This course introduces sustainability as a foundational management framework, examining humanity's evolving relationship with the natural environment through scientific, historical, cultural, and philosophical lenses. Students apply systems thinking to evaluate complex environmental and social problems, critically assess key events shaping sustainable development, and cultivate the intellectual grounding necessary for responsible participation in sustainable management.

This course explores the natural environment through the Earth Systems model, examining the interdependencies of natural cycles, climate, water, energy, and ecosystems with the carbon cycle as a unifying theme. Students investigate human impacts on natural systems, core sustainability concepts, and develop intensive writing and analytical competencies essential for advanced scholarly inquiry and capstone preparation.

This course provides a hands-on introduction to qualitative and quantitative research methods applied to sustainability, emphasizing the inseparability of natural, social, and economic environments. Students develop competencies in modeling, root cause analysis, regression analysis, and data collection strategies, gaining practical tools to identify and propose evidence-based solutions to sustainability challenges facing contemporary business organizations.

This course examines the legal, ethical, and policy frameworks governing sustainable economic development at national and international levels. Students analyze landmark legislation including NEPA and the Kyoto Protocol, evaluate the roles of agencies such as UNEP and the Department of the Interior, and gain foundational knowledge to assess the evolving relationship between environmental law, economic development, and global sustainability.

This course advances understanding of the economy as an ecosystem component, incorporating natural capital alongside human, social, and financial capital. Students explore micro, macro, and international trade theory through a sustainability lens, examining globalization, market failure, consumerism, technological change, and the global food economy to assess interdependencies between economic activity and sustainable development.

This course explores the built environment as an intersection of human needs, community infrastructure, and energy systems. Students examine how community and building design addresses fundamental needs—water, transportation, and healthcare—and evaluate what constitutes a sustainable community. Drawing on architectural design principles and case studies, students assess sustainable design strategies and their unintended consequences for equitable, resilient communities.

This course examines geopolitics, public policy, and sustainability decision-making across national, state, and local levels, integrating political science, environmental policy, social justice, and natural resource management. Students analyze formal policymaking, ESG reporting, public-private partnerships, and risk management, developing capacity to navigate sustainability decisions amid resource conflicts, climate impacts, and public health and security concerns.

This course takes a macro-level approach to leading sustainable organizations, translating sustainability principles into organizational strategy and leadership practice. Students examine organizational change, stakeholder management, conflict resolution, and situational leadership, with emphasis on balancing the triple bottom line—people, planet, and prosperity—to build cultures of sustainability capable of driving meaningful transformation during periods of environmental and technological change.

This course examines Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through the lens of economic theory and human psychology, exploring how organizations create value by navigating business success and societal well-being. Students evaluate CSR strategy, stakeholder relationships, corporate governance, ESG measurement, ethics, and philanthropy, gaining competencies to lead organizations that are financially viable, ethically grounded, and socially responsible.

This course examines organizational supply chains through the triple bottom line, addressing total life cycle costs, customer expectations, and social responsibility. Core topics include sourcing, operations, distribution, reverse logistics, and environmental footprints—carbon, water, and pollution. Students gain financial and managerial supply chain knowledge extended by environmental and social considerations to lead efficient, effective, and genuinely sustainable supply chains.

This course addresses sustainability within aquatic environments through public health, engineering, and municipal conservation management perspectives. Core topics include water quality and quantity, governance frameworks, treatment technologies, aquatic assessment, environmental mitigation, and climate change impacts on water systems. Students develop analytical competencies to evaluate aquatic sustainability challenges and contribute to water resource governance amid increasing environmental pressure.

This course examines the generation, processing, management, and disposal of municipal, industrial, and agricultural waste from technical, economic, and environmental perspectives, emphasizing resource recovery and beneficial reuse. Topics include waste recovery processes, producer responsibility, life cycle analysis, and zero waste paradigms. Students critically assess conventional systems and evaluate innovative strategies aligned with circular economy and sustainable consumption principles.

This course explores climate change through scientific, humanistic, and sustainability frameworks, covering causes, impacts, and scientific communication challenges. Students evaluate environmental justice, community vulnerability, and policy efficacy as instruments for addressing climate consequences, and assess existing and emerging mitigation and adaptation strategies, cultivating the scientific literacy, ethical awareness, and policy acumen necessary to engage with this defining global challenge.

This course challenges students to build the foundation for their capstone project by applying program knowledge, research, and scholarly inquiry to develop a formal research proposal. Typically focusing on a sustainability issue within the student's workplace or a local organization, it develops the investigative framework carried forward into the MSMGT 792 Capstone Course, for which it is a prerequisite.

This course promotes the synthesis and integration of learning from across the M.S. in Sustainable Management program, applied in a professional context. Students implement the research design developed in MSMGT 790 under faculty guidance, constructing rigorous arguments and synthesizing data into a coherent, meaningful whole that advances sustainable management practice within their own professional communities.

Various specialized areas of sustainable management will be examined. This course may be repeated for credit with a different topic.

Study abroad courses are conducted in various parts of the world and are led by one or more faculty members. This course may be repeated in different locations.