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Core Curriculum

Environment & Sustainability Core Curriculum

Core courses provide students in the Environment & Sustainability (E&S) major with a broad awareness of the biological, physical-chemical, ecological, human and social dimensions of environment and sustainability issues. Additional courses in one of six concentrations advance your ability to address real-world environmental challenges with a greater depth of understanding.

Semester Key: F=Fall, S=Spring, Su=Summer

E&S Advising

Questions regarding the E&S major requirements? Use the link below to schedule with an E&S staff advisor. Please note this is intended for current Cornell students (must have a netid). 

Tracking Your Degree Requirements

E&S has prepared a degree requirements tracking tool for you to use and share with your faculty advisor: the Degree Progress Checklist. The E&S Core and Concentration requirements are laid out visually, making it easier for you to track the courses you've taken and when. See links below for more information.

Declaring the E&S Major

Students declaring the E&S major must have completed 3 courses from the core curriculum (see below). It is recommended that students meet with an E&S advisor to review their plan to complete major requirements (link to schedule below).

E&S Substitution Request Form

This form is for Environment & Sustainability students requesting approval to substitute a course for a major requirement. To ensure a thorough review, please provide detailed information about the proposed course, a justification for the substitution, and a copy of the course syllabus. Substitution requests will be reviewed on a rolling basis, no approvals guaranteed. 

Required courses

Choose 1 course.

  • NTRES/ENVS 1101 - Understanding Environment and Sustainability (F, 3 cr)
  • NTRES/ENVS 1201 - Global Water Sustainability (S, 3 cr) Spring 2025, last time offered!
  • NTRES/BSOC 2201 - Society and Natural Resources (S, 3 cr)

Choose 1 course.

Ecology

  • BIOEE 1610 - Ecology and the Environment (F, S, Su, 3-4 cr) or
  • BIOSM 1610 - Ecology and the Marine Environment (Su, 3 cr)

Evolution/Diversity

  • BIOEE 1780 - Evolution and Diversity (F, S, 4-5 cr) or
  • BIOEE 1781 - Introduction to Evolution and Diversity (F, S, Su, 4 cr) or
  • BIOSM 1780 - Evolution and Marine Diversity (Su, 4 cr)

AP Biology credits are accepted toward university degree progress but do not exempt students from the E&S specified courses.

Note:

  • BIOSM options are 2.5 week intensive courses at Shoals Marine Lab that satisfy this requirement. Scholarships are available.
  • EBAE and LAWR concentrations require more than one biology course.

Choose 1 course.

  • CHEM 1560/1561 - Introduction to General Chemistry, lecture/lab (F, Su, 4 cr), Concurrent enrollment in 1560 and 1561 is required to receive credit.
  • CHEM 2070/2071 - General Chemistry I, lecture/lab (F, S, Su, 4 cr), Concurrent enrollment in 2070 and 2071 is required to receive credit.
  • EAS 1600 - Environmental Physics (F, S, 3 cr)
  • AP/IB/CASE exam credit accepted.

Note:

  • EBAE concentration requires students to complete at least one physics course and at least one chemistry course.
  • LAWR concentration requires students to complete at least one physics course and at least one chemistry course.

Choose 1 course.

  • AEM 2100 - Introductory Statistics (F, 4 cr)
  • BIOEE 1760 - Biostatistics with R Programming Language (Su, 3 cr)
  • BTRY 3010/STSCI 2200 - Biological Statistics I (F, 4 cr)
  • MATH 1710 - Statistical Theory and Application in the Real World (F, 4 cr)
  • PSYCH 2500 - Statistics and Research Design (F, Su, 4 cr)
  • PUBPOL 2100 - Introduction to Statistics (S, 4 cr)
  • SOC 3010 - Statistics for Sociological Research (F, 4 cr)
  • STSCI/ILRST 2100 - Introductory Statistics (F, W, S, Su, 4 cr)
  • STSCI 2150 - Introductory Statistics for Biology (F, S, 4 cr)
  • AP Statistics credit accepted.

Note:

  • Some concentrations require more than one quantitative course (e.g. calculus). See EBAE, LAWR and SBEE concentrations.

Choose 1 course.

  • ANTHR 2201 - Early Agriculture (S, 3 cr) (Next offered S27.)
  • ANTHR 2420 - Nature/Culture: Ethnographic Approaches to Human-Environment Relations (F, 3 cr)
  • [ANTHR/SHUM 2482 -  Anthropology of Climate Change] (S, 3 cr) (Next offered S26.)
  • ASIAN 2273 - Religion and Ecological Sustainability (F, 3 cr)
  • BSOC 2061 - Ethics and the Environment (S, 4 cr)
  • [COML 2036 - Literature and the Elements of Nature] (F, 3 cr) (Next offered F26.)
  • [ENGL 4675 - The Environmental Imagination in American Literature] (F or S, 4 cr)
  • ENGL 3795 - Communicating Climate Change (F, 3 cr)
  • HIST 2581 - Environmental History (S, 4 cr)
  • NTRES/AIIS 3330 - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Place-Based Ecological Knowledge (F, 4 cr)
  • PHIL 1440 - Ethics of Eating (F?, S, 4 cr)

Choose 1 course.

  • AEM/ENVS 1500 - An Introduction to the Economics of Environmental and Natural Resources (S, 3 cr)
  • AEM/ENVS 2500 - Environmental and Resource Economics (F, 3 cr) (prerequisite: ECON 1110)

Note: 

  • Sustainable Business and Environmental Economics Concentration (SBEE) requires AEM/ENVS 2500.
  • ECON 1110 alone does NOT fulfill the core environmental resource economics requirement.

Choose 1 course.

  • [BIOEE 2525+2526+2527 - Ecology and Conservation of Wildlife in the Neotropics] (multi-semester course starting in Fall, by permission, 4 cr total)
  • BIOEE 3611 - Field Ecology (F, 3 cr)
  • BIOEE 4570 - Limnology: Ecology of Lakes (F, 3 cr Lec) AND BIOEE 4571 (F, 2 cr Lab, alternate years)
  • ENTOM 2120 - Insect Biology (F, 4 cr)
  • NTRES/ENVS 2100 - Introductory Field Biology (F, 4 cr)
  • NTRES/ENVS 2400 - Field Methods in Avian Ecology (F, 3 cr, By application/permission of instructor)
  • NTRES/ENVS 3020 - Earth Projects (F, 7-week course, 3 cr)
  • [NTRES 3150+3151+3152 - Introduction to Conservation Bioacoustics] (multi-semester course starting in Fall, by permission, 5.5 cr total)
  • [NTRES/BIOEE 4560 - Stream Ecology] (F, 4 cr, alternate years)

BIOSM - Shoals Marine Laboratory (Summer, off-campus, additional fee)

  • [BIOSM 2500: Coastal Habitat Field Research Methods] (Su, 3 cr) (Not offered Summer 2025.)
  • BIOSM 3330: Marine Parasitology and Disease (Su, 3 cr)
  • [BIOSM 3340: Marine Invasive Species] (Su, 3 cr) (Not offered Summer 2025.)
  • BIOSM 3450: Marine Mammal Biology (Su, 3 cr)
  • BIOSM 3650: Underwater Research (Su, 3 cr)

Choose 1 course.

  • ENVS 2000 - Environment and Sustainability Colloquium (F, 1 cr)
    OR
    ENVS 2010 - Discussions of Environment and Sustainability (F, 3 cr)
  • BEE 2000/ENVS 2001 - Perspectives on the Climate Change Challenge (S, 1.5 cr)

Choose 1 course. NOTE: Only juniors and seniors are eligible for capstone requirement fulfillment.

  • COML/ENVS 4103 - Nabokov, Naturally (S, 3 cr)
  • ENGL/ENVS 4795 - Climate Communications Capstone (S, 3 cr, prerequisite ENGL 3795)
  • [HIST/ENVS 4262 - Environmental Justice: Past, Present and Future] (F, 4 cr) (Not offered Fall 2025.)
  • NTRES/ENVS 4400 - Nature-Based Climate Solutions? (F, 3 cr)
  • NTRES/ENVS 4500 - Climate Solutions Capstone (F, 3 cr)
  • NTRES/ENVS 4600 - Planning for Environmental Conservation and Sustainability (F, 3 cr) (Fall 2025 last time offered!)
  • NTRES/ENVS 4700 - Art and Science of the Mohawk River Watershed (S, 3 cr)
  • NTRES/ENVS 4800 - Road Ecology: Wildlife Corridor and Crossing Design for the 21st Century (F, 3 cr) (formerly ENVS 4940, now offered fall semesters)

BIOSM - Shoals Marine Laboratory (Summer, off-campus, additional fee)

  • BIOSM 3750 - Integrated Ecosystem Research and Management (Su, 3 cr)

Concentrations

Students choose and declare one concentration by the end of their sophomore year.

Explore the concentrations
Students working in groups near Beebe Lake