Certificate and Courses

students on chairs

Syracuse University's L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS) has joined with the SEP to develop and deliver curricula on sustainable enterprise. Our approach integrates business, science, engineering, policy, and practice and emphasizes transdisciplinary collaboration.

Students from SUNY-ESF and a number of SU's schools and colleges, including the Whitman School, LCS, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the School of Architecture have enrolled in these courses.

Certificate of Advanced Studies in Sustainable Enterprise (CASSE)

students in the lounge

Businesses and other organizations are keenly aware of the significant risks and potential benefits associated with environmental and social challenges. Thus, there is great demand for professionals who are skilled in sustainability issues and understand the economic, environmental, technical, and social dilemmas presented by phenomena such as climate change, volatile energy prices, and explosive growth in developing economies. The Certificate of Advanced Studies in Sustainable Enterprise (CASSE) was developed to meet this need.

Admission to the program is available to all matriculated graduate students at Syracuse Universityand SUNY-ESF. CASSE candidates are required to complete three core courses—BUA/ECS 650, 651, and 759—and two electives. The core courses, described below, are designed to be relevant and accessible to a wide range of disciplines. Students articulate a rationale to support the selection of electives. A student must attain at least a B in courses taken to fulfill the certificate requirements and a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 to earn the CASSE.

Graduate Courses

BUA 650/ECS 650: Managing Sustainability: Purpose, Principles, and Practice examines the complexity, interdependence, and dynamics of economic, social, and environmental systems through exploration of sustainability science, analysis, standards, tools, indicators, and drivers.

  • BUA 650/ECS 650 is offered as an elective, without prerequisites, to all SU and SUNY-ESF graduate students.

BUA 651/ECS 651: Strategic Management and the Natural Environment explores sustainability from the perspective of enterprise managers, focusing on links between environmental issues and business strategies. Prerequisite: BUA 650/ECS 650.

BUA 759/ECS 759: Sustainability-Driven Enterprise integrates core and elective course content, emphasizing synthesis and application, including completion of a comprehensive, transdisciplinary consulting project. Prerequisites: BUA 650/ECS 650 and BUA 651/ECS 651.

Undergraduate Courses

SOM 400: Sustainable Enterprise in the 21st Century explores the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability, the influences on firms to adopt sustainable approaches, tools to promote sustainable business practice, and relevant production and consumption patterns.

SOM 300/ECS 300: Sustainability Practicum investigates challenges to and strategies for assessing and promoting organizational sustainability. Interdisciplinary teams apply these concepts in for-profit, non-profit, and public organizations. This course will be offered for the first time in Spring 2010, following a pilot in Spring 2009.