Minor in Sustainable Design
The undergraduate minor in sustainable design is jointly offered by the Department of Architecture and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, but also includes interdisciplinary courses across campus. The minor is open to all majors at UC Berkeley.
The Program
Sustainable design implies making decisions at various scales of the built environment (buildings, communities, land use patterns, urban support systems) in ways that support environmental quality, social equity, and economic vitality.
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IURD Research Director; Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design -
Spacing: large
Requirements
- Guidelines
- Lower Division Requirement
- Upper Division Requirements
- A letter grade of C- or higher in ENV DES 1, LDA ARCH 1, or LD ARCH 12 (or a 3 or higher in AP Env Sci) is required to declare the minor.
- To declare, complete the College of Environmental Design Request to Declare Minor Form from the “FORMS + DOCUMENTS” page. DEADLINE to submit form is one semester prior to a student’s final semester.
- Each course used to fulfill minor requirements must be completed with a letter grade of C- or higher.
- Students must earn a 2.0 GPA in the upper division requirements for the minor.
- CED Students: Any course used in fulfillment of minor requirements may also be used to fulfill major and upper division CED non-major requirements.
- CED Students: Courses used to fulfill a breadth requirement may also be used to satisfy minor requirements.
- Students may apply the non-CED version of a CED cross-listed course towards the minor.
- Students may use up to two courses taken abroad to fulfill upper division minor requirements, with faculty approval of the individual courses.
- Students declared in a CED minor do not have priority in CED courses that satisfy a requirement for the minor. To enroll in courses, students must add themselves to the waitlist. A declared CED minor will be considered when the waitlist is processed. For non-CED courses please connect with the department of the course.
One course from the following (a letter grade of C- or higher is required to declare the minor):
- ENV DES 1 – People and the Environment (3 units)
- LD ARCH 1 – Drawing a Green Future: Fundamentals of Visual Representation and Creativity (4 units)
- LD ARCH 12 – Environmental Science for Sustainable Development (4 units)
- AP Environmental Science (passing score of 3 or above)
Five additional courses (minimum of two courses from each list below), all completed with a letter grade of C- or higher:
List 1: CED Courses
- ARCH 124A – 3-D Computer Technology (2 units)
- ARCH 140 – Energy and Environment (4 units)
- ARCH 149, 169, 249 – Special Topics (minimum 2 units)
- ARCH 240 – Advanced Study of Energy & Environment (3 units)
- ARCH 241 – Research Methods in Building Sciences (3 units)
- ARCH 142 or 242 – Sustainability Colloquium* (1, 2 units)
- CY PLAN 114 – Introduction to Urban and Regional Transportation Planning (3 units)
- CY PLAN 115 – Urbanization in Developing Countries (4 units)
- CY PLAN 119 – Planning for Sustainability (3 units)
- CY PLAN 140 – Urban Design: City Building and Place Making (3 units)
- CY PLAN 254 – Sustainable Communities*** – Only with instructor approval for students in their senior year (3 units)
- CY PLAN 256 – Healthy Cities – Only with instructor approval for students in their senior year (3 units)
- ENVDES 102 – Climate Change and City Planning: Adaptation and Resilience (3 units)
- LD ARCH 103 – Energy, Fantasy, and Form (5 units)
- LD ARCH C110A – Ecological Analysis (formerly LD ARCH C110, cross-listed as ESPM C110A) (3 units)
- LD ARCH 111 – Plants in Design (3 units)
- LD ARCH 122 – Hydrology for Planners (4 units)
- LD ARCH 130 – Sustainable Landscapes and Cities*** (3 units)
- LD ARCH 138AC – Analysis of Metropolitan Form (3 units)
- LD ARCH 140 – Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design (3 units)
- LD ARCH C188 – GIS (4 units)
- LD ARCH 225 – Urban Forest Planning Management (3 units)
- LD ARCH 191 – Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe, UC Davis Study Abroad
*ARCH 142/ARCH 242 may only count as a third course from this list and may be taken P/NP for either 1 or 2 units.
**ARCH 124A may only count as a third course from this list.
***These classes are very popular, and your enrollment is not guaranteed. Please be sure to create a flexible graduation plan in case you are not able to enroll in your preferred classes.
List 2: Non-CED Courses
- ANTHRO 137 – Energy, Culture and Social Organization (4 units)
- CE 170A: Infrastructure Sensing and Modeling (3 units)
- CIV ENG 103 – Introduction to Hydrology (3 units)
- CIVENG C103N/ESPM C130/GEOG C136 – Terrestrial Hydrology (4 units)
- CIV ENG 107 – Climate Change Mitigation (3 units)
- CIV ENG 108: Climate Change Adaptation
- CIV ENG 113N – Ecological Engineering for Water Quality Improvement (3 units)
- CIV ENG 292A** – Technologies for Sustainable Societies (1 unit)
- ENERES C100/PUB POL C184 – Energy and Society (4 units)
- ENERES W100 – Energy and Society (4 units)
- ENERES 131: Data, Environment and Society (4 units)
- ENERES 160 – Climate Justice (4 units)
- ENVECON 100 – Microeconomic Theory with Application to Natural Resources (4 units)
- ENVECON C101 – Environmental Economics (cross-listed as ECON C125) (4 units)
- ENVECON C102 – Natural Resource Economics (cross-listed as ECON C102) (4 units)
- ENVECON 162 – Economics of Water Resources (3 units)
- ENVECON C175 – Economics of Climate Change (cross-listed as IAS C175) (4 units)
- ENVECON C176 – Climate Change Economics (4 units)
- ENVECON C183 – Forest Ecosystem Management (4 units)
- ESPM 102C – Resource Management (4 units)
- ESPM 102D – Climate and Energy Policy (4 units)
- ESPM 117 – Urban Garden Ecosystems (4 units)
- ESPM 134 – Fire, Insects, and Diseases in Forest Ecosystems (3 units)
- ESPM 136: Sustainable Industry (4 units)
- ESPM 137 – Landscape Ecology (3 units)
- ESPM 151 – Society, Environment and Culture (4 units)
- ESPM 155AC – Sociology and Political Ecology of Agro-Food Systems (4 units)
- ESPM 161 – Environmental Philosophy and Ethics (3 units)
- ESPM 162 – Bioethics and Society (4 units)
- ESPM 163AC – Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment (formerly SOCIOL 128AC) (4 units)
- ESPM C167 – Environmental Health and Development (cross-listed as PB HLTH C160) (4 units)
- ESPM 168 – Political Ecology (4 units)
- ESPM 169 – International Environmental Politics (4 units)
- ESPM 173 – Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe, UC Davis Study Abroad
- ESPM 177A – Sustainable Water and Food Security (4 units)
- ESPM 183 – Forest Ecosystem Management and Planning (4 units)
- ESPM 186 – Management and Conservation of Rangeland Ecosystems (4 units)
- GEOG 130 – Food and the Environment (4 units)
- GEOG 138 – Global Environmental Politics (4 units)
- GEOG 160 – American Landscapes: History, Culture, and the Built Environment (4 units)
- GEOG 181: Urban Field Study (4 units)
- GEOG 185 – Earth System Remote Sensing (3 units)
- GEOG 186 – Web Cartography (5 units)
- NWMEDIA 132: How to Build a Global Internet
- PBLHLTH 101: A Sustainable World: Challenges and Opportunities (3 units)
- PB HLTH C160: Environmental Health and Development (4 units)
**CIV ENG 292A may only count as a third course from List 2.
Course below has been phased out of the SD minor for the List 1 requirement. It may only be used if taken Spring 2022 and prior.
- ENV DES 104 – Design Frameworks (3 units)
- IEOR 185 – Smart Cities in India (4 units)