Sustainability Studies Minor Program
Rachel Carson College is the home of a Minor in Sustainability Studies, designed to offer students training in different applications to addressing environmental issues in an equitable and effective way. The Sustainability Studies minor offers a model for new college-based undergraduate curricula and pedagogies and emphasizes the central academic role of UCSC’s college system on the campus. The minor is highly interdisciplinary, and open to all UCSC students.
Purpose & Pedagogy
Among the most critical societal challenges of the next 50 years are the rapidly-growing and linked ecological and social crises arising from stresses on supplies of energy, water, and food. These crises are not simply about the adequacy of supply relative to demand, however; they are also the result of the complex social relations within and among societies, in the past, present, and future.
Dealing with such socio-ecological problems, therefore, requires robust interdisciplinary collaborations among engineers, social scientists, and natural scientists. Moreover, in today’s rapidly-changing economy, college graduates will need to be flexible and adaptable, able to learn new knowledge and skills rapidly, and cognizant of the complex organization of society and technology. The minor is designed to foster both analytical ability and provide necessary learning.
The pedagogical rationale (what we study and why) of this minor is premised on relationships between classroom learning, service learning, and research and application. Broad interdisciplinarity and individual facility in both STEM and social sciences are critical elements at the center of the minor’s core courses.
Who We Are
- Shelly Grabe, Rachel Carson Provost
- Anne Freiwald, Minor Academic Coordinator
- Ella Carroll, College Academic Manager
Location/Contact Information
- The Sustainability Studies Office is located in the Rachel Carson College Academic Building, Room 123.
- Advising Email: ssminor@ucsc.edu
Making Appointments / Getting Your Questions Answered
For additional questions, email us at ssminor@ucsc.edu. When emailing, please leave your student ID, name, and year, and in the subject line add Sustainability Studies Minor.
Curriculum
Please note that the pathway above is only one example on how to complete the required courses for the minor. For more details on completing the minor, refer to the checklist listed below.
Mandatory Lower division
CRSN 55 Service Learning Practicum (F, W, S, 2 units each): Needs to be taken twice. Introduction to service-learning theory and practice for students engaging in service-learning work in Rachel Carson College, Rachel Carson College-related projects, campus, and community environmental stewardship and service organizations, or public agencies. CRSN 55 is offered in the Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters. Students planning on declaring the minor need to take CRSN 55 twice. Students in the minor enroll with the permission of the instructor. Enrollment is restricted to Rachel Carson College members. Enrollment is limited to 40. It may be repeated up to three times (General Education Code: PR-S.) K. Heady
Note: in the 2025-2026 Academic Year CRSN 55 will not be offered. As necessary, students may instead meet the requirement by taking two of the following: CRSN 61, CRSN 20G, or CRSN 82
Upper-division (A minimum of 25 upper-division units are required)
- CRSN 151A Sustainability Practicum in the Built Environment (Winter, 5 units): Introduction to the concepts, methods, and practices of research on sustainable energy, water, and food production and consumption; resources surveying and assessment; building energy auditing; renewable energy systems; water supply, demand, and distribution; Problem-solving in sustainability through basic STEM concepts, statistical tools and analytical methods for engaging in advanced sustainability studies, drawn from physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, engineering, electronics, sociology, economics and public policy (General Education Code: PE-T). K. Kusic-Heady
- CRSN 151B Innovation & professionalization for sustainability designers, engineers & entrepreneurs (Spring, 5 units): How to use digital storytelling to support sustainable designs, enterprises, and projects. Using your own, or already existing projects, students will learn how best to tell the
story of the project to educate stakeholders, funders, and participants. Class will help students
research sources, identify audience and narrative, find the right modality, and produce and
present a short finished product. Learning about the technologies available, what is the right fit,
working with each other to produce a final ‘story’, as well as exploring the intersections between
creativity, engagement, and connection. J. Hazlewood - CRSN 151C Sustainability Laboratory Tools, Techniques, and Applications (Fall/Winter/Spring, 3 units)
Winter 2024 Topic: Greywater Harvesting Systems for Habitat Creation and Drought Mitigation.This quarter we learn the skills necessary to assess, design and implement greywater systems in residences and public spaces. Greywater is relatively clean waste water from baths, showers, bathroom sinks, washing machines, and some kitchen appliances. We will discuss how this water can be reused to minimize water use, create native habitats and create cooler micro-climates. Direct hands-on experience with designing and building a laundry to landscape system and designing and assessing others. Other topics include greywater laws and permitting, as well as policy change in California to make greywater more accessible to communities and individuals. A. Alstatt
CRSN Capstone Options (Counts towards upper-division units in addition to required courses)
- CRSN 152-1: IDEASS Lab Practicum Practical applications of knowledge emerging about the role of mycology in resource recovery and regenerative systems will include efforts in Mycorrhizal Carbon Sequestration, Post-fire Restoration and Watershed Pollution Prevention, Advanced Techniques for Waste Diversion and Resource Recovery (including degradation of food-soiled cardboard and polyurethane plastics). T. Ball
- Depending on interest, students will conduct project work either in a dedicated microscopy lab on campus, one of the campus college gardens or at a field site in the San Vicente Redwoods. Some efforts will also support relief response to the Maui wildfire disaster or recovery efforts of disaster zones in Lebanon.
- CRSN 152-01 focus: Resource Recovery for a Circular Economy
- Depending on interest, students will conduct project work either in a dedicated microscopy lab on campus, one of the campus college gardens or at a field site in the San Vicente Redwoods. Some efforts will also support relief response to the Maui wildfire disaster or recovery efforts of disaster zones in Lebanon.
- CRSN 152-2: Natural Resource Management (Kristen Heady). Natural resource management is an interdisciplinary field of study balancing ecological processes with human land uses and benefits. Land use planning, water management, ecological and cultural significance as well as physical, biological, economic and social aspects of managing natural resources are all taken into consideration. During the Natural Resource Management Laboratory Practicum, you will gain real-world experience. You can develop your own project or work on an existing project. K. Heady
- UCSC Campus Reserve: Habitat Assessment and Human Disturbance,
Recreational Trail Use Monitoring, Continuous Forest Inventory before fuel
treatments - Coastal Sustainability: Mussel Collecting at Davenport Landing, Seabird vs
Pigeon Nests Along West Cliff- CRSN 152-02 focus: Natural Resource Management
- UCSC Campus Reserve: Habitat Assessment and Human Disturbance,
- CRSN 152-3: Innovative Water Systems for Food and Climate Learn water harvesting practices, sustainable food production, community engagement strategies, and much more. Offers students a deep dive into four sources of nonpotable water that can be optimized to grow food, create native habitat, save money and natural resources, and ultimately restore local water cycles and impact community micro-climates. A.Friewald
- Students in 152-03 will have the opportunity to:
- Design and build active (tanks) and passive (in ground infiltration basins) RWH systems
- Learn strategies and skills to design and build home greywater systems (laundry, showers, baths), and
- Assess, design and monitor stormwater (drainage) and blackwater (toilets, kitchen sinks) systems.
- CRSN 152-03 focus: Innovative Water Systems for Food and Climate .
- Students in 152-03 will have the opportunity to:
- CRSN 152-4: Sustainable Designs for the Built Environment The field-based course is designed to advance sustainability education with real-world impact. Enables students to develop as change agents and to make valued contributions to sustainable-design projects that advance new technologies or strategies and bring about societal and environmental change. May be repeated for credit. T. Rettenwender
- CRSN 152-04 focus: Sustainable designs for the built environment
- Students in CRSN 152-04 will have the opportunity to engage in the following learning and design goals:
- Our Learning Goals
- To deepen our understanding of the societal, economic and ecological factors influencing the
- To examine and evaluate past examples of design and construction.
- To learn and practice a series of professional analog and digital design tools.
- To apply these design tools to perform creative analysis and achieve innovation.
- To learn about the diverse spectrum of career opportunities in the building and design industry.
- Our Design Tools
- Project Management through class design charrettes and platforms such as Trello, Figma,
- Analog Design tools such as sketching, drawing, mapping, physical scale modeling
- Digital Design tools such as CAD drafting, 3d virtual modeling, rendering, AI image generation
- Presentation using methods like public speaking, digital storytelling, animation and VR
- Marketing with graphics, branding, web design, social media campaigns, print media
- Our Learning Goals
Additional Upper Division Elective Options
CRSN 160 Developing Leadership to Facilitate Environmental Education (Winter, 5 units) (to be taken in preparation for leading CRSN 161): Prepares students to facilitate working groups for Sustainable Living (courses 61/161) during the spring quarter. The skills acquired during this course include facilitation skills; problem-solving; syllabus planning; curriculum building; experiential learning techniques; leadership skills; cultural competence; and non-violent communication training. Enrollment by interview only. Enrollment is restricted to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
CRSN 161 Education For Sustainable Living Program (Spring, 5 units): Analyzes sustainability and its application in daily life and on campus, involving collaboration between students, faculty, staff, administration, and the community. Guest lecturers, discussions, optional UC-wide retreats, and essays allow engagement with aspects of ecological and social sustainability.
Breadth Electives
(This list is updated regularly, but course offerings change. Please consult course lists prior to each quarter to see what is on offer. Some of these course require permission of instructor to enroll)
How to Declare
In order to ensure that the Sustainability Studies minor appears on AIS and your transcript at graduation, you need to do be decalred in your major and do the following:
- Set up your meeting with the Sustainability Studies Academic Coordinator Anne Freiwald (ssminor@ucsc.edu). You can make an appointment via SlugSuccess.
- Log into MyUCSC and submit the Petition for Major/Minor via MyUCSC as soon as you have met major qualification requirements and/or reach your declaration deadline quarter, whichever comes first.
- If you are not yet logged into MyUCSC, the petition can also be accessed by going to MyUCSC and navigating to the Student Homepage and selecting the Undergraduate Student eForms tile > Petition for Major/Minor
- The Sustainability advisers will then ensure that the minor is entered in AIS and will show up on your record. If the minor does not show up on AIS within a few weeks please contact (ssminor@ucsc.edu).
* The course schedule form is different for students exercising catalogue rights prior to Fall 2017 (Course planner for Pre-2017) and for those enrolling in Fall 2017 or later (Course planner for Fall 2017 or later). *
IDEASS (CRSN 152 Sections 01-04)
IDEASS is a year-long sequence designed to advance students as change agents prepared to contribute to game-changing efforts to bring about a more sustainable world. It represents an extraordinary opportunity for you to help design and move on sustainable development projects that explore new technologies or strategies for advancing lasting technical, economic, social, cultural and environmental change on campus and throughout the Monterey Bay region. 2023-2024 marks the 13th year since the launch of the IDEASS program, which is now the capstone for the Sustainability Studies Minor at Rachel Carson College.
You will work with an interdisciplinary project team to integrate the different dimensions of complex sustainability challenges. Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, sociology, ecology and especially… innovative design practices are all critical to this interdisciplinary and community centered approach.
As part of our team-based approach, you will:
- Interact and work with experts from multiple disciplines to envision, design and apply innovations in sustainable technology, systems and practices to create sustainable solutions implicating energy, water, waste / pollution management, food and shelter in the built environment,
- Learn core principles and practices of regenerative design,
- Learn valuable team project planning, management, and implementation skills, and
- Learn new and innovative approaches to problem solving in complex decision-making environments
- Connect with key stakeholders on and off campus.
Below you will find our current student projects happening! If none of these catch your eye, you can propose your own project in the form below.
| Section | Theme | Project Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Section 1: Current Projects for 152-1 | Resource Recovery for a Circular Economy | Practical applications of knowledge emerging about the role of mycology in resource recovery and regenerative systems will include efforts in Mycorrhizal Carbon Sequestration, Post-fire Restoration and Watershed Pollution Prevention, Advanced Techniques for Waste Diversion and Resource Recovery (including degradation of food-soiled cardboard and polyurethane plastics). |
| Section 2: Current Projects for 152-2 | Natural Resource Management | UCSC Campus Reserve: Habitat Assessment and Human Disturbance, Recreational Trail Use Monitoring, Continuous Forest Inventory before Fuel Treatments Coastal Sustainability: Mussel Collecting at Davenport Landing, Seabird vs Pigeon Nests Along West Cliff |
| Section 3: Current Projects for 152-3 | Innovative Water Systems for Food and Climate | Learn water harvesting practices, sustainable food production, community engagement strategies, and much more. Deep dive into four sources of nonpotable water that can be optimized to grow food, create native habitat, save money and natural resources, and ultimately restore local water cycles and impact community micro-climates |
| Section 4: Current projects for 152-4 | Housing Solutions Reimagined | Learn sustainable design and green building principles while learning to use software. Explore ways to envision the concept of a home as socioeconomic factors make the traditional housing model less attainable. Apply knowledge of housing and alternative living to the implementation of students designs. |