Green Leaf Programs and Courses

Green Leaf

A "Green Leaf" course or academic program focuses on learning about sustainability, i.e., meeting our present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

See the Sustainability Studies website for more information.

Programs

Green Leaf academic programs focus on sustainability, usually including a required set of Green Leaf courses in order to cover the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Each is a vital contributor to Mason's sustainability across the curriculum.

Undergraduate Degrees

Undergraduate Minors and Certificates

Bachelor's/Accelerated Master's Program

Graduate Degrees

1

Meets Green Leaf criteria when options are selected to ensure coverage of "people, planet and prosperity" across the program's curriculum.

2

Meets the Green Leaf criteria when the Master's degree is paired with a Green Leaf Bachelor's degree.

Courses

The Green Leaf designation recognizes offerings that contribute significantly to students' understanding and practice of sustainability. These offerings extend beyond environmental management, natural resources protection and conservation studies alone as Mason's Green Leaf curricula comprise both sustainability-focused and sustainability-related courses.

Sustainability-Focused Courses

Sustainability-focused courses provide valuable grounding in the concepts and principles of sustainability. These courses educate students about how different dimensions of sustainability relate to and support each other in theory and practice. In addition, these courses help equip students with the skills to weave together disparate components of sustainability in addressing complex issues.

ANTH 370Environment and Culture3
AVT 385EcoArt (Mason Core)3
BIOL 379RS: Ecological Sustainability (Mason Core)4
CEIE 401Sustainable Land Development3
CEIE 501Sustainable Development3
CEIE 540Water Supply and Distribution3
CEIE 892Special Topics in Environmental and Water Resource Systems Engineering3
COMM 660Climate Change and Sustainability Communication Campaigns3
CONF 702Peace Studies3
CONS 410Human Dimensions in Conservation (Mason Core)3
COS 300Professional Preparation for STEM Disciplines3
ECON 105Environmental Economics for the Citizen (Mason Core)3
ECON 335Environmental Economics3
EVPP 322Business and Sustainability3
EVPP 338Economics of Environmental Policy3
EVPP 361Introduction to Environmental Policy3
EVPP 362Intermediate Environmental Policy3
EVPP 378RS: Ecological Sustainability (Mason Core)4
EVPP 421Marine Conservation3
EVPP 432Energy Policy3
EVPP 475Global Biodiversity Governance3
EVPP 480Sustainability in Action (Mason Core)4
EVPP 521Marine Conservation3
EVPP 533Energy Policy3
EVPP 575Global Biodiversity Governance3
EVPP 608Introduction to Environmental Social Science3
EVPP 620Development of U.S. Environmental Policies3
EVPP 622Management of Wild Living Resources3
EVPP 626Environment and Development in Asia3
EVPP 627Environmental Policy in Latin America3
EVPP 628Environment and Development in Africa3
EVPP 635Environment and Society3
EVPP 642Environmental Policy3
GEOL 321Geology of Energy Resources3
GEOL 420Earth Science and Policy (Mason Core)3
GGS 307Geographic Approaches for Sustainable Development3
GOVT 361Introduction to Environmental Policy3
INTS 210Sustainable World (Mason Core)4
INTS 292Leadership for Sustainability0-1
INTS 334Environmental Justice (Mason Core)4
INTS 370Sustainable Food Systems6
PUAD 642Environmental Policy3
SOCI 320Globalization and Social Change (Mason Core)3
TOUR 340Sustainable Tourism3
TOUR 420Tourism Planning/Policy3

Sustainability-Related Courses

Sustainability-related courses help build knowledge about a component of sustainability or introduce students to sustainability concepts during part of the course. They may complement sustainability-focused courses by providing students with in-depth knowledge of a particular aspect or dimension of sustainability (such as the natural environment) or by providing a focus area (such as renewable energy) for a student's sustainability studies, or they may broaden students' understanding of sustainability from within different disciplines.

ANTH 580Environmental Anthropology3
BIOL 140Plants and People (Mason Core)3
BUS 200Global Environment of Business (Mason Core)3
CEIE 100Environmental Issues and Solutions Around the World (Mason Core)3
CEIE 355Environmental Engineering and Science3
CEIE 450Environmental Engineering Systems3
CEIE 690Topics in Civil Engineering3
CHEM 155Introduction to Environmental Chemistry I (Mason Core)4
CHEM 156Introduction to Environmental Chemistry II (Mason Core)4
CHEM 458Chemical Oceanography3
CLIM 101Global Warming: Weather, Climate, and Society (Mason Core)3
CLIM 102Introduction to Global Climate Change Science (Mason Core)4
CLIM 111Introduction to the Fundamentals of Atmospheric Science (Mason Core)3
CLIM 112Introduction to the Fundamentals of Atmospheric Science Lab (Mason Core)1
CLIM 314Severe and Extreme Weather3
CLIM 319Air Pollution3
CLIM 412Physical Oceanography3
COMM 399Special Topics in Communication1-3
COMM 670Social Marketing3
COMM 690Special Topics in Communication3
CONF 651Collaborative Community Action Participatory Governance3
CONF 682Principles of Environmental Conflict Resolution3
CONF 683Environmental Conflict Resolution: Situation Assessment, Process Design and Best Practices3
CONS 401Conservation Theory3
CONS 402Applied Conservation4
CONS 404Biodiversity Monitoring4
CONS 490RS: Integrated Conservation Strategies (Mason Core)3
CONS 491RS: Conservation Management Planning (Mason Core)4
EVPP 108Ecosphere - Introduction to Environmental Science I-Lecture (Mason Core)3
EVPP 109Ecosphere- Introduction to Environmental Science I- Lab (Mason Core)1
EVPP 112Ecosphere: Introduction to Environmental Science II-Lecture (Mason Core)3
EVPP 113Ecosphere: Introduction to Environmental Science II–Lab (Mason Core)1
EVPP 201Environment and You: Issues for the Twenty-First Century (Mason Core)3
EVPP 336Tackling Wicked Problems in Society the Environment (Mason Core)3
EVPP 337Environmental Policy Making in Developing Countries (Mason Core)3
GCH 560Environmental Health3
GEOL 101Physical Geology (Mason Core)3
GEOL 102Historical Geology (Mason Core)3
GEOL 134Evolution and Extinction (Mason Core)3
GEOL 303Field Mapping Techniques3
GEOL 305Environmental Geology (Mason Core)3
GEOL 306Soil Science3
GEOL 313Hydrogeology3
GEOL 320Geology of Earth Resources3
GEOL 332Paleoclimatology3
GEOL 363Coastal Morphology and Processes4
GEOL 458Chemical Oceanography3
GGS 102Physical Geography (Mason Core)3
GGS 103Human Geography (Mason Core)3
GGS 121Dynamic Atmosphere and Hydrosphere (Mason Core)4
GGS 122Dynamic Geosphere and Ecosphere4
GGS 302Global Environmental Hazards3
GGS 303Geography of Resource Conservation (Mason Core)3
GGS 304Population Geography (Mason Core)3
GGS 312Physical Climatology3
GGS 314Severe and Extreme Weather3
HIST 615Problems in American History1-6
INTS 102Global Networks and Communities (Mason Core)6
INTS 103Human Creativity: Science and Art (Mason Core)6
INTS 211Introduction to Conservation Studies (Mason Core)3-6
INTS 311The Mysteries of Migration: Consequences for Conservation (Mason Core)6
INTS 371Food Systems and Policy (Mason Core)3
INTS 401Conservation Biology (Mason Core)4
INTS 403Conservation Behavior (Mason Core)4
INTS 470Professional Pathways in Sustainable Food Systems1
ME 425Renewable Energy Engineering3
PHIL 243Global Environmental Ethics (Mason Core)3
PHIL 343Topics in Environmental Philosophy (Mason Core)3
PHYS 111Introduction to the Fundamentals of Atmospheric Science (Mason Core)3
PHYS 112Introduction to the Fundamentals of Atmospheric Science Lab (Mason Core)1
PHYS 331Physics of Renewable Energy3
PHYS 385Materials Science with Applications to Renewable Energy3