The curriculum for the online UW Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Management is designed and taught by the same UW faculty who teach on campus.
In this 63-credit bachelor’s degree completion program, you will acquire a foundation in sustainability and business through 21 required courses (3 credits each), including a capstone course typically taken during the final semester. There are no electives.
Courses are completed entirely online. You can watch lectures, participate in online forums with your classmates, and do homework whenever it’s convenient for you—all course content is accessible online from any device. Learn more about our online learning format.
Course Descriptions
Course availability for the UW Sustainable Management program varies each fall, spring, and summer.
If you have questions regarding transfer of previous coursework from other degree programs, or if you are a current student, please consult with your campus adviser prior to registration.
View upcoming UW Sustainable Management course schedules.
SMGT 115: Environmental Science and Sustainability
Prerequisites: None
This course presents an overview of the interrelationships between humans and the environment. The first part of the course focuses on important ecological concepts. The remainder of the course deals with human influence on the environment—and which sustainable practices are best suited to help us avoid or ameliorate any negative impacts of the aforementioned influence. The ecological concepts are used throughout to identify and understand possible solutions to contemporary environmental problems, and to provide a basis for proposing those solutions. Overall, this course will provide you with a better understanding of how humans can more positively affect the environment in which they live.
SMGT 220: Systems Thinking
Prerequisites: None
This course covers the process of using systems thinking to apply the concept of sustainability to various business, social, and scientific issues. Rather than looking at a problem by analyzing its component parts, you will learn to analyze whole systems. You will then model the relationships and behaviors to identify leverage points for change.
SMGT 230: Triple Bottom Line Accounting for Managers
Prerequisites: College Math
An introduction to the discipline of financial and managerial accounting. You will gain a basic knowledge of the preparation of financial statements and their analytical use. Further, you will explore how this accounting information is applied by managers in the decision-making process to help organizations meet the triple bottom line (strong profits, healthy environment, and vital communities).
SMGT 235: Economics in Society and Sustainability
Prerequisites: College Math
This introductory course highlights economic, social, and environmental issues facing society. In addition to covering traditional issues such as markets and prices (microeconomics), government economic management (macroeconomics), and international trade, this course introduces economic content into the analysis of selected topics such as poverty and discrimination, the environment, and the provision of government services. Critiques of conventional economic thought, within the context of systems thinking and ecological economics, are integrated throughout the course.
SMGT 240: Business Communications for Sustainable Management
Prerequisites: None
This course is an interdisciplinary professional and technical communication course that applies knowledge of sustainability principles and develops rhetorical skills for a variety of audiences in social, economic, and environmental contexts.
SMGT 250: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security (New Course)
Prerequisite: SMGT 115
This course offers an in-depth assessment of the economic, social, and environmental considerations of production agricultural systems that provide safe, reliable, and affordable food supplies for a growing human population. In addition to the maintenance of the economic viability of production agricultural systems, course topics will focus on: the maintenance of soil, water, and air resources; addressing issues of biodiversity loss; and, maintenance of rural community character and economies. Economic, regulatory, and public entity tools that promote sustainability in production agriculture will also be addressed.
SMGT 305: Climate Change and Sustainability (New Course)
Prerequisite: College Math
This course focuses on climate change science and greenhouse gases, natural and human impacts of climate change, and sustainable and efficient strategies to limit carbon emissions. The course is divided into three major areas: 1) climate science and measured impacts, 2) modeled predictions and mitigation/adaptation strategies, 3) sustainable and carbon neutral practices. This course will emphasize not only the economics of carbon budgeting and increasing efficiency but also the human role in creating and solving climate change and the discrepancies in who, where, and what will be impacted by both climate change and the necessary solutions.
SMGT 310: Ecology for Sustainable Management
Prerequisites: Introductory Biology
This course covers interrelationships of organisms with each other and their environments, as well as investigation into composition and dynamics of populations, communities, ecosystems, landscapes, and the biosphere, with emphasis on sustainability.
SMGT 320: Renewable Energy for Sustainable Management
Prerequisites: College Math
Basic engineering principles and applications for existing and emerging energy technologies. You will learn about energy production, consumption, and environmental impact, and explore the ways in which these principles relate to sustainable management. Topics cover a wide range of energy systems, including nuclear, fossil fuels, wind, solar, biofuels, and biomass.
SMGT 325: Natural Resource Management
Prerequisites: None
This course examines the interdependence between natural resources associated with land, air, and water. You will explore significant environmental issues regarding the policies and problems in the use and management of natural resources related to soils, vegetation, and landscape within the context of social needs and sustainability.
SMGT 330: Marketing for a Sustainable World
Prerequisites: SMGT 235: Economics in Society and Sustainability
Analysis of an organization’s opportunities to develop sustainability practices as they relate to the development of product, pricing, supply and distribution channels (retail, wholesale), promotion (advertising, sales promotion, public relations), target markets, and reporting methodologies.
SMGT 332: Economics of Environmental Sustainability
Prerequisites: SMGT 235: Economics in Society and Sustainability
An examination of the interaction between market activity and the environment. The course applies economic analysis to the efficient and sustainable management of environmental goods and resources, and examines how economic institutions and policies can be changed to bring the environmental impacts of economic decision making more into balance with human desires and the needs of the ecosystem.
SMGT 335: Management and Environmental Information Systems
Prerequisites: SMGT 230: Triple Bottom Line Accounting for Managers
This course explores how technology can be applied to managing sustainable development in an organization. You will learn about the use of data-processing systems, information systems and decision-support tools, information-systems planning and development, overview of computer hardware and software, database management, networking and Web technologies, green data centers, energy-efficiency trends in information technology, and data and information use in green businesses.
SMGT 340: Organizational Behavior and Sustainability
Prerequisites: Speech/Introduction to Communications
An investigation of management principles and theories underlying human behavior in organizations. This course examines how personality, motivation, communication, decision making, leadership, teamwork, ethics, power, diversity, and work stress can create both constraints and opportunities within an “eco-friendly” organization.
SMGT 360: Environmental and Sustainability Policy
Prerequisites: SMGT 115: Environmental Science and Sustainability
This course covers topics including the spectrum of historical, theoretical, and technical issues applicable to sustainable management of natural resources, environmental quality standards, and risk management. Administrative structures that form the basis for selecting appropriate responses to complex management problems faced by industry, government, and nongovernmental agencies are identified. The historical development and current framework of public policy are investigated, and specific foundational legislation is critiqued.
SMGT 370: Logistics, Supply Chain Management, and Sustainability
Prerequisites: Statistics
An introduction to the concepts, functions, processes, and objectives of logistics and supply chain management activities. The course covers activities involved in physically moving raw materials, inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of use or consumption. It covers the planning, organizing, and controlling of such activities, and examines the role of supply chain processes in creating sustainable competitive advantage with respect to quality, flexibility, lead time, and cost. Topics include customer service, inventory management, transportation, warehousing, supply chain management, reverse logistics, green supply chains, and international logistics.
SMGT 410: Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
This course will enable students to understand the rationale behind CSR and sustainability. This course takes students through an evaluation of risks and potential impacts in decision making, enabling them to recognize the links between the success of an organization and the well-being of a community/society. Methods and standards of integrating CSR throughout an organization, creating metrics and communicating CSR policies internally and externally will be discussed and analyzed. Students will develop an understanding of best practices of CSR in its entire breadth within an organization as well as delve into economic structures designed to foster more responsibility and accountability.
SMGT 420: The Built Environment and Sustainability
This course addresses the impacts of the human-built environment on natural systems and opportunities available to mitigate them through thoughtful planning, design, and implementation techniques to provide desirable, affordable, and sustainable living and working spaces. Topics focus on providing critical infrastructure for economic development, housing, transportation, and utilities while protecting and enhancing environmental assets through effective site and building design, public input, and use of regulatory tools. Additional attention is given to the maintenance of community character and the economic and social interdependence of rural, exurban, suburban, and urban areas.
SMGT 435: International Development and Sustainability
Prerequisites: SMGT 235: Economics in Society and Sustainability
This course considers the historical roots of the societal idea of development. We will investigate economic theories of growth and their implications for sustainability, along with interrelationships between population growth, food security, poverty, inequality, urbanization, technological change, international trade, and environmental change on local, regional, and global scales. Contemporary issues and alternatives are explored.
SMGT 460: Environment and Society
Prerequisites: SMGT 115: Environmental Science and Sustainability
An introduction to the fundamentals of human-environmental interaction. The course explores how these interactions create problems, and how the elements of social, technological, and personal choices combine to overcome them.
SMGT 495: Sustainable Management Capstone
Prerequisites: Passing SMGT 494 quiz with an 80% or higher grade (mandatory), senior standing and/or SMGT Student Success Coach/Academic Director permission. SMGT 494 is a zero credit course that students are automatically enrolled in once they have completed 10 courses.
The capstone course provides students with the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned and gain hands-on experience in the real world. Each student will help a real organization solve an existing sustainability problem by implementing practical knowledge to achieve a triple-bottom-line solution. Projects may focus on issues such as supply chain structures, energy efficiencies, or environmental and climate concerns. The instructor will serve as a guide throughout the experience.
Have questions about UW Sustainable Management online programs? Talk to an enrollment adviser.
