Urban Sustainability

Explore environmental solutions

This hands-on program is focused on students who want to explore careers related to the environment and environmental justice.

In this program, students will critically consider what constitutes the environment, the human impact, and ways to approach environmental sustainability.

Our program is rooted in immersive group activities, all led by faculty members from Seattle University.

This program is entirely project-based and includes activities from SU’s biology, chemistry, environmental studies, environmental science and environmental engineering programs.

About Our Program

Our program emphasizes sustainability, which includes social equity and inclusion as well as environmental justice. We’ll discuss the systemic and historical inequities for populations that disproportionately experience environmental burdens.

After completing the Urban Sustainability program, students will be able to:

• Define ecosystem services and explain how these can be provided in an urban setting
• Identify and explain sustainable building design practices related to energy, water and materials.
• Identify water quality parameters that can be harmful to ecological systems
• Take standardized benthic (underwater soil) samples to characterize biological diversity
• Define environmental justice and reflect on ways in which these challenges can be addressed
• Determine marine fish and crustacean abundance and analyze the results within the context of a large data set
• Apply infrared analysis to identify various types of plastic pollutants
• Explain the domestic wastewater treatment process
• Define green stormwater infrastructure
• Explain the migration patterns of urban wildlife

Tentative Schedule of Activities