Business and Sustainability

Specialization Advisor(s)

• Matthew Potoski (Class of 2025) 
• Eric Masanet (Class of 2026)

As environmental awareness is expanding, an increasing number of corporations are assessing their own environmental performance. By improving their environmental management practices, corporations play a major role in addressing environmental problems.

Effectively engaging customers and other stakeholders also helps corporations influence the direction of environmental improvements. 

Master of Environmental Science and Management students in the Business and Sustainability (BAS) specialization learn how private-sector firms address environmental and natural resource issues and promote shareholder value. This creates the important link between quality of environment and natural resources and a firm’s overall market objectives. BAS students learn how to enhance competitive strategy and incorporate environmental objectives, while responding to new market opportunities, social demands, and regulatory pressures. Students identify, evaluate, and measure sources of competitive advantage that have beneficial environmental, resource, and financial consequences. Students learn how and when private market solutions and property rights can help solve environmental problems. Students also learn how to be effective leaders within companies and why some regulatory systems perform better than others, and students explore policy instruments available to guide corporations’ actions.

Requirements

Master of Environmental Science and Management students are required to take a minimum of 36 units of electives in their primary specialization.

To complete a specialization, MESM students must take at least 12 units of specialization courses to develop depth, 16 units of electives to develop breadth across technical skills, management, and additional science, and 8 units of other relevant electives (student's choice), including relevant graduate courses and/or upper-division undergraduate courses.

With an advisor’s approval, Bren students may also take courses in other UCSB departments as electives to satisfy specialization requirements. 

ESM courses are offered through the Bren School and most ESM courses are offered every year. Courses marked with an asterisk (*) will be offered every other year. 

Courses

BAS Prerequisite Guide

BAS Specialization Courses (12 units required)

ESM 231 Creating Value through Environmental Solutions (2 units)
ESM 233 Testing Innovation Opportunities and Organizational Readiness (2 units)
ESM 245 Cost Benefit Analysis (4 units)
ESM 256B Value Proposition Design for New Environmental Ventures (2 units)
ESM 271 Carbon Footprinting and Carbon Accounting (4 units)
ESM 273 Life Cycle Assessment (4 units)
ESM 279 Financial Management and Environmental Accounting (4 units)
ESM 280 Practical Solutions in Business and Sustainability (2 units)
ESM 281 Advanced Business and Sustainability (4 units)

Students must select 16 units of electives to develop breadth from three categories: technical skills, management, and additional science.

If the minimum number of units specified for all three categories is less than 16, then the student must select other relevant courses from technical skills, management, and/or additional science to complete at least 16 units.

Technical Skills (Take at least 4 units)

ESM 212 Biological Community Survey & Analysis (4 units)
ESM 228 Monitoring and Evaluation (4 units)
ESM 232 Environmental Modeling (4 units)
ESM 244 Advanced Data Analysis (4 units)
ESM 262 Computing for Environmental Science and Management (2 units)
ESM 263 Geographic Information Systems (4 units)
ESM 269 Survey Design and Environmental Public Opinion (2 units)
ESM 271 Carbon Footprints and Carbon Accounting (4 units)
ESM 273 Life Cycle Assessment (4 units)
ESM 284 Sustainable Product Development (4 units)*
ESM 287 Energy Demand Analysis (4 units)
Or relevant technical skills courses from other UCSB departments

Management (Take at least 4 units):

ESM 225 Water Policy (4 units)
ESM 229 Economics and Policy of Climate Change (4 units)
ESM 230 Strategic Planning for Non-Profit Ventures (4 units)*
ESM 231 Creating Value through Environmental Solutions (2 units)
ESM 233 Testing Innovation Opportunities and Organizational Readiness (2 units)
ESM 242 Natural Resource Economics (4 units)
ESM 243 Environmental Policy Analysis (4 units)
ESM 245 Cost Benefit Analysis (4 units)
ESM 248 Environmental Institutions (4 units)
ESM 256B Value Proposition Design for New Environmental Ventures (2 units)
ESM 257 Coastal Marine Policy and Management (4 units)
ESM 277 International Environmental Law (2 units)*
ESM 278 Natural Resources Law and Policy (2 units)*
ESM 279 Financial Management and Environmental Accounting (4 units)
ESM 280 Practical Solutions in Business and Sustainability (2 units)
ESM 281 Business and Sustainability (4 units)
ESM 284 Sustainable Product Development (4 units)*
ESM 286 Energy Economics and Markets (4 units)*
ESM 295A Equity and the Environment (2 units)
ESM 295B Advanced Topics in Environmental Justice (2 units)
Or relevant management courses from other UCSB departments

Additional Science (Take at least 4 units)

ESM 211 Applied Population Ecology (4 units)
ESM 214 Biological Waste Treatment (5 units)*
ESM 216 Science and Management for Forest Sustainability (2 units)
ESM 217 Planetary Health (4 units)
ESM 219 Microbial Processes in the Environment (5 units)*
ESM 222 Pollution Risk Management (4 units)
ESM 224 Sustainable Water Resources Management (4 units)
ESM 226 Groundwater Management (4 units)
ESM 235 Watershed Analysis (4 units)
ESM 237 Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation (4 units)
ESM 239 Advanced Climate Science for Policymakers (4 units)*
ESM 240 Climate Change Biology (2 units)*
ESM 254 Coastal Marine Ecosystem Processes (4 units)
ESM 260 Applied Marine Ecology (4 units)
ESM 270 Conservation Planning & Priority Setting (4 units) Note: ESM 263 GIS is a prerequisite for this course.
ESM 270P Conservation Planning Practicum (4 units)
ESM 282 Pollution Prevention (4 units)
ESM 288 Energy, Technology and the Environment (4 units)
Or relevant science courses from other UCSB departments

Advanced Special Topics (Optional)

Advanced Special Topics courses (variable units) are typically taught by Visiting Professors and Lecturers and may be offered during any quarter of the academic year.

ESM 293 Advanced Special Topics in Climate and Energy
ESM 294 Advanced Special Topics in Environmental Law
ESM 296 Advanced Special Topics in Environmental Management
ESM 297 Advanced Special Topics in Environmental Policy
ESM 299 Advanced Special Topics in Environmental Science
ESM 430 Workshops in Environmental Science and Management

Relevant Courses in other UCSB departments

Students should consult the respective departments for availability and registration information. 

EARTH 266 Chemical Oceanography
EARTH 276 Geological Oceanography
EEMB 142A Aquatic Communities
EEMB 243 Biological Oceanography
EEMB 279 Modeling Environmental and Ecological Change
GEOG 263 Intro to Physical Oceanography