Balance Environmental Studies with Green Business Practices
Put your passion for protecting the environment on a sound green business foundation as you prepare for a career in the new green economy. Explore and learn on our unique coastal campus, situated on 540 acres, including coastline, riverbanks, woodlands, wetlands, dunes, and vernal pools. Through highly collaborative and interdisciplinary study, you’ll discover how to combine and balance environmental studies, ecological economics, social, and financial concepts as we work together to create a more sustainable world.
Why UNE for Your Bachelor of Science Degree in Sustainability and Business
“Innovation for a Healthier Planet” is more than just a tagline at the University of New England.
Our commitment to the environment and our dedication to out-of-the-box thinking makes UNE the ideal place to earn your Bachelor of Science degree in Sustainability and Business. With our electric car charging stations, sustainable landscaping, green living wall, Edible Campus Initiative, and Green Revolving Fund, we celebrate a University-wide commitment to green business practices. In your Bachelor of Science degree at UNE, you’ll experience courses like environmental studies and ecological economics first-hand with an innovative education that includes:
- Green Learning Community for first-year students
- Marine Science Center with aquaponics, aquaculture, and fisheries lab
- Kelp farming research
- Makerspace for innovative ideation and prototyping
number of times UNE was ranked among the most environmentally responsible colleges
Ariana Walker ’23
UNE is great because you can create strong relationships with your professors. At a big school where there are huge classes, you aren’t going to get the time with your professors, so you aren’t going to get the same education that you can get at UNE. That face-to-face time with professors is so valuable. It’s never a fight for time. My professors always make time to answer questions and chat with me one-on-one. They’re all like mentors to me. I look up to them.
Sustainability and business at UNE is helping me to see the connections between business and the environment. It allows me to explore how businesses can have the smallest impact on the planet but still reach their profit goals. Seeing how I play into that is exciting. I want the expertise to be able to help people and businesses live sustainably in cohesion.
I was part of the [Green Learning Community] during my first year. We took a lot of off-campus trips, like to different parks or conservation areas. It was very hands-on, which was one of the reasons I was so excited to take part in it. We did a lot of fieldwork, and that was a great learning experience. You can’t learn from a book like that. It was a matter of learning through doing — of learning by being in a specific type of environment. That was the whole point of it. It was exciting and a nice break from the classroom.
I’ll be studying abroad in Morocco in the spring. I’m so excited. UNE helps you with everything. It’s really no extra cost to spend the semester on that campus except any extra traveling you may want to do while there…It’d be insane to pass up the opportunity to go. I was able to work with my advisor to set up my class schedule to make it easy to go, so I don’t have anything to worry about. It’s great how much support I’ve gotten.
Sustainability and business is helping me see the connections between business and the environment. It allows me to explore how businesses can have the smallest impact on the planet but still reach their profit goals.
What Will You Study? Sustainability and Business Degree Curriculum Overview
There are many ways you can navigate this major. The following are some examples of the exciting courses that the Bachelor of Science degree in Sustainability and Business offers:
- Sustainability and Ecological Restoration
- Climate Change Adaptation: Planning and Policy
- Environmental Movements and Social Change
- Ecological Economics
- Management of Nonprofits
- Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Green Learning Community
First-year Business, Communications, Sport Leadership and Management, and Marine Entrepreneurship majors can participate on a competitive basis in the Green Learning Community (GLC). The GLC is an intentional community of professors and first-year students dedicated to studying human relations to the environment through many ways of knowing. You will study environmental issues through the integrated lenses of biology, literature, environmental studies, and economics.
Career Paths for Sustainability and Business Degree Grads
Perhaps you’re an aspiring green entrepreneur, or maybe you’re interested in the management of corporate sustainability practices. Wherever your aspirations take you, you’ll graduate with the knowledge, internship experiences, analytical skills, and ethical grounding you need to have a successful career combining business and sustainability. Relevant professions include:
- Chief Sustainability Officer
- Green Business and Corporate Manager
- LEED Certified Construction Manager
- Green or Sustainable Entrepreneur
- Sustainability Program Developer
- Environmental Public Affairs Officer
- Community Economic Development Manager
Career Advising for Sustainability and Business Majors
Whether you have a specific career goal in mind or a vague idea of the field that interests you, Career Advising is here to help you plan your next step.
Innovative Makerspace Facilities for Sustainability and Business Degree Seekers
The P.D. Merrill Makerspace is a fully equipped laboratory for creating and building, turning ideas into reality, and developing sustainable solutions to real-world problems. Whether you come to the Makerspace as part of an environmental studies or ecological economics class, as a student researcher or innovator, or just for fun, the Makerspace has something to offer every student — regardless of program or major.
Watch: UNE Students in the Makerspace
Experiential Learning in Sustainability and Business
The Sustainability and Business degree at UNE provides hands-on learning, both in and out of the classroom, to give you real-world experiences and the confidence to make a difference.
- Use the latest technologies in the Makerspace, such as 3D printers and CNC routers
- Apply learning to actual environmental problems as part of the first-year Green Learning Community
- Conduct research on sustainable products, such as aquaponically grown vegetables and farmed shiitake mushrooms
An Internship Story
2022 Student Innovation Showcase
Beyond the Classroom
- Participate in UNE’s Student Innovation Challenge, a University-wide idea-stage competition
- Intern on campus at UNE’s Office of Sustainability or off campus at various aquaculture farms and fisheries or other institutions, including:
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Gulf of Maine Research Institute
- Manomet U360: Economic System
- New England Aquarium
- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
- Wells National Estuarine Reserve
Apply Today
Ready to begin your future in UNE’s Bachelor of Science degree in Sustainability and Business?
B.S. in Sustainability and Business FAQ
For more information contact Program Director Jeremy Pare at jpare@paulytheprayingpup.com.