Environmentally conscious students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will have a new opportunity to get credentials for their passion when the university launches its Sustainability Certificate program this fall.
The certificate, which is a collaboration between the UW-Madison Office of Sustainability and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, will consist of 12 credits and include a capstone project focused on solving an existing sustainability issue on campus.
While most universities provide students with the opportunity to pursue minors, UW-Madison instead offers certificate programs that serve a similar purpose.
As part of the new certificate, students will select from a list of integrative “literacy courses” designed to teach the basic principles of sustainability, Nelson Institute Director Paul Robbins said.
Office of Sustainability Co-Director Craig Benson said these courses will provide students with various skill sets in the field of sustainability and include hands-on learning about subjects such as energy consumption and emissions on campus.
While enrollment will be capped at 100 for its pilot semester, the certificate will be offered to students in all UW-Madison schools and colleges regardless of major.
“That’s the beauty of it. It’s not for Nelson Institute students or engineering students or CALS students,” Benson said. “It’s for everybody and sustainability solutions are very much interdisciplinary. They require people from different areas to bring their expertise to the problem.”
Robbins said the program was developed in part to advance the Office of Sustainability’s mission to link students and education and research with campus facilities.
“This is part of [a] national recognition that the university–as a sustainable place to be and to learn and to go to work–is core to the mission,” Robbins said.
Benson said it is also important to think globally when considering changes in the environment.
“[Sustainability is] really important right now ... as we look at these pressures that we’re seeing in our society due to growth,” Benson explained. “When we look at the strain that’s putting on our resources, our planet, our climate, we need to get ahead of these problems before they become problems that we can’t deal with.”
For more information or to apply, students can visit http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/undergraduate/sustainability-certificate/index.php.
