Student in yellow rain jacket walking along a shore at the Shoals Marine Laboratory.

About the Environment & Sustainability Major

Cornell’s interdisciplinary major that confronts environment and sustainability challenges

We provide opportunities for students.

Our students learn from and work with people and partners on campus and throughout the world. Together, we confront environment and sustainability challenges head-on and with confidence. We aim to be bold. We take heart in working together to sustain and restore healthy conditions that sustain people and the diverse wonders of our planet.

We span the resources of Cornell.

As a cross-college major, we are available to students in the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. Five Cornell colleges are represented by faculty and courses associated with the major. Cornell programs and facilities throughout the U.S. and other countries further extend our reach beyond the Ithaca campus.

We work across the globe.

Our network of faculty, staff and alumni support our undergraduate students throughout their time on campus and beyond. Faculty and alumni provide connections with a broad range of local, regional, national and international off-campus organizations and institutions working together with common purpose.

In this section

Field programs

Students can pursue field experiences outdoors and in the offices of policy-makers.

Senator Gillibrand with a group of students and faculty.
A single solar panel in the foreground and McGraw Tower in the background at dusk.
Campus partners
Three students working in a group near Beebe Lake
Learning goals

People

Making a positive impact

Student experiences, alumni pathways, news and other environment and sustainability stories.

(L-R), Steven Mana’oakamai Johnson, Natalie Cápiro ’00, Hale Ann Tufan, Chuan Liao, Shaila Musharoff, Michael Charles ’16.

Spotlight

CALS hires faculty cohort to address grand DEI challenges
This is the fifth in a series of stories detailing actions CALS students, faculty and staff have taken over the past several years to make our community a more diverse, equitable and inclusive place for everyone. In fall 2021, CALS announced it's first-ever faculty cohort initiative focused on hiring a group of scientists whose work explicitly addresses systemic challenges facing marginalized communities through transdisciplinary collaboration. The first search was received with great enthusiasm and 381 people applied for the six positions.
  • American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program
  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Computational Biology
A photo of Lake Lila with a rock in the foreground with a hill in the background.

News

Warming climate prompts harmful oxygen loss in lakes

Unrelenting climate change is leading to extended, late-summer weeks of water stratification, which prompts varying degrees of oxygen deprivation in lakes, says new Cornell research.

  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Natural Resources and the Environment
  • Climate Change
Carmen Catalá and Philippe Nicolas look at tomatoes growing in a greenhouse.

News

Study IDs genes that can help fruit adapt to drought

Researchers from Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell have identified genes that could help plant breeders develop drought-resistant fruit, through a study that provided the first-ever comprehensive picture of how a fruit’s gene expression...

  • Boyce Thompson Institute
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Water
Rachel Bezner Kerr speaks into a microphone, aside other panelists, in front of a wide array of country flags.

News

Cornell, global partners discuss the next ‘grand challenge’

More than 300 faculty, staff and students from Cornell and the new Cornell Global Hubs gathered Nov. 16-17 to discuss ideas for the next universitywide Global Grand Challenge.

  • Water
  • Global Development
  • Health + Nutrition
Sylvana Ross poses in a cornell sweatshirt holding a net over her shoulders.

News

Student Spotlight: Sylvana Ross
What is your area of research and why is it important? I am interested in understanding how organisms’ interactions within cities influence their ecology and evolution. I am aiming to study the genetic variation between urban and natural ant...
  • Department of Entomology
  • Evolution
  • Climate Change

Ready to take the next step?

The E&S major can be found in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). Prospective students may apply through either CALS or A&S admissions.