Sustainable Environmental Management

Sustainable Environmental Management

Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change

Explore some of the most critical issues facing the earth today: the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, waste management, energy consumption and sustainable solutions. In the Sustainable Environmental Management program, you will investigate how the environment and its resources are managed, and how transitions toward more sustainable systems can be accelerated. You’ll learn key problem-solving, innovation and holistic strategies, combined with an understanding of policy, law and regulation, and economic and social dynamics with applied aspects of environmental science and technology.

As you learn first-hand about energy, water, food and waste, you will develop the technical skills to analyze, synthesize and evaluate political, economic and social dimensions of environmental problems, including biodiversity loss, climate change, policy and planning responses, and pathways to sustainability transitions and innovation, especially those that address environmental and social injustices.

You will explore such critical issues as:

  • Low-carbon sustainable energy transition
  • Environmental policy and governance
  • Environmental law
  • Ecological economics
  • Climate change science and mitigation
  • Urban ecology
  • Sustainability and just transitions
  • Community energy and planning

Students benefit from practical experience through hands-on classroom activities, field and lab-based exercises, and community engagement. The program offers educational work placements and opportunities to participate in the Las Nubes EcoCampus in Costa Rica.

You will develop transferrable skills in critical thinking, leadership, and project management to effectively engage in environmental issues in government, the private sector, and not-for-profit sectors in Canada and abroad, and make positive contributions toward a sustainable future.

Did you know? EUC is the home to the next generation Planning program for future YU changemakers interested in city-building and place-making for more just and sustainable world.

Make positive change as a Planning professional and start your career in just 5 years. EUC offers a 3+2 years pathway to a combined 3-year BES and an accredited MES (Planning). Combining either the Cities, Regions, Planning (BES) or Sustainable Environmental Management (BES) undergraduate program for 3 years with the Environmental Studies (MES) Planning graduate program for 2 years, students will complete their OPPI accreditation and graduate with two university degrees from York University in just 5 years.

Program Details


Offered by

Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change


Offered at

  • Keele Campus

Degrees offered

BES


Ways to study

Full-Time, Part-Time


Experiential Education

  • Co-op or internship
  • Class-focused
  • Community-focused
  • Faculty research

Fall entry

Yes (first and upper year)


Winter entry

Yes (first and upper year)


Summer entry

Yes (first and upper year)

Interested in focusing your career on the Environment + Business? 

The Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change has partnered with the Schulich School of Business to pursue the Master of Management Program (PMMP). This is a 4+1 pathway program that allows you to focus on your environmental studies in your undergraduate and secure your position in graduate studies now. A separate application is required.