Sustainable Design | Berkeley Academic Guide

About 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. The undergraduate minor in Sustainable Design is offered by the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, the hub for interdisciplinary research at the College of Environmental Design. The minor is open to all majors at UC Berkeley.

Students interested in pursuing this course of study at the major level should consider the Sustainable Environmental Design program.

Declaring the Minor

A letter grade of C- or higher in ENV DES 1, LD ARCH 1, or LD ARCH 12 (or a 3 or higher in AP Env Sci) is required to declare the minor. To declare, students must submit the CED Minor Declaration Form, available on the CED website. Once this request has been approved, you will see the minor added to your Cal Central student profile. It is your responsibility to track your progress towards minor completion using the Academic Progress Report and CED Advising Services.

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT FORM: One semester prior to a students final semester.

General Information

Websites: Institute of Urban and Regional Development, Sustainable Environmental Design Major, Sustainable Design Minor

Visit Sustainable Design Minor Website

Minor Requirements

Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program.

General Guidelines

All minors must be declared no later than one semester before a student's Expected Graduation Term (EGT).
A letter grade of C- or higher in ENV DES 1, LD ARCH 1, or LD ARCH 12 (or a 3 or higher in AP Env Sci) is required to declare the minor. To declare, students must submit the CED Minor Declaration Form, available on the CED website.
1. DEADLINE TO SUBMIT FORM: One semester prior to a students final semester.
Each course used to fulfill minor requirements must be completed with a letter grade of C- or above.
Students must earn a 2.0 GPA in the upper division requirements for the minor.
Any course used in fulfillment of minor requirements may also be used to fulfill major and upper division CED non-major requirements.
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.

Requirements

Course List
Code	Title	Units
Lower Division ^{(a letter grade of C- or higher is required to declare the minor)}
Select one course from the following:
AP Environmental Science, Passing Score of 3, 4, or 5
ENV DES 1	Introduction to Environmental Design [3]
LD ARCH 1	Drawing a Green Future: Fundamentals of Visual Representation and Creativity [4]
LD ARCH 12	Environmental Science for Sustainable Development [4]
Upper Division (Five Courses)
Select five courses from the following; a minimum of two courses must be selected from CED courses and a minimum of two courses selected from non-CED courses
CED Courses
ARCH 124A	Introduction to Digital Design Methods [2]
ARCH 140	Energy and Environment [4]
ARCH 149	Special Topics in Energy and Environment [2-4] ¹
ARCH 169	Special Topics in Construction Materials [2-4] ¹
ARCH 240	Advanced Study of Energy and Environment [3]
ARCH 241	Research Methods in Building Sciences [3]
ARCH 242	Sustainability Colloquium [2] ²
or ARCH 142	Sustainability Colloquium
ARCH 249	Special Topics in the Physical Environment in Buildings [2-4] ¹
CY PLAN 114	Introduction to Urban and Regional Transportation [3]
CY PLAN 115	Urbanization in Developing Countries [4]
CY PLAN 119	Planning for Sustainability [4]
CY PLAN 140	Urban Design: City-Building and Place-Making [3]
CY PLAN 254	Sustainable Communities [3] ⁴
CY PLAN C256	Healthy Cities [3] ⁴
ENV DES 102	Climate Change and City Planning: Adaptation and Resilience [3]
LD ARCH 103	Energy, Fantasy, and Form [5]
LD ARCH/ESPM C110A	Ecological Analysis [4] (formerly LD ARCH 110)
LD ARCH 111	Plants in Design [3]
LD ARCH 122	Hydrology for Planners [4]
LD ARCH 130	Sustainable Landscapes and Cities [4]
LD ARCH 140	Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design [3]
LD ARCH C188	Geographic Information Science [4]
LD ARCH 191	Course Not Available (Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe, UC Davis Study Abroad)
Non-CED Courses
ANTHRO 137	Energy, Culture and Social Organization [4]
CIV ENG 103	Course Not Available [3]
CIV ENG C103N	Terrestrial Hydrology [4] (cross-listed w/ ESPM C130 and GEOG C136)
CIV ENG 107	Climate Change Mitigation [3]
CIV ENG 108	Climate Change Adaptation [3]
CIV ENG 113	Ecological Engineering for Water Quality Improvement [3]
CIV ENG 170A	Infrastructure Sensing and Modeling [3]
CIV ENG 292A	Technologies for Sustainable Societies [1] ³
ENE,RES C100	Energy and Society [4] (cross-listed w/ PUB POL C184)
ENE,RES W100	Energy and Society [4]
ENE,RES 131	Data, Environment and Society [4]
ENE,RES C160/ESPM C176	CLIMATE JUSTICE [4]
ENVECON 100	Intermediate Microeconomics with Applications to Sustainability [4]
ENVECON C101/ECON C125	Environmental Economics [4]
ENVECON/ECON C102	Natural Resource Economics [4]
ENVECON 162	Economics of Water Resources [3]
ENVECON C176	Climate Change Economics [4]
ENVECON C183	Forest Ecosystem Management [4]
ESPM 102C	Resource Management [4]
ESPM 102D	Climate and Energy Policy [4] (Behavior and Sustainability )
ESPM 117	Urban Garden Ecosystems [4]
ESPM 134	Fire, Insects, and Diseases in Forest Ecosystems [3]
ESPM 136	Sustainable Industry [4]
ESPM 137	Landscape Ecology [3]
ESPM 151	Society, Environment, and Culture [4]
ESPM 155AC	Sociology and Political Ecology of Agro-Food Systems [4]
ESPM 161	Environmental Philosophy and Ethics [4]
ESPM 162	Bioethics and Society [4]
ESPM 163AC	Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment [4]
ESPM C167	Environmental Health and Development [4]
ESPM 168	Political Ecology [4]
ESPM 169	International Environmental Politics [4]
ESPM 177A	Sustainable Water and Food Security [4]
ESPM 183	Forest Ecosystem Management and Planning [4]
ESPM 186	Grassland and Woodland Management and Conservation [4]
GEOG 130	Food and the Environment [4]
GEOG 138	Global Environmental Politics [4]
GEOG C160	The American Landscape: Place, Power and Culture [4]
GEOG 181	Urban Field Study [4]
GEOG 185	Earth System Remote Sensing [3]
GEOG 186	Web Cartography [5]
IAS/ENVECON C175	The Economics of Climate Change [4]
NWMEDIA 132	How to Build a Global Internet: Digital Infrastructure Projects from Subsea Cables to Data Centers [3]
PB HLTH 101	A Sustainable World: Challenges and Opportunities [3]
PB HLTH C160	Environmental Health and Development [4]
ESPM173(UC Davis) Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe, UC Davis Study Abroad

¹: Special topics courses will be evaluated each semester by student request. Please ask the relevant staff adviser if a course has been reviewed and/or approved. ARCH 149, ARCH 169, and ARCH 249 must be minimum 2 units.
²: The ARCH 142/ ARCH 242 colloquium and ENV DES 198 may only count as a third CED course, and may be taken Pass/No Pass for either 1 or 2 units.
³: CIV ENG 292A may only count as a third non-CED course.
⁴: Only with instructor approval for students in their senior year.