Courses

Interfaculty BASc Degree

In addition to the SSS course requirements below, students completing a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree at McGill University must successfully meet the requirements detailed in the Science Office of Undergraduate Advising's BA&Sc Degree Planning Guide in order to graduate, including:

30 credits toward the foundation year requirements
18-24 credits toward a minor (optional for Interfaculty program students)
12-36 credits toward electives

For questions related to

any of these three points above, consult with your Faculty Advisor in SOUSA
the SSS program (any of the content below), consult with the SSS program advisor

Sustainability, Science and Society Interfaculty Program (B.A. & Sc.) (54 credits)

Offered by: Geography (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 54

Program Description

The B.A. & Sc. Interfaculty Program in Sustainability, Science and Society focuses on the interdisciplinary and integrative knowledge and skills required to effectively understand and address challenges in transitioning to a sustainable future. Challenges are often defined by multiple dimensions, including scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional, ethical, and human behavioural. The program is built on three pillars:

science and technology - to provide an in-depth understanding of the biophysical basis for current issues and challenges;
economics, policy, and governance - to understand how we can make the sustainability transition;
ethics, equity, and justice - to discuss why we need change, and the issues of equity and justice associated with taking action.

This program is offered in collaboration with the Bieler School of Environment.

Degree Requirements — B.A. & Sc. students

This program is offered as part of a Bachelor of Arts & Science (B.A. & Sc.) degree.

To graduate, students must satisfy both their program requirements and their degree requirements.

The program requirements (i.e., the specific courses that make up this program) are listed under the Course Tab (above).
The degree requirements—including the mandatory Foundation program, appropriate degree structure, and any additional components—are outlined on the Degree Requirements page.

Students are responsible for ensuring that this program fits within the overall structure of their degree and that all degree requirements are met. Consult the Degree Planning Guide on the SOUSA website for additional guidance.

Required Courses (27 credits)

27 credits selected as follows:

Foundations of Sustainability

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
ENVR 201	Society, Environment and Sustainability.	3
Society, Environment and Sustainability. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course deals with how scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional and behavioural factors mediate society-environment interactions. Issues discussed include population and resources; consumption, impacts and institutions; integrating environmental values in societal decision-making; and the challenges associated with, and strategies for, promoting sustainability. Case studies in various sectors and contexts are used. See course page for more information
GEOG 360	Analyzing Sustainability.	3
Analyzing Sustainability. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Examines challenges to sustainability through a series of case studies to illustrate the analytical approaches used to understand the linkages between scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional, ethical, and human behavioural aspect of systems. Includes cases that are thematic and place-based, national and international, spanning from the local to global scales. See course page for more information
GEOG 401	Socio-Environmental Systems: Theory and Simulation.	3
Socio-Environmental Systems: Theory and Simulation. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Conceptual and simulation models of key case studies for developing system thinking, including system stability, threshold dynamics in regime shifts, resilience, and adaptive environmental management. See course page for more information
GEOG 460	Research in Sustainability.	3
Research in Sustainability. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Through engaging in real-world sustainability challenges through hands-on research, learn to critically analyze problems that arise at the interface of multiple disciplines including the scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional, ethical, and human behavioural. Develop an understanding of the leverages and road blocks in achieving a sustainability transition. See course page for more information

Biophysical, Societal, Cultural, Institutional, and Ethical

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
ENVR 200	The Global Environment.	3
The Global Environment. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 A systems approach to study the different components of the environment involved in global climate change: the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. The interactions among these components. Their role in global climate change. The human dimension to global change. See course page for more information
ENVR 202	The Evolving Earth.	3
The Evolving Earth. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Formation of the Earth and the evolution of life. How geological and biological change are the consequence of history, chance, and necessity acting over different scales of space and time. General principles governing the formation of modern landscapes and biotas. Effects of human activities on natural systems. See course page for more information
ENVR 203	Knowledge, Ethics and Environment.	3
Knowledge, Ethics and Environment. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Introduction to cultural perspectives on the environment: the influence of culture and cognition on perceptions of the natural world; conflicts in orders of knowledge (models, taxonomies, paradigms, theories, cosmologies), ethics (moral values, frameworks, dilemmas), and law (formal and customary, rights and obligations) regarding political dimensions of critical environments, resource use, and technologies. See course page for more information
GEOG 203	Environmental Systems.	3
Environmental Systems. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An introduction to system-level interactions among climate, hydrology, soils and vegetation at the scale of drainage basins, including the study of the global geographical variability in these land-surface systems. The knowledge acquired is used to study the impact on the environment of various human activities such as deforestation and urbanisation. See course page for more information
GEOG 408	Geography of Development.	3
Geography of Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the geographical dimensions of development policy, specifically the relationships between the process of development and human-induced environmental change. Focuses on environmental sustainability, struggles over resource control, population and poverty, and levels of governance (the role of the state, non-governmental organizations, and local communities). See course page for more information

Complementary Courses (27 credits)

Statistics

3 credits of Statistics from the following:

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
AEMA 310	Statistical Methods 1.	3
Statistical Methods 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Measures of central tendency and dispersion; binomial and Poisson distributions; normal, chi-square, Student's t and Fisher-Snedecor F distributions; estimation and hypothesis testing; simple linear regression and correlation; analysis of variance for simple experimental designs. See course page for more information
BIOL 373	Biometry.	3
Biometry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Elementary statistical methods in biology. Introduction to the analysis of biological data with emphasis on the assumptions behind statistical tests and models. Use of statistical techniques typically available on computer packages. See course page for more information
GEOG 202	Statistics and Spatial Analysis.	3
Statistics and Spatial Analysis. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Exploratory data analysis, univariate descriptive and inferential statistics, non-parametric statistics, correlation and simple regression. Problems associated with analysing spatial data such as the 'modifiable areal unit problem' and spatial autocorrelation. Statistics measuring spatial pattern in point, line and polygon data. See course page for more information
MATH 203	Principles of Statistics 1.	3
Principles of Statistics 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Examples of statistical data and the use of graphical means to summarize the data. Basic distributions arising in the natural and behavioural sciences. The logical meaning of a test of significance and a confidence interval. Tests of significance and confidence intervals in the one and two sample setting (means, variances and proportions). See course page for more information
PSYC 204	Introduction to Psychological Statistics.	3
Introduction to Psychological Statistics. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 The statistical analysis of research data; frequency distributions; graphic representation; measures of central tendency and variability; elementary sampling theory and tests of significance. See course page for more information

Economics

3 credits of Economics from the following:

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
AGEC 200	Principles of Microeconomics.	3
Principles of Microeconomics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The field of economics as it relates to the activities of individual consumers, firms and organizations. Emphasis is on the application of economic principles and concepts to everyday decision making and to the analysis of current economic issues. See course page for more information
AGEC 201	Principles of Macroeconomics.	3
Principles of Macroeconomics. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The overall economic system, how it works, and the instruments used to solve social problems. Emphasis will be on decision-making involving the entire economic system and segments of it. See course page for more information
ECON 208	Microeconomic Analysis and Applications.	3
Microeconomic Analysis and Applications. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 A university-level introduction to demand and supply, consumer behaviour, production theory, market structures and income distribution theory. See course page for more information
ECON 209	Macroeconomic Analysis and Applications.	3
Macroeconomic Analysis and Applications. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 A university-level introduction to national income determination, money and banking, inflation, unemployment and economic policy. See course page for more information
ECON 225	Economics of the Environment.	3
Economics of the Environment. Terms offered: Winter 2026 A study of the application of economic theory to questions of environmental policy. Particular attention will be given to the measurement and regulation of pollution, congestion and waste and other environmental aspects of specific economies. See course page for more information
ECON 230D1	Microeconomic Theory.	3
Microeconomic Theory. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The introductory course for Economics Major students in microeconomic theory. In depth and critical presentation of the theory of consumer behaviour, theory of production and cost curves, theory of the firm, theory of distribution, welfare economics and the theory of general equilibrium. See course page for more information
ECON 230D2	Microeconomic Theory.	3
Microeconomic Theory. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See ECON 230D1 for course description. See course page for more information

Sustainability in Business

3 credits of Management from the following:

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
INSY 455	Technology and Innovation for Sustainability.	3
Technology and Innovation for Sustainability. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The role of information and other technologies in the size and nature of an organization’s environmental ‘footprint’. Achieving sustainability through strategic innovation, such as digitization, recycling, reuse of materials, sustainable design, LEED certifications, smart grids and energy metrics. Analyzing the environmental benefits and hidden costs of novel technologies. See course page for more information
MGCR 460	Social Context of Business.	3
Social Context of Business. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Examination of how business interacts with the larger society. Exploration of the development of modern capitalist society, and the dilemmas that organizations face in acting in a socially responsible manner. Examination of these issues with reference to sustainable development, business ethics, globalization and developing countries, and political activity. See course page for more information
MGPO 440	Strategies for Sustainability.	3
Strategies for Sustainability. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 This course explores the relationship between economic activity, management, and the natural environment. Using readings, discussions and cases, the course will explore the challenges that the goal of sustainable development poses for our existing notions of economic goals, production and consumption practices and the management of organizations. See course page for more information
MGPO 475	Strategies for Developing Countries.	3
Strategies for Developing Countries. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Strategic management challenges in developing and emerging economies. Focus on strategies that foster both firm competitiveness and economic development, including: technological capabilities, new forms of organization, small and large firms, global production, social impact, global standards and governance. See course page for more information

18 additional credits chosen from three areas listed below, of which at least 9 credits must be at the 300 level or higher, students must choose at least 6 credits from each area (1, 2, and 3)

Area 1: Methods: Observation, Analysis, Modelling, and Management

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
ENVB 437	Assessing Environmental Impact.	3
Assessing Environmental Impact. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Principles and practice of Environmental Assessment (EA) in Canada and internationally. Exploration of issues surrounding impact assessment for sustainable development in different sectors, including their limitations. See course page for more information
ENVB 529	GIS for Natural Resource Management. ¹	3
GIS for Natural Resource Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis techniques to the presentation and analysis of ecological information, including sources and capture of spatial data; characterizing, transforming, displaying spatial data; and spatial analysis to solve resource management problems. See course page for more information
ESYS 301	Earth System Modelling.	3
Earth System Modelling. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Introduction to principal concepts of systems modelling related to Earth system science and environmental science, including simple numerical models, conservation laws of mass, energy, and momentum, discretization of governing differential equations, the stability of numerical schemes, and exploration of the ideas of equilibria, feedbacks, and complexity. See course page for more information
ESYS 500	Collaborative Research Project.	3
Collaborative Research Project. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The main steps in developing an Earth System Science research project: identifying knowledge gaps using scientific literature, designing a research strategy (observational, analytical or computational), conducting the research, analyzing and synthesizing results, and communicating results as a formal scientific report. See course page for more information
GEOG 201	Introductory Geo-Information Science. ¹	3
Introductory Geo-Information Science. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An introduction to Geographic Information Systems. The systematic management of spatial data. The use and construction of maps. The use of microcomputers and software for mapping and statistical work. Air photo and topographic map analyses. See course page for more information
GEOG 302	Environmental Management 1.	3
Environmental Management 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An ecological analysis of the physical and biotic components of natural resource systems. Emphasis on scientific, technological and institutional aspects of environmental management. Study of the use of biological resources and of the impact of individual processes. See course page for more information
GEOG 308	Remote Sensing for Earth Observation.	3
Remote Sensing for Earth Observation. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A conceptual view of remote sensing and the underlying physical principles. Covers ground-based, aerial, satellite systems, and the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible to microwave. Emphasis on application of remotely sensed data in geography including land cover change and ecological processes. See course page for more information
GEOG 314	Geospatial Analysis.	3
Geospatial Analysis. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Overview of both the theoretical and applied aspects of geographic information science and systems. Topics will include spatial analysis techniques, geographic models as abstractions of the real world, spatial data manipulation and management, and conceptual issues related to geographic data and technology. Introduction to a number of leading commercial software including ESRI’s ArcGIS Pro. See course page for more information
GEOG 333	Introduction to Programming for Spatial Sciences.	3
Introduction to Programming for Spatial Sciences. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to conceptual and practical aspects of programming for the spatial sciences, focusing on programming concepts and techniques irrespective of the specific programming language, framework, or software. Topics include spatial data structures, flow control, classes and objects, and basics of geospatial data modeling and analysis. See course page for more information
GEOG 351	Quantitative Methods.	3
Quantitative Methods. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Multiple regression and correlation, logit models, discrete choice models, gravity models, facility location algorithms, survey design, population projection. See course page for more information
GEOG 404	Environmental Management 2.	3
Environmental Management 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Practical application of environmental planning, analysis and management techniques with reference to the needs and problems of developing areas. Special challenges posed by cultural differences and traditional resource systems are discussed. This course involves practical field work in a developing area (Kenya or Panama). See course page for more information
GEOG 414	Advanced Geospatial Analysis.	3
Advanced Geospatial Analysis. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced techniques in geospatial analysis. Geospatial methods and using geospatial information systems. Topics: geodatabases, interpolation techniques, spatial classification methods, data mining and machine learning, including working with a number of leading commercial software including ESRI’s ArcGIS Desktop/Pro. See course page for more information
GEOG 495	Field Studies - Physical Geography.	3
Field Studies - Physical Geography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Field research projects in physical geography. Held locally in Monteregian or Eastern Township regions. The course is organised around field projects designed to formulate and test scientific hypotheses in a physical geography discipline. May Summer session. See course page for more information
GEOG 509	Qualitative Methods.	3
Qualitative Methods. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Qualitative methods that geographers use and the debates surrounding their use; epistemological underpinnings of methodological choices. See course page for more information
GEOG 512	Advanced Quantitative Methods in Social Field Research.	3
Advanced Quantitative Methods in Social Field Research. Terms offered: Winter 2026 How does one collect data to quantitatively assess research questions in human geography or other social sciences, and what methods are available to analyze those data? This course introduces students to advanced statistical techniques commonly confronted in field-based social science studies. The course is divided into four major topics: research design, evaluating impacts of policies or programs, time-series data, and spatial interactions. For the techniques investigated, the course will highlight major technical assumptions, field considerations for data collection, and how each does or does not account for geographic factors that may influence outcomes of interest. See course page for more information
URBP 506	Environmental Policy and Planning.	3
Environmental Policy and Planning. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Analytical and institutional approaches for understanding and addressing environmental issues at various scales; characteristics of environmental issues, science-policy-politics interactions relating to the environment, and implications for policy; sustainability, and the need for and challenges associated with interdisciplinary perspectives; externalities and their regulation; public goods; risk perception and implications; the political-institutional context and policy instruments; cost-benefit analysis; multiple-criteria decision-making approaches; multidimensional life-cycle analysis; policy implementation issues; conflict resolution; case studies. See course page for more information

¹: Students may select either GEOG 201 Introductory Geo-Information Science. or ENVB 529 GIS for Natural Resource Management., but not both.

Area 2: Society, Economics, Policy, Ethics, and Equity

2A: Society, Economics, and Policy

3 credits from the following:

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
AGEC 333	Resource Economics.	3
Resource Economics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The role of resources in the environment, use of resources, and management of economic resources within the firm or organization. Problem-solving, case studies involving private and public decision-making in organizations are utilized. See course page for more information
AGEC 430	Agriculture, Food and Resource Policy.	3
Agriculture, Food and Resource Policy. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Examination of North American and international agriculture, food and resource policies, policy instruments, programs and their implications. Economic analysis applied to the principles, procedures and objectives of various policy actions affecting agriculture, and the environment. See course page for more information
AGEC 442	Economics of International Agricultural Development.	3
Economics of International Agricultural Development. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The course deals with economic aspects of international development with emphasis on the role of food, agriculture and the resource sector in the economy of developing countries. Topics will include world food analysis, development project analysis and policies for sustainable development. Development case studies will be used. See course page for more information
ANTH 206	Environment and Culture.	3
Environment and Culture. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to ecological anthropology, focusing on social and cultural adaptations to different environments, human impact on the environment, cultural constructions of the environment, management of common resources, and conflict over the use of resources. See course page for more information
ANTH 212	Anthropology of Development.	3
Anthropology of Development. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Processes of developmental change, as they affect small communities in the Third World and in unindustrialized parts of developed countries. Problems of technological change, political integration, population growth, industrialization, urban growth, social services, infrastructure and economic dependency. See course page for more information
ANTH 339	Ecological Anthropology.	3
Ecological Anthropology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Intensive study of theories and cases in ecological anthropology. Theories are examined and tested through comparative case-study analysis. Cultural constructions of "nature" and "environment" are compared and analyzed. Systems of resource management and conflicts over the use of resources are studied in depth. See course page for more information
ECON 313	Economic Development 1.	3
Economic Development 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Microeconomic theories of economic development and empirical evidence on population, labour, firms, poverty. Inequality and environment. See course page for more information
ECON 314	Economic Development 2.	3
Economic Development 2. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Macroeconomic development issues, including theories of growth, public finance, debt, currency crises, corruption, structural adjustment, democracy and global economic organization. See course page for more information
ECON 326	Ecological Economics.	3
Ecological Economics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Macroeconomic and structural aspects of the ecological crisis. A course in which subjects discussed include the conflict between economic growth and the laws of thermodynamics; the search for alternative economic indicators; the fossil fuels crisis; and "green'' fiscal policy. See course page for more information
ECON 347	Economics of Climate Change.	3
Economics of Climate Change. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The course focuses on the economic implications of, and problems posed by, predictions of global warming due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. Attention is given to economic policies such as carbon taxes and tradeable emission permits and to the problems of displacing fossil fuels with new energy technologies. See course page for more information
ECON 405	Natural Resource Economics.	3
Natural Resource Economics. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Topics include: Malthusian and Ricardian Scarcity; optimal depletion of renewable and non-renewable resources; exploration, risk and industry structure, and current resources, rent and taxation. Current public policies applied to the resource industries, particularly those of a regulatory nature. See course page for more information
GEOG 210	Global Places and Peoples.	3
Global Places and Peoples. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to key themes in human geography. Maps and the making, interpretation and contestation of landscapes, 'place', and territory. Investigation of globalization and the spatial organization of human geo-politics, and urban and rural environments. See course page for more information
GEOG 216	Geography of the World Economy.	3
Geography of the World Economy. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The course introduces the geography of the world economic system. It describes the spatial distribution of economic activities and examines the factors which influence their changing location. Case studies from both "developed" and "developing" countries will test the different geographical theories presented in lectures. See course page for more information
GEOG 303	Health Geography.	3
Health Geography. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Discussion of the research questions and methods of health geography. Particular emphasis on health inequalities at multiple geographic scales and the theoretical links between characteristics of places and the health of people. See course page for more information
GEOG 310	Development and Livelihoods.	3
Development and Livelihoods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Geographical dimensions of rural/urban livelihoods in the face of socioeconomic and environmental change in developing regions. Emphasis on household natural resource use, survival strategies and vulnerability, decision-making, formal and informal institutions, migration, and development experience in contrasting global environments. See course page for more information
GEOG 316	Political Geography.	3
Political Geography. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The study of the spatial dimensions of political activities and developments at the regional, national and global levels in historical and contemporary perspective. Presentation of case studies relating to the theoretical framework of political geography. See course page for more information
GEOG 409	Geographies of Developing Asia.	3
Geographies of Developing Asia. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Current development questions that are of concern to the Asian region. Emphasis on critically studying the major processes of social, economic and environmental change through regional case studies in rural, peri-urban and urban contexts. Covers important debates and considerations that lie at the heart of development geography. See course page for more information
HIST 292	History and the Environment.	3
History and the Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Sketch of the history of the material aspects of human interaction with the rest of nature. Included will be a historian's view of the social, technical, and ecological implications of the great variety of activities devised by our species. Though global in outlook, this course will emphasize the relevant historiography of France, England and North America. See course page for more information
INDG 200	Introduction to Indigenous Studies.	3
Introduction to Indigenous Studies. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The focus is on Indigenous experience in Canada, but encourages comparative approaches. Introduction to the social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of Indigenous life in Canada. See course page for more information
POLI 350	Global Environmental Politics.	3
Global Environmental Politics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Environmental problems like climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification transcend national borders. Solving these problems will require global cooperation on an unprecedented level. This course will explore the challenges of contemporary global environmental governance and the innovative solutions being advanced at the community, municipal, provincial, national, and international levels. See course page for more information
URBP 530	Urban Infrastructure and Services in International Context .	3
Urban Infrastructure and Services in International Context . Terms offered: Winter 2026 Issues of practical and theoretical importance in relation to urban infrastructure and services in the international context: science and technology, political economy, policy analysis, policy implementation, public finance, and institutions and governance. See course page for more information
URBP 553	Urban Governance.	3
Urban Governance. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Critical perspectives on the governance of contemporary cities and urban regions, with a focus on North America. The relationship between planners and other important local governance actors, including municipal governments, the realestate industry, and community groups. The role of planning and planners in challenging or perpetuating urban social, political, economic, and environmental inequities. See course page for more information

2B: Ethics and Equity