| Course Number | Course Name | Description | Faculty |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUS- ANTH 1020 | Biological Anthropology | This course explores the human fossil record, human evolution, population genetics, primatology, and modern human biological diversity from a biocultural perspective. | All Sections |
| SUS- ARCH 3000 | Sustainable Building | An analysis of sustainability in the green built environment including certifications such as LEED, Energy Star, RESNET, and the National Green Building Standard. Course discussions will include: What is Green Building and why does it make sense, Building Science fundamentals, planning for Green from the start, Green Building Economics, and Building performance analysis. | All Sections |
| SUS- ARCH 4600 | Senior Project | This is a capstone project to design or assist in the building of a sustainable design of a residence or commercial structure. | All Sections |
| SUS- ART 2200 | Intro to Printmaking | An introduction to all printmaking classes covering the processes of intaglio, screen printing, relief, lithography, and monotype. Projects are framed around sustainability discourse and representation. During this course ideas, research, and motivations behind imagery used and how it ties to our own interests in sustainability will be discussed. | All Sections |
| SUS- ART 3200 | Intermediate Printmaking | An intermediate level class with emphasis on screen printing, relief, and intaglio with further exploration into print processes that include photographic stencils and multicolor printing. Projects will focus around ideas of sustainability and how we can communicate and reflect our communities through our artworks. | All Sections |
| SUS- ART 4200 | Advanced Printmaking | An advanced level class in printmaking with emphasis on screen printing, relief, intaglio, and/or lithography. Emphasis on individual portfolio production. Projects will focus around ideas of Sustainability and how we communicate and reflect our communities through our artworks. | All Section |
| SUS- ATTC 4760 | Alternative Fuel Systems | Alternate Fuel Systems explores the technologies behind biofuels, electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, and other emerging alternative fuel systems. The course emphasizes sustainability by examining how these technologies reduce emissions, protect ecosystems, and improve public health, while addressing economic and environmental challenges in the automotive industry through hands-on projects. | Brandon Stevenson |
| SUS- BSAD 3330 | Business Ethics and Environmental Responsibility | This course outlines the relationship between business law and business ethics, exposes students to the concepts of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, and offers students a framework for ethical reasoning. That foundation is then used in part to investigate the interconnection between sustainability and ethically and economically viable business practices. | Matthew Thue |
| SUS- BTNY 1010 | Plants: Apocalypse Prevention | Apocalypse Prevention focuses on the utility, beauty, and wonder of plants. We read about some of the amazing discoveries about plants, have several hands-on activities discovering their biology, and discuss how we can use plants to help solve problems that society faces. Students have opportunities to observe wild plants changing though the season and develop their own presentations about plants that they find interesting. | All Sections |
| SUS- BTNY 1403 | Introduction to Environmental Science | A life science general education course focused on the relationship between people and their environment. | All Sections |
| SUS- BTNY 2750 | Topics in Science and Society: Symbiosis and Rewilding | This course explores how biological cooperation among organisms can be used in the restoration of habitats and human relationships with the natural world. | Heather Root |
| SUS- CM 2410 | LEED GA Exam Prep | This course is an introduction to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) specifications and certifications and prepares a student to sit for the LEED GA certification exam. | All Sections |
| SUS- ECON 1100 | Environmental Issues and Economic Policy | Explore the intricate relationship between economics and sustainability. Learn about topics like resource management cost-benefit analysis to understand how economic policies shape our environmental future. Equip yourself with the tools to create a more sustainable world. | Matt Gnagey |
| SUS- EEN 1200 | Introduction to Energy Engineering | This course provides and overview of how to quantify environmental outcomes, perform lifecycle analysis of energy resources, and understand the interaction of the grid and the environment. One of the texts is focused on the electrification transition and what it takes. | Justin Owen |
| SUS- EEN 4430 | Renewable Energy Systems Design II | The topics covered in this class include the analysis and design of hydroelectric, geothermal, marine, and biomass energy systems. It also teaches the environmental and economic impacts of these renewable energy technologies. | All Sections |
| SUS- ENGL 2010 | Intermediate College Writing | Intermediate course that includes a unit on economic justice, population, and science and nature taught with a focus on sustainability. | Jan Hamer |
| SUS- ENGL 2010 | Intermediate College Writing | Students are required to read, write, and discuss readings and information that have sustainability themes and information. | Kyra Hudson |
| SUS- GEO 1030 | Earthquakes and Volcanoes | This course is effectively a natural hazards course with a section on climate change as a natural human-influenced hazard. The course will address how to identify and help develop solutions for natural hazards that impact our communities. | Carie Frantz |
| SUS- GEO 1710/3710 | Introduction to GIS | Mapping and geographical analysis are key to raising awareness to sustainability concepts and thus our students will be able to create maps and disseminate information in a concise and efficient manner around sustainability ideas. | All Sections |
| SUS- GEO 4560 | Environmental Geochemistry | This course introduces chemistry as a means to understand, assess, and remediate the environment. Human-environmental interactions are central to the course. In addition, issues of environmental justice are introduced. The capstone project in this course asks students to use geochemical techniques to address a local environmental issue with societal relevance. | Carie Frantz |
| SUS- GEOG 1000 | Planet Earth: Air, Water, Land & Life | A study of the interrelated systems that constitute the earth's surface environment of landforms, weather, climate, natural vegetation, hydrology, and soils. | All Sections |
| SUS- GEOG 1300 | Exploring Global Geography: Places, People & the Planet | This course explores different regions around the world and seeks to understand the processes at work, in making places what they are. Society-environment linkages, including sustainability challenges, are a key part of this. | All Sections |
| SUS- GEOG 1500 | Climate Change: Science Society & Solutions | This course focuses on the science of global warming. The topic of sustainability is a major focus of the class, as it includes examination of humans' addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. Particularly, students analyze various energy practices and their economic viabilities in the goal to mitigate increased warming. | All Sections |
| SUS- GEOG 3060 | Environmental Issues: Local to Global Impacts & Solutions | A study of global and local environmental issues such as changing air and water quality, food production, waste management, and other topics. The course identifies strategies for creating healthier and more sustainable ways of living within our natural and built environments. | All Sections |
| SUS- GEOG 3090 | Arctic and Alpine Environments | There are five broad learning outcomes for this class, as follows: Develop a basic understanding of the geography of the Arctic (where things are). Understand the key physical processes relevant to cold environments, namely climatic, tectonic, glacial, periglacial and sea ice processes. Develop a basic understanding of the workings of ecosystems in cold environments. Understand the importance of arctic and alpine environments in the study of climate change, both natural and anthropogenic. Comprehend the interconnection between the sustainability of environmental and social systems in Arctic and Alpine regions and economic systems outside those regions. The impacts of a warming climate are critical to the understanding of Arctic and Alpine regions, and this topic is a central feature of the class. | Dan Bedford |
| SUS- GEOG 3500 | Geography of Utah and the American West | Explore the physical, cultural, historical, economic and political geography of this region and its sub-regions, including a consideration of issues of sustainability. | Jeremy Bryson |
| SUS- GEOG 4600 | Geospatial Programming and Online Methods | This course focuses on two essential components of the geographic online experience: geospatial programing and online methods. Half of the course is devoted to customizing GIS software applications by way of modified service interface elements. Topics include the theory and implementation of the various scripting languages (Python for example) currently in use. With these skillsets, students will be able to solve geospatial problems, extend functionality, and streamline/automate GIS workflows through the creation and modification of scripts. The other half of the course is aimed at the design, publishing, and optimization of geospatial servers, and to the maintenance of basic geospatial web services and applications. This will include an introduction to browser and mobile-enabled interactive applications such as those found on cellular phones. Mapping applications using geospatial APIs and Javascript will be covered as well. | Ryan Frazier |
| SUS- HNRS 2050 | Economic Face of Globalization | Environmental issues can seem overwhelming, but there are things we can do every day to improve the environment. Learn how to repair and maintain items in your everyday life with skills like welding, using a multi-meter, changing outlets, and vehicle maintenance. Analyze the economic and environmental impacts of reuse and repair. | Valentinas Rudys and Nazneed Ahmad |
| SUS- ID 2010 | Sustainability I: Textiles & Soft Materials | Environmental issues can seem overwhelming, but there are things we can do every day to improve the environment. Learn how to repair and maintain items in your everyday life with skills like welding, using a multi-meter, changing outlets, and vehicle maintenance. Analyze the economic and environmental impacts of reuse and repair. | All Sections |
| SUS- MATH 1040 | Introduction to Statistics | This course uses the role of data and statistical analysis to measure sustainability in the real world. The connection is immediate with data sets on global warming, sex discrimination, energy use consumption, mortality and environmental factors. The statistical analysis allows students to measure the relationships between these types of data. | All Sections |
| SUS- ME 4200 | Senior Project II | In this course, students are required to test and optimize their design through analysis and prototyping. Students will gain the ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors. | All Sections |
| SUS- MET 4510 | Senior Project II | A mechanical engineering technology project will be selected for team participation. Projects will require planning, analysis, design, development, production, testing, and documentation. An eco-friendly and cost-effective design approach is needed to optimize the prototype process. | All Sections |
| SUS- MICR 3502 | Environmental Health | In this course you will explore many ways that environmental factors can influence health and disease. This course focuses primarily on human health issues, but occasionally addresses threats to wildlife and natural ecosystems. We will address many issues related to sustainability including toxins in the environment, zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, radiation, water quality, air quality, and solid and liquid wastes. The overarching themes of the course are: 1. Human activities can impact the environment and threaten health, and 2. Environmental health threats can be mitigated through monitoring, risk assessments, policies, and technology. | All Sections |
| SUS- MLS 4410 | Interdisciplinary Health Teams | This course provides an interdisciplinary experience with the team concept as a priority. Students learn the roles and responsibilities of various healthcare professionals. The course teaches students to practice an interdisciplinary approach as they research, interact and learn in the interdisciplinary environment of a healthcare setting. In addition, students will learn about how the following factors promote equitable and effective healthcare: sustainability, environmental quality, accessibility, cultural competence, emotional intelligence, communication, resilience, and self-efficacy. | All Sections |
| SUS- NRSG 4200 | Evidence Based Practice | In this course students will create an evidence-based literature review regarding interventions to address a Social Determinant of Health (SDoH) in their community. Addressing these SDoHs promotes sustainable health access and outcomes. As a component of their literature review, students will also complete an health assessment within their county to see what environmental conditions may contribute to poorer health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable populations. | All Sections |
| SUS- NRSG 4400 | Population Health in Nursing | In this course students will conduct an environmental assessment to determine what factors at the local, regional, and state levels disproportionately have an adverse influence on health, particularly for each student's selected vulnerable population. Primary focus is on ways to provide sustainable health access and outcomes to vulnerable populations. | All Sections |
| SUS- NUTR 1020 | Science of Human Nutrition | Relate the ecological impact and the role for environmental responsibility pertaining to food choices and food system sustainability. | All Sections |
| SUS- NUTR 1240 | Nutrition & Sustainable Cooking | This course explores sustainable ways to acquire, prepare and consume food to support a healthier individual, population, and environment. Food science principles will be emphasized in the laboratory experience. | All Sections |
| SUS- OCRE 3450 | Adventure Travel & Sustainable Tourism | This course will provide an overview of tourism industries with emphasis on the sociocultural, economic, and environmental dimensions within adventure travel and sustainable tourism; Students will gain experience evaluating the impacts of tourism and critically analyze the principles and practices conducive to adventure travel and sustainable tourism. | All Sections |
| SUS- PHYS 2090 | Energy & the Environment | It's all about climate change, peak oil and renewable energy. | All Sections |
| SUS- POLS 1010 | Power, Politics, and the State | With focus on issues of sustainability, this course gives students an opportunity to explore and analyze the effects of politics and governance on society, culture, political economy, and the environment. We read about nonwestern theories, politics, societies, and cultures, political economic issues and how this affect sustainable practices, and explore international governance, climate policy, war, and conflict and how this affects sustainable societies. | Janicke Stramer-Smith |
| SUS- POLS 2100 | Intro to International Politics | Examines international political theories and concepts such as traditional Realism (power, state, and nationalism) with contrasting theories of Liberalism (globalization, organizations, and law). Application of these theories will be examined through case studies of powerful countries and regions in addition to problems such as the refugee crises, environmental concerns, and threats of global terrorism. | All Sections |
| SUS- POLS 3340 | Environmental Political Theory | In this course, students will have the opportunities to utilize their mathematical knowledge and skills to address real-world inquiries within or beyond their respective fields. This goes beyond the scope of the course syllabus, placing particular emphasis on sustainability-related projects. Students will develop an understanding of the intricate relationships between mathematics and other disciplines such as engineering, physics, finance, chemistry, economics, environmental sciences, and more, all within the context of sustainability. | Thomas Kuehls |
| SUS- PSY 1010 | Intro to Psychology | Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Psychology helps us to understand why it’s hard for people to change (e.g., biases and heuristics) as well as how we can influence sustainable behaviors and strategies (e.g., persuasion, nudges) necessary to enable and encourage societies to live in more sustainable ways. | Sarah Herrmann |
| SUS- PSY 2710 | Biopsychology | This course is designed to provide students with a broad and general understanding of the field of biopsychology as a whole. We will cover many ways in which our brains, bodies, and environments work to impact our psychological experiences. | Aminda O'Hare |
| SUS- PSY 3000 | Child Psychology | Principles and theories of physiological, psychological, emotional, cognitive, personality and social child development and parent-child relations and developmental problems. | Melinda Russell-Stamp |
| SUS- PSY 3460 | Social Psychology | The purpose of this course is to explore social psychological theory and research. Social psychology is the study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in everyday social situations. We investigate social factors pertaining to sustainability, including norms pertaining to sustainable behaviors, biases and heuristics that influence whether people endorse climate change, social dilemmas that pit short-sighted self-interest against long-term group goals, and how to utilize persuasive techniques to encourage people to behave in more sustainable ways. | Sarah Herrmann |
| SUS- PSY 4200 | Environmental Psychology | Environmental psychology examines the interactions between the physical environment and psychological processes. Environmental psychology covers the breadth of psychology, including human development, biopsychology, cognition, health and wellbeing, and social/cultural psychology. This course will cover major areas of intersectionality among environmental science, sustainability, and psychology. | All Sections |
| SUS- QUAN 2600 | Business Statistics I | This is an introductory course in statistics intended for business college students but also just as useful in a wide variety of areas of study. Topics discussed include displaying and describing data, the normal curve, sampling distributions, probability, statistical inference, confidence intervals, and hypothesis tests with applications in the real world. We will apply these techniques to real world data with emphasis on the Salt Lake City region. Students also learn to analyze data sets and visualize data using Microsoft Excel. | Valentinas Rudys |
| SUS- SOC 1010 | Intro to Sociology | Sociology is the study of the dual nature of the individual in society and society in the individual. Introduction to Sociology provides an overview of how individuals shape the way our society functions including many of the challenges facing our world today related to things like gender, family, race, ethnicity, wealth and poverty, politics, as well as the individual's role in protecting the environment. The final unit of the course includes a debate style presentation titled, "Is Humankind Dangerously Harming the Environment?" During the debate, students will engage with this topic from multiple angles to uncover the dual nature of the individual in society and society in the individual as it relates to a sustainable future for humanity. | R.C. Morris |
| SUS- SOC 1010 | Intro to Sociology | This is an introductory survey course designed to give you a broad overview of the field of sociology. It focuses on all aspects of society: culture; social interaction; institutions; group processes; deviance and social control; stratification, diversity and inequality based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, etc.; and society-environment interactions, and social change. | Robert Reynolds |
| SUS- WSU 1560 |
People and Nature |
Curious about how humans interact with nature? Want to learn more about those connections at the local and global levels? Expect to engage with issues ranging from air quality to animals, from energy to environmental justice, from fashion to food security, from parks to pollution, and much more. Join us to gain an awareness of the larger structures and systems involved in the relationship between people and nature. Recognize connections and get ideas for better engaging with solutions that can lead to healthier and happier communities. | Hal Crimmel and Alice Mulder |
| SUS- ZOOL 3500 | Conservation Biology | The study of how biological principles and concepts are used in conservation. Major emphasis on the preservation and management of biodiversity. Connections between biological and societal issues are explored. Three hours of lecture per week. | Chris Hoagstrom |
Sustainability Courses
Courses with the SUS in front of the course number have been formally approved to use the SUS attribute indicating that the course focuses on or includes sustainability in some way. See more info about the SUS attribute here.
2025 Spring Semester
For more information on these courses, visit the Course Catalog.