The Sustainability, Society and Environmental Geography (SSEG) major is a Bachelor of Arts degree for students who want to understand and shape sustainability efforts through the connected lenses of environment, economy and equity. The program emphasizes the human dimensions of sustainability, preparing students to evaluate how policies and practices affect communities, landscapes and efforts to advance equity and social justice.
Quick facts
- Degree: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
- Start campus: Any Penn State campus
- End campus: University Park
- Designed for: Penn State’s 2+2 model
- Focus: Human dimensions of sustainability
- Framework: Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Why this major
Sustainability work is expanding across government, nonprofits and the private sector. This major prepares you to connect sustainability goals to real-world outcomes and evaluate what is working, for whom and where.
You will learn to:
- Assess sustainability plans, programs and policies
- Understand how place, power and inequality shape outcomes
- Use evidence to support decision-making and communication
What you’ll study
You will explore how environmental and social systems are connected and how sustainability strategies play out across places and populations.
- Climate change and resource use
- Sustainability policy and measurement
- Equity, inequality and environmental justice
- Designing and evaluating sustainability solutions
Students completing the SSEG major will be able to:
- Apply sustainability and geographic concepts to explain how environment, economy and equity interact at local, regional and global scales
- Analyze and synthesize sustainability information from sources such as policy and planning documents, indicators and metrics and qualitative and quantitative data
- Communicate research and recommendations through professional writing, presentations and visual products such as maps, figures and data visualizations for academic, workplace and public audiences
- Design and carry out a sustainability-focused research or policy evaluation project, select appropriate methods and interpret results to inform sustainability decisions
Career pathways
Graduates pursue roles in government, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector, including:
- Sustainability planning and evaluation
- Environmental consulting
- Resource management
- Work that uses GIS and geospatial analysis to analyze and communicate sustainability challenges
How the program is structured
Frameworks
Build a foundation in how sustainability is defined, debated and applied across different places and communities.
Methods
Learn qualitative and quantitative approaches to sustainability research and policy evaluation, including indicators and metrics.
Capstone
Complete a project-based capstone where you apply what you have learned to a real-world sustainability challenge.
Learn where you are
- Start: Any Penn State campus
- Finish: University Park
- Built to support Penn State’s 2+2 model across campuses