Institute for Sustainable Practice

G. Dodd Galbreath, Founding Director and Associate Professor
Emily Stutzman, Academic Director and Assistant Professor

The mission of the Institute for Sustainable Practice is to develop and advance sustainability science through education, research, professional training, and service to the community and the world. The founding principles of sustainable practice can translate to all professions, cultures, organizations, economic markets and natural environments. Sustainability refers to a holistic approach in the stewardship of people, the planet, prosperity and providence.

Environmental and Sustainability Science majors study the relationships among modern sustainability’s core principles: people and society, economic prosperity with social purpose and responsible oversight of human activities, and the genuine caretaking of the planet. Students encounter these concepts in classroom, laboratory and field experiences in nature, through service and internship opportunities in businesses, area farms and food-related organizations, manufacturing environments and in other agencies and regional opportunities.

Environmental and Sustainability Science Major (ESS)

The Environmental and Sustainability Science (ESS) major has a 61-63 hours total, depending on the emphasis selected. ESS are broken down into a 49-hour core of required courses. Students select one of the two emphases: Social science, Communication, and Policy, (12 hours) and Biology (12-14 hours). Students completing the biology emphasis will have an earned biology minor.

By the very nature of our trans-disciplinary field, we expect our students to include a diverse range of interests. Our curriculum has been deliberately designed to give each student a strong core knowledge base as well as accommodate a number of courses to be taken in the student’s area of interest in order to build a rigorous but personalized course of study.

All students in the environmental and sustainability science major not only learn theoretical and applied methods and core knowledge, they undertake an research project or independent study where they learn by doing, reflect upon their learning, and share their applied learning in a scholarly form. One of the defining characteristics of our program is the requirement that all students perform and publically present the results of their applied independent study at a departmental seminar or Lipscomb University’s Student Scholars Symposium in the spring. Independent research may take the form of hypothesis-driven ecologically based scientific research, research question-driven projects using existing data, development of a solution to a specific problem in an applied field, or a business plan.

Program of Study Requirements

Major

Minor

Sustainable Practice Minor