Purpose


Increasingly, consideration of the impact of decisions on the external physical environment is an important factor for businesses and other organizations. The decisions involved may concern such issues as the placement and structure of facilities. The use of chemicals in the workplace and agriculture, the production of environmentally safe products, the usage of energy, materials, and supplies, and the disposal of waste products.


Recognizing the growing importance of the environment as a factor in organizational decision-making, we propose a University minor in Organizations and Environmental Management which will allow students both to understand the nature of environmental constraints which face organizations and individuals in the modern world, and to understand how these constraints can be effectively considered as part of the decision-making process in for-profit and non-profit organizations.


In recognition of the fact that many different disciplines can contribute to the objectives stated above, the proposed minor includes courses from the Wharton School, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the School of Arts and Sciences, as detailed below. Students in any of the four undergraduate Schools may elect to take the minor.

 

   


Coursework


Students who wish to pursue a University minor in Organizations and Environmental Management will be required to take a total of 6 courses. This program of 6 courses is designed to give students broad exposure to an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the environment, in the hope that students will use it as a take-off point for understanding the role of the environment in the disciplinary studies.


   


Core Courses

 

The required coursework for the minor includes the following:

  1. Environmental Studies 200 (SAS): Introduction to Environmental Analysis
    (students are recommended to take this course during their sophomore or junior years.)
  2. Systems 564 (SEAS): Environmental Impact Assessment
    (students are recommended to take this course during their senior year; sophomores and juniors require permission of the instructor)
  3. Two out of the three following courses:
    LGST 215 (Wharton): Environmental Law and Business
    OPIM/BPUB 261/SYS 567 (Wharton): Risk Analysis and Environmental Management
    BPUB 204 (Wharton): Cost-Benefit Analysis
    (Engineering students may substitute SYS 400 for BPUB 204)

The other two courses should be chosen from the following electives:

  • LGST 215: Environmental Law and Business
  • OPIM/BPUB 261/SYS 567: Risk Analysis and Environmental Management
  • BPUB 204: Cost-Benefit Analysis
  • (any of the three above may be used as an elective if not used as a required course)
  • INSR 205: Risk Management
  • OPIM 102: Decision Processes
  • BIOL 140: Humans and the Environment
  • BIOL 240: Ecology and Population Biology
  • BIOL 456: Issues in Conservation
  • CHE 475: Responding to Environmental Challenges
  • ENVS 301: Case Studies in the Environment
  • ENVS 400: Cancer Toxicology
  • ENVS 400: Maintenance of Wetlands Environments (alternate term)
  • ENVS 401: Water Resources in the Middle East
  • ENVS 402: Environmental Chemistry
  • ENVS 403: Case Studies in Ecology
  • ENVS 404: The Urban Environment
  • ENVS 463: Urban Brownfields
  • EAS 101: Quantitative Perspectives on Energy and the Environment
  • SYS 360/566: Introduction to Environmental Systems
  • SYS 361/561: Water and Wastewater Treatment
  • SYS 400: Engineering Economics
  • SYS 562: Environmental Systems Modeling
  • SYS 563: Biological Treatment and Utilization of Wastes
  • SYS 568: Managing Solid Wastes

 

**Note: Students should be aware that the 500-level Systems Engineering courses are normally open to seniors; freshmen, sophomores, and juniors may only take the course with the permission of the instructor.

 

   


Faculty and Governance


This proposal is supported by faculty members in all three Schools presenting the proposal, including the following individuals:

  • Wharton: Elizabeth Bailey, BPUB
  • Paul Kleindorfer, OPIM
  • Howard Kunreuther, OPIM
  • Eric Orts, LGST
  • SAS: Robert Geigengack, Geology
  • John Smith, Biology
  • SEAS: G. Anandalingam, Systems Engineering
  • Wen K. Shieh, Systems Engineering
  • Kenneth Foster, Bioengineering


Governance of the minor, including decisions about changes in coursework and other structural matters, will be the province of a faculty committee selected from among those faculty listed above or others designated by the relevant departments. It will be the responsibility of this multi-School committee, in collaboration with the offices of the Vice Deans and Associate Deans of the Schools involved, to: a) maintain the list of approved courses for the minor; b) ensure that students in all three undergraduate Schools know that the minor is a curricular option for them; and c) to provide advising as necessary to prospective students and to those enrolled in the minor.

 

   

 

Please contact the Advisor for more information.