Environmental Sustainability

When you enroll in the Master of Environmental Studies degree with a concentration in Environmental Sustainability, you will benefit from both the rich diversity of course offerings and the sustainability programs run by Penn faculty and students on campus, in Philadelphia and around the world.

Careers in sustainability are emerging and are found in diverse areas in both private and public sectors. The Master of Environmental Studies program offers a wide range of course options that allow you to create a program specific to the requirements of the area of sustainability you are most interested in pursuing, and will make you uniquely qualified for the professional opportunities you seek.

Graduates with the Environmental Sustainability concentration often take leadership positions guiding organizations or communities to be more sustainable, such as Sustainability Coordinator at a university or non-profit or Director/VP of Sustainability at a corporation.

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 Sustainability to understand the breadth of capstone topics and formats.

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 Sustainability concentration.

Sample Environmental Sustainability concentration courses

In the Environmental Sustainability 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.

School/Department Courses
Department of Earth and Environmental Science (MES Home)
  • The Role of Water in Urban Sustainability and Resiliency
  • Introduction to Sustainability
  • Corporate Sustainability Strategies
  • Life Cycle Assessment
  • Corporate Sustainability Management & Communication
  • Leading Change for Sustainability
School of Engineering and Applied Science
  • Energy & Its Impacts
  • Renewable Energy and its Impacts
  • Energy Systems & Policy
  • Technology, Ecology, Economics, Sustainability
Wharton School of Business
  • Risk Management
  • Environmental Management, Law & Policy
  • Energy Markets and Policy
  • Environmental Sustainability & Value Creation
School of Design
  • Sustainable Cities
  • Green Development
  • Urban Sustainability Planning
Urban Studies Program
  • Cities and Sustainability
Organizational Dynamics Program
  • Organizational Project Management

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Building bridges to reach people where they are

MES in the Community

As an MES instructor, freshwater ecologist and graduate program alum Lauren McGrath (MES ’16) teaches the importance of connecting with people in protecting the land.