Bachelor of Science in Environmental Policy and Planning (STEM) Shorelight Group - University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, USA

Environmental Policy and Planning is an environmental policy, planning, and design program for both cities and the natural environment. It is designed to prepare students for a variety of challenging professions involving the planning, analysis, design, and administration of policies and programs dealing with the natural and human-made environment. Students who major in Environmental Policy and Planning consider environmental challenges through the lens of law, politics, and planning. The program provides students with a solid background in environmental policy, environmental law, environmental planning, environmental design, and an introduction to sustainable development and community-based environmental protection. It also prepares students for graduate work in environmental studies, public policy, public administration, law, community planning, and related fields.

Environmental Policy and Planning majors engage in both theoretical and applied study in their courses, and have flexibility to choose from two emphases. Students may serve as interns in planning agencies in local governments, work in teams with a professor to conduct community planning and design, work with environmental organizations, or develop programs for sustainable communities. The two program emphases from which majors can choose are Environmental Policy and Planning (managing resources in the built and natural environment), and the accelerated Environmental Policy program combining an undergraduate and master's degree. We also have a minor, which pairs well with many majors on campus.

The major in Environmental Policy and Planning consists of two sets of requirements: 1) required supporting and analytical courses and 2) upper-level courses within an area of emphasis. Students should discuss these Emphases with their program advisor when establishing an academic plan.

The Environmental Policy and Planning emphasis focuses on environmental law, policy, and sustainable land use and planning methods for human settlements and our surrounding environments in an era of climate change and resource scarcity. This emphasis teaches you skills in designing and planning community redevelopment; protection and management of land and natural resources (e.g., cities, farmland, forests, etc.) at the community and regional levels, techniques in geographic information systems, and how to adapt to the accelerating human influences on our environment. You learn about environmental policy development and implementation; methods of policy analysis; and political, administrative, legal, and economic issues in environmental policy.