Course description

Pressure is increasing on industries and governments around the world to respond to the harmful outcomes of human activity, and rapidly develop innovative approaches to ensure the sustainable future of the environment. This course is designed to meet the growing demand for graduates skilled in shaping innovative solutions that have a positive impact on environmental and sustainability issues.

Our graduates will have an interdisciplinary and?problem-solving?approach to global sustainability, an understanding of the responsibilities of personal and organisational actions?and accountability, and an applied and solution-based approach to global issues.

We blend theory with plenty of practical experience. Examples include the ‘Environmental and Ethics Legislation’ module in your second year that includes a minimum of 30 hours work placement. In your final year, the ‘Business and Sustainability’ module includes a field trip where you can experience current sustainability initiatives in charities, businesses and government.

Environmental Sustainability at Derby

The impact of climate change and loss of biodiversity is disrupting our ecosystems. Our module content has been mapped against the needs and ambitions outlined in key initiatives like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on Biological Diversity. It also looks at national agendas such as the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Industrial Strategy and Bioenergy Strategy, to ensure you learn about the threats to the environment and identify solutions for sustainable living, as well as lasting harm to biodiversity, the economy and people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable communities. We know that change has to happen - this course prepares you to step up to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.  You’ll graduate with the core skills in demand and have the opportunity to identify, study and analyse the best possible ways to protect and conserve the environment.

On this course, you will explore major environmental threats along with the possible solutions, including:

• Climate change: you’ll explore how anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are contributing to the climate emergency and what needs to be done to halt and reverse the impacts
• Loss of biodiversity: you’ll explore the cause and effect of changes in biodiversity, how this impacts the sustainability of the planet and what needs to be done to conserve and enhance the natural world
• Sustainable living: you’ll also look at what makes a sustainable city and how sustainable cities and urban environments balance economic, social and physical progress with minimal risk to the environment
• Environmental degradation and human life: you’ll consider how the degradation of the Earth’s ecosystems is negatively impacting the wellbeing of billions of people, mass species extinction, and risking the economic sustainability. You'll evaluate viable sustainble solutions which are social, ecomical and environmentally friendly
• Sustainable governance: change doesn’t happen without firm legislation and policy, but this remains an issue. You’ll investigate what contributes to the gap in implementing new policy, and the role of public perception in influencing leaders to act

Whilst there are core study components, this is a inter-disciplinary course that gives you the opportunity to focus on a specialist route, or combine topics for a broader view of environmental sustainability. In addition, the ‘Student Initiated Module’ in your final year allows you to take the lead and build a module based on your interests, strengths, and career ambitions. In your final year, you will have the option of completing an Independent Study (dissertation) or an Industrial Project, where you can work in industry on a live brief to help solve a real problem – this could lead to employment upon graduation.

The course provides the opportunity to study with a placement year to help you translate theory into practice and enhance your employability.

Inter-disciplinary learning

The challenges facing today’s world are complex and won’t be solved through the efforts of a single subject, so the content of this course is inter-disciplinary, connecting you with expertise from a range of subjects to give you a balanced understanding of the factors involved and the scale of today’s environmental fragility. Studying this way means that upon graduating, you will have a vast set of skills to impress future employers and contribute to global sustainability. These include strong investigative and innovative thinking, problem-solving and a solutions-focused approach, commercial and sustainable business awareness, data collection and analysis, critical thinking, and project management, to name but a few.

Our vision

Our vision is to address local, national and global goals for sustainable development, environmental understanding and clean growth, through an applied and inter-disciplinary approach. We’re making progress on our ambitions through our  (ESRC), where our teaching teams carry out important research to inspire and inform change. There are three themes within the Centre:

• Global Resilience (environmental hazards and climate change): Research is broad-ranging and includes work on arid lands, soil microbiology, sustainable agriculture and fisheries, conservation of cultural sites, volcanology, tectonic hazards, coastal change, glacial environments and coral ecology
• Sustainable Resources (energy, material and biological resources): Research in this area includes the transition to a lower carbon future, rare earth elements, freshwater ecosystems and conservation biology
• Biodiversity and Ecosystems: Research in this area is based around topics such as genomes to ecosystem functioning, encompassing animal behaviour and conservation biology

Who is this course for?

This course is for those who are passionate about securing the long-term sustainability of life on Earth. Whether you are interested in the development of clean energy, the sustainable management of businesses, the protection of the natural world, the impacts of climate change or the management of ecosystem services, this degree has the breadth to allow you to develop your career in the development of a sustainable future for the planet.

How you will learn

We use a diverse range of assessment methods, including essays, reports, field and laboratory notebooks, portfolios, posters, infographics oral presentations, vivas, and written exams (seen and unseen). You may be assessed individually or as part of a group. We’ve mapped our assessments against key graduate skillsets that employers require.