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Sustainability Program

Degree Programs

Faculty

Declare Your Major

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students in a forest in freiburg

About Sustainability at UT

Sustainability engages students in a systems approach to understanding the interconnections between society and the environment. The Sustainability Program provides students with an overview while allowing students to focus on areas of interest such as environmental sustainability, sustainable development, or sustainability and policy.

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is a core goal of the sustainability program. Students take service-learning and field methods courses as part of the curriculum and are encouraged to engage in sustainability initiatives on campus and in the surrounding community.

Study Abroad

Students can engage in a sustainability abroad by taking GEOG 491 – Urban Sustainability. A May Mini-Term course offered in Freiburg, Germany.

For more information contact Tracey Norrell at thayes7@vols.utk.edu.

The Office of Sustainability

The Office of Sustainability has an extensive website which showcases campus sustainability initiatives and events and curates a list of current sustainability-related job postings.

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AVAILABLE PROGRAMS

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Sustainability Major, BA

The sustainability program engages students in a systems approach to solving pressing issues at the intersection of society, economics, and the environment. Topics studied include climate change, land-use change and biodiversity, water resources, natural resource management, and sustainable development at the local and global scales. Students develop a foundational knowledge of natural and social science with a skill set in geographic information systems, data analysis, communication, policy, and development. Experiential learning is a core to the sustainability major. Students take service-learning and field methods courses as part of the curriculum and are encouraged to engage in sustainability initiatives on campus and in the surrounding community.

Major Requirements
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Sustainability Major, BA – Public Policy Concentration

Students pursuing the public policy concentration will study 4 lower-division and 12 upper-division courses in public policy in partnership with the Baker School for Public Policy and Public Affairs. The concentration will provide students the opportunity to learn how laws, guidelines, and actions are decided and taken by governments in order to work in favor of the public. Public policy guides which laws are passed, where funding goes, and which topics concern issues important to sustainability. Students will learn the foundation of public policy in the context of the broader sustainability degree.

Major Requirements
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Sustainability Major, BA – Supply Chain Management Concentration

The concentration in Supply Chain Management allows students to study at the intersection of commerce and environmental responsibility. The concentration is a collaboration between the Departments of Geography & Sustainability, Agriculture and Natural Resource Economics, and Supply Chain Management. Sustainability, BA students will have 11 credit hours with a concentration in Supply Chain Management. Three of those credit hours include a capstone course focusing on applying Sustainable Supply Chain Management methodologies. Students will equip themselves with the skills to innovate sustainable practices from procurement to distribution. Students will learn strategies for reducing carbon footprints, enhancing ethical sourcing, and optimizing resource efficiency.

Major Requirements
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Sustainability Minor

The Sustainability minor provides students with the opportunity to add the timely and important study of sustainability to accompany their major. Students pursuing a minor in sustainability will gain foundational knowledge from the course Sustainability – Principles and Practices followed by 12 additional upper-divisional credit hours of their choosing among the subfields of Sustainability and Society, Sustainability Policy and Development, and Sustainability and the Environment. 

Minor Requirements
Student Gather at a Radstation in Freiburg, Germany

Urban Sustainability Study Abroad in Freiburg

Urban Sustainability in Freiburg, Germany: This study abroad program is offered during the summer in collaboration with Programs Abroad. Students will study multiple systems of urban sustainability such as food, water, energy, housing, and transportation in the context of one of the world’s “green cities.”

Learn More

Sustainability Faculty

Alderman, Derek

Derek Alderman

Chancellor’s Professor and President, Faculty Senate

Specialties: Cultural and historical geography; geographies of memory, race, tourism; politics of place naming and critical cartography

dalderma@utk.edu
Profile
Herrero, Hannah

Hannah Herrero

Assistant Professor and Director of Sustainability

Specialties: Remote Sensing, Human-Environment Interactions, Conservation, Savanna Science, Africa, Land Change Science, Physical Geography

hherrero@utk.edu
Profile
Kim, Hyun

Hyun Kim

Professor and Associate Head

Specialties: Transportation, Telecommunications, GIS, Spatial Data Science, Spatial Optimization and Modeling

hkim56@utk.edu
Profile
Luke, Nikki

Nikki Luke

Assistant Professor

Specialties: Urban political ecology, energy, labor, race, gender, social reproduction, environmental and energy justice, urbanization.

knluke@utk.edu
Profile
Sharma, Madhuri

Madhuri Sharma

Professor

Specialties: Racial/ethnic diversity, segregation, and contemporary housing market; Gender and Racial/ethnic economy and disparity; Gentrification, new urbanism and placemaking; Income divide, poverty, and geography of development; Informal economy and the geographies

msharma3@utk.edu
Profile
Sokol, Nicholas

Nicholas Sokol

Lecturer

Specialties: Applied Climatology, Data Science, Environmental Modeling, Food, Energy, and Water (FEW)

nsokol@utk.edu
Profile
Swab, Jack

Jack Swab

Assistant Professor

Specialties: Critical Cartography/GIS, Health Geography, Geographic Thought

jswab@utk.edu
Profile

Publication Board

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

Harden, C.P., 2012. Framing and Reframing Questions of Human–Environment Interactions. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 102, 737-747.

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

Harden, C.P.,  Hartsig, J., Farley, K.A., Lee, J.,  Bremer, L.L., 2013. Effects of Land-Use Change on Water in Andean Páramo Grassland Soils. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103, 375-384.

Water Resources Management

Tran, L.T.,  O’Neill, R.V.,  Smith, E.R., Bruins, R.J.F., Harden, C.P., 2013. Application of hierarchy theory to cross-scale hydrological modeling of nutrient loads. Water Resources Management, 1-17.

Environmental Modelling & Software

Robert N. Stewart, R.N., Purucker, S.T., 2011. An environmental decision support system for spatial assessment and selective remediation. Environmental Modelling & Software 26, 751-760.


News in Sustainability

  • A historical photo of S. David Freeman talking with President Jimmy Carter
    New Sustainability Scholarship Honors ‘Green Cowboy’ Freeman September 20, 2024
  • Overhead view of a city
    The Conversation: ‘Excessively high rents are a major burden for immigrants in US cities’March 26, 2024
  • Headshot photo
    Tran, Kim Honored with Sustainability Science AwardNovember 14, 2022

EVENTS

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Geographers Engage With The World

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Department of Geography and Sustainability

College of Arts and Sciences

Burchfiel Geography Building
1000 Phillip Fulmer Way
Room 304
Knoxville, TN 37996-0925
865-974-2418
utkgeog@utk.edu

 

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Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
865-974-1000

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