Student drawing biodiveristy while lying down in the grass.

Welcome to Environment & Sustainability

Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to sustainably resolve environmental problems. Our visionary faculty and passionate students make this possible at Cornell.

Defy disciplinary boundaries

The Environment & Sustainability major spans perspectives needed to build a world with more sustainable environmental conditions. As a cross-college major in CALS and Arts & Sciences, we bring together students and faculty with diverse skills and common purpose.

A group of students walking through a wooded area
CALS students Katie Sims ’20, left, and Alex Ding ’21, in white hat, follow county forester Jim Frohn and Carrie Deegan of the Forest Society. Ding and Sims participated in the maple seedling project through a Cornell Engaged Undergraduate Research Grant. Photo by Paul Hayes.

Intellectual exploration

Experiences on-campus and throughout the world emphasize active, engaged and experiential learning. Core courses provide fundamental understanding of environment and sustainability issues. Six concentrations provide depth in environmental science and environmental studies perspectives.

A group of five students working collaboratively in a group during class
Students in Sustainability Science NTRES 3301.

Environmental justice

We foster awareness of policies and practices that link environmental degradation to inequities in resources and power available to different groups of people.

Environmental justice course opportunities
Warning sign near sewer overflow area in Washington DC

We explore the past, consider the present and plan the future.

We contrast modern and ancient cities, as in this distant view of St. Louis from Monks Mound, central structure of the largest city of the Mississippian culture that prevailed across the eastern U.S. for centuries, prior to European colonization.

We span boundaries between humans and sensitive environments.

We work to understand the capacity for humans to share the earth with the vast diversity of all living things. This sign at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Complex in coastal California alerts beachgoers to nesting California least terns and Western snowy plovers.

We get our feet wet.

We aim to experience all kinds of environments in all kinds of weather. We are ready to look at what thrives, whether the weather is hot, cold, wet or dry.

We go where decisions are made.

Each year our students meet and work with decision-makers in New York City, Washington D.C., Bonn and throughout the world. Here we meet with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.

We explore food security across the globe. 

Food sold in this Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia outdoor market reflects the multiple contrasts of food availability throughout the world.

We examine how cultural practices develop.

This advertisement in Beijing, China was part of a campaign to stop the illegal trade of ivory.

We evaluate restored habitats. 

We examine altered biophysical processes in disturbed landscapes, such as this clear-cut forest in coastal Oregon, along with the economic impact of boom-and-bust natural resource extraction on nearby communities.

We compare inequities associated with environmental degradation.

This sewer outfall in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol highlights the issue of environmental justice and communities that disproportionately experience environmental degradation.

We engage the arts to understand people and their environments.

We use literature, art, music and forms of human expression that impact knowledge and action to reflect upon divergent visions grounded in human imagination, narration, reflection, and persuasion. “Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa” (copyright The Estate of Johnny Warangkula, courtesy of The Aboriginal Artist's Agency) was created by Australian aboriginal artist Johnny Warangkula. This and many other works by Warangkula focused on Kalipinypa, a location where water – a scarce resource in the central Australian desert – gathers after infrequent storms.

Distant view of St. Louis from Monks Mound
Warning sign on beach dune that reads "Do Not Enter"
Students seining river
A group of students in a conference room with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.
A woman stands in front of a container of fish at a Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia outdoor market.
Man crosses his arms in an "X" pattern in an advertisement in Beijing against the illegal trade of ivory.
A small hillside covered in harvested timber and protected tree plantings
Warning sign near sewer overflow area in Washington DC
Art by Johnny Warangkula

Environment & Sustainability news

A group of green leaves in a pile.

News

‘Tiny tornadoes’ around leaves spread deadly plant pathogens

Cornell researchers have used high-speed cameras to analyze what happens when raindrops hit a leaf of a wheat plant infected with rust – a pathogenic spore that has decimated crops globally.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
A white man with grey hair speaks into a microphone on a table sitting down. In from of him reads "Mr. Pickerell Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County"

News

Long Island Sound critical for fishers, families, CCE expert tells Congress

CCE’s Chris Pickerell, M.S. ’93, urged Congress to continue funding environmental programs around the Long Island Sound to preserve the region’s strong ecological integrity and economy.

  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • Fish
  • Environment
white tailed deer bounding through a field

News

Study teases out strategies to prevent fatal deer disease re-entering NY

Deer hunters were more likely to be swayed by social media messages about the potential risks of chronic wasting disease if they came from a source they believed aligned with their own views and values.

  • Communication
  • Animals
  • Natural Resources and the Environment
Blackburnian Warbler

News

Most of the land humans need to thrive is unprotected

More than 80% of global land area needed to maintain human well-being and meet biodiversity targets is at risk of conflict with human development, according to a new study led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

  • Animals
  • Lab of Ornithology
  • Nature