The School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability is designed to foster students’ inspiration and desires to change the world in a thoughtful and practical manner. We don’t think small.
To facilitate this ambitious agenda, the School has three major foci:
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Ecosystem sciences and environmental impact assessment (e.g., wildlife and conservation ecology, restoration ecology, agriculture, advanced monitoring with artificial intelligence and big data, and comprehensive resource and historical ecology).
- Environmental governance, policy, and social impact assessment (e.g., ensuring sustainable use and management of resources such as water, food and energy; addressing these issues with our First Nations’ colleagues regarding self-determination and reconciliation).
- Building cross-disciplinary skills that draw on the social and ecological foci above to create innovative communities that are more sustainable in their use of resources and impact on the environment.
The School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability offers both a four-year Honours academic plan and a five-year Honours Co-operative academic plan. Both plans focus on what students need to achieve as scholars and to secure environmental careers available across the globe.
Both plans lead equally to excellent careers. The four-year Honours plan often attracts students with an entrepreneurial focus and who desire maximum flexibility. The five-year Honours Co-operative plan often attracts students who prefer a structure that maps out job opportunities at regular intervals during their program and with maximum internal support networks.
The School emphasizes problem-solving experiential learning and technical skill building geared to solving complex issues. Students create a scholarly and career-oriented portfolio of real-world project outputs in classes that are precisely the right size to ensure a more personal and in-depth learning experience. The job market is evolving rapidly, and we keep ahead of this fast-paced world in the design and constant updating of our courses.
Our students are taught and trained in analysis and action for the interplay between social and ecological parts of the environment. Students typically focus on some combination of ecology, impact assessment, policy, and governance within the scope of environment, resources, and sustainability.
The range of choices available mean that students have flexibility in designing their education and skill building to suit their talents and interests. The open-door policy of professors mean students can interact inside and outside the classroom, building a network to help their employment ambitions. The world experts inside the School and the ability of the School to attract renowned guests help students learn from the best the planet has to offer.
The School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability has long been the go-to place for industry, businesses, non-governmental agencies, and governmental levels from municipalities to the United Nations. Our courses engage experts from all these areas and our graduates find employment across this range of opportunities. Our students are in demand because they are among the few who tackle the reality that most problems are complex and cross conventional disciplines.
Graduates holding the Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) degree in Environment, Resources and Sustainability are employed in a range of fields as scientists, policy directors, managers of parks and protected areas, impact assessment specialists, managers in forestry, mining, and agriculture, waste management experts, pollution control experts, information technology managers, environmental software developers, social services planners, environmental planners, ethical investment counselors, elementary and secondary school teachers, and as university or college faculty.
More information may be obtained from the associate director, undergraduate studies, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability.