Environmental Sustainability

Program Description

The Sustainability specialization at Oklahoma State University helps students define the needs of the current generation to improve quality of life without sacrificing the ability to future generations to meet their own.

Resources are needed to sustain a healthy body and a healthy mind and to do this we use fabricated capital, social, and cultural capital. Resource systems are healthy when they have sufficient capital to maintain themselves and to withstand shocks. Surplus capital accumulated in excess of that needed for maintenance and resilience is available for conversion to other forms as required to satisfy demand for improved quality of life.

Sustainability is achieved when aggregate resource demand to improve quality of life does not exceed the ability of resource systems to provide sufficient resource capital.

Strength of the Program

There are forty universities and colleges in 20 states that explicitly incorporate sustainability into their curriculam. Our program is unique to Oklahoma and has great growth potential.

Public awareness is essential to moving toward sustainable living. Increase of recycling, reducing consumption, and development of renewable energies are just some of the ways to move towards sustainability.