Sustainable Development Graduate Certificate

The certificate in Sustainable Development is designed to provide graduate students with an understanding of sustainable development, focusing on the integration of economic, social, and environmental goals. It emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to measure and attain the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). These approaches include: energy and resource management, urban planning and sustainable cities, and effective policies. This certificate requires a minimum of 15 graduate credit hours of coursework.

Home unit: College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies .

Campus Code

Knoxville Campus

Graduate Certificate Type

Add-On
Stand-Alone

Credit Hours Required

15 graduate credit hours

Required Courses (6 credit hours)

Select TWO courses from list below:

SUST 501 - Sustainability Foundations and Perspectives ^*Students must complete SUST 501 if they have not previously completed equivalent sustainability coursework.
SUST 510 - Sustainability Reporting for Organizations
SUST 520 - Data Analysis and Problem Solving for Sustainability
CECS 599 - Graduate Capstone

Elective Courses (9 credit hours)

Select THREE courses from list below:

AGNR 480 - How to Feed the World ^*
ALEC 585 - Global Sustainable Development Goals
AREC 460 - Rural Economic Development
AREC 470 - Policy Analysis for Environmental and Natural Resource Management
HBS 545 - Sustainable Development
POLS 554 - Sustainable Communities
POLS 572 - The Politics of Development
Note: ^* Course has its own set of prerequisites. Please consult the catalog for more information.

Non-Course Requirements

To receive the certificate, students must:

complete the Graduate Certificate Course Verification Form and
through MyUTK, apply to graduate from the certificate program.

Undergraduates