Bachelor of Science - Environmental and Sustainability Science

The Lipscomb University Institute for Sustainable Practice's (ISP) undergraduate major, Environmental and Sustainability Science, is founded on 40 years of academic success in training professionals in the fundamentals of science and technology to radically improve the quality of our nation's air, land and water. We integrated this legacy with the proactive skills of creation inspired design that avoids pollution and waste before it is created, social behavior change to help people make convenient and effective choices for a healthy planet and lifestyle, applications in renewable energy for our homes, transportation and business, integration of holistic nutritional, spiritual, physical and mental health, and the metrics of quadruple bottom line performance and quality accounting to chart our needs and to achieve results that positively impact the world.

Our Undergraduate Major has a built-in Biology Minor and after developing an excellent liberal arts foundation and broad introduction to the foundational concepts of sustainability, students can focus their studies in their junior and senior years in Conservation Ecology and Natural Resource Management (which includes wildlife and natural resources management), Agro-Ecology (with subtopics such as Sustainable Food Systems and Organic Farming), and Environmental Law and Policy (addressing public affairs and environmental health and safety management). Students can also choose the Sustainable Practice concentration to develop a specialty area specific to their interests.

Students entering our program have interests ranging from traditional ecology (stream, wildlife, conservation ecology and environmental science) to media analysis and compliance (air, water, soil, etc), natural resource management, environmental law, policy and compliance, organic farming and food systems, to a wide variety of sustainable applications in various fields (sustainable healthcare, sustainable or environmental consulting, sustainable energies (solar, biofuels, etc)) and sustainable entrepreneurship.  Our curriculum has been deliberately designed to give each student a strong core knowledge base as well as accommodate a significant number of courses to be taken in the student’s specific area of interest in order to build a rigorous but personalized concentration area.