Environmental Sustainability Science
Environmental sustainability science is a discipline that addresses one of the defining challenges of our time, bringing together knowledge from the natural sciences, social sciences, and technology to understand how human activities affect the natural world and how more sustainable relationships between people and the environment can be developed. It draws on ecology, chemistry, earth science, and systems thinking to analyse environmental problems, and on economics, policy, and social science to understand how solutions can be implemented. The discipline is shaped by urgent real-world questions around climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, pollution, and the transition to cleaner energy and production systems.
At Cardiff University, you will study Environmental Sustainability Science over three years, full time. You will develop a scientific understanding of environmental systems, including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and the human systems that interact with them, alongside analytical and data skills for measuring, monitoring, and modelling environmental change. You will engage with the policy and governance frameworks through which environmental sustainability is pursued, examining how international agreements, national legislation, and local action interact.
The programme encourages critical thinking about what sustainability means in practice, who bears the costs and benefits of environmental change, and what roles science, technology, economics, and politics each play in moving towards more sustainable futures. Cardiff's location and its research profile in earth and environmental sciences provide a strong academic context for this study.
Graduates of environmental sustainability science programmes work in environmental consultancy, government agencies, international organisations, NGOs, sustainability roles within business, urban planning, and research. The combination of scientific and social-scientific training makes graduates versatile and valuable in a labour market that is increasingly oriented towards the green economy. Further study options include postgraduate degrees in environmental science, sustainability, climate change, ecology, and environmental policy, as well as research doctorates for those pursuing academic careers.