture by Shubham Love ‘26

Sample Environmental Policy concentration courses

In the Environmental Policy concentration, you will choose from a wide variety of courses, from departments and graduate schools across the University. The following list provides some examples of courses that the program has approved for students to take as part of this concentration.