Binghamton University students have infinite opportunities to explore sustainability as they study alongside faculty who are difference-makers in the community and the world. While strongly influenced by discoveries in science and engineering classrooms, sustainability is an interdisciplinary topic not relegated to a single school, major or class. Avenues for sustainable living and learning exist throughout the University.
Student interest in the environment is growing rapidly and the Environmental Studies Program provides an outlet for those interested in environmental policy, environmental law, environmental economics, and environment and people, as well as in ecosystems, environmental chemistry and environmental earth sciences. The Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies has a separate specialization in environmental geology. Curriculum fosters an understanding of the relationships between humans and the world around us.
Critical issues
The Department of Geography touts programs in environmental and resource management and urban and regional planning, but also allows students to combine tracks of study to achieve an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability. Local projects provide opportunities for students to understand and measure the potential environmental impacts of different types of development and how to avoid or mitigate them.
Topics of discovery
Students in the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science have shown such exceptional enthusiasm for sustainability that the administration is working to implement a sustainability engineering minor to meet the students’ educational needs.
Invaluable learning also takes place outside classroom walls through the many natural learning environments on campus and in the community. Ecological agriculture students use the compost organic garden as a field lab, while urban planning students inspect streets, buildings and homes in local neighborhoods.
Our research centers — including the Center for Autonomous Solar Power (CASP), the Center for Integrated Watershed Studies (CIWS) and the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM) — are cutting edge. Whether it’s flexible solar cells, super capacitors for storing solar energy, renewable energy or hydrological and geochemical examinations, our faculty and students are at the forefront of sustainability research.
Students from the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science are putting their sustainability ideas into action through national competitions.
In 2008, engineering students took fourth place for their super-mileage car, which gets more than 1,300 miles per gallon, in a competition sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Computer science students are getting in on the action, too. They recently teamed up with local businesses, taking first place by tackling issues such as geothermal heating and chemical waste minimization as part of a national Federal Aviation Administration design competition.
