Sustainability

Position Yourself to Lead Environmental Change with a Graduate Degree in Sustainability

The Master of Arts in Sustainability Studies (MASS) program is shaped around a ground-breaking curriculum that unites the natural sciences, social sciences and business fields to develop leading practitioners in the emerging field of sustainability action.  MASS students collaborate with Ramapo faculty and with select external partners to promote sustainability in a variety of institutional, organizational, cultural, commercial, and geographical contexts.  Their projects range from:

• the study of municipal sustainability programs to the smart design of sustainable communities.
• socio-ecological conservation schemes for endangered species to green infrastructure projects grounded in urban ecology
• walkability plans for suburban neighborhoods to sustainability action plans for college campuses
• the creation of pocket guides to pocket parks in high density, urban neighborhoods to the exploration of what it takes to be an effective leader in sustainability activism, and
• the creation of business plans for green eateries to analyses of green building practices in residential rehabilitation projects.

A Leader in Sustainability Education Since 1975

Ramapo College has been a leader in sustainability education for decades. The College’s innovative Alternate Energy and Environment Center (AEEC), begun in 1975, was a faculty/student driven environmental education facility that demonstrated alternative methods of producing and using resources, particularly energy, food, and shelter, that were not heavily based on depleting and polluting sources of fossil fuels. At the same time, the AEEC also sought to model social and community sustainability, represented in the full participation of people in a climate of equality and mutual and environmental respect, in the process of achieving personal self-reliance and collective survival.

Sustainability Education in the New Century

Nearly 50-years since Ramapo College’s AEEC provided a ground braking foundation for today’s modern sustainability movement, the College constructed The Sharp Sustainability Education Center, a “green building” making the best use of orientation, natural daylight and ventilation, using recycled and eco-friendly materials, using rainwater for irrigation, heating and cooling via geothermal systems and solar panels for electrical production.