The Sustainability minor is designed to complement any Principia College major. Reflecting the concept of a “triple bottom line” – an approach to decision-making that aims to reconcile the often divergent priorities of ecological, social, and corporate sectors – Sustainability minors take an Introduction to Sustainability course and one course from each of three academic spheres: Environment and Natural Resources; Sociology, Ethics and Religion; and Business, Economics, and Policy. These course options include Environmental and Social Change, Natural Resource Conservation, Sustainable Development, Sociology of Sustenance, Environmental Economics, and The Bible and the Environment, among many others.

Students also select one course focused on production, systems, and the built environment (such as Art of the Italian Renaissance, Environmental Testing, or Energy and Living Systems) and complete a Sustainability Project of their own design.

Students successfully completing the minor are expected to be able to: explain key factors in sustainability; discuss sustainability from different perspectives and scales; research, design, apply, and evaluate solutions to global sustainability challenges; and demonstrate the leadership and communications skills necessary to be an “agent for change.”