Exciting Electives

Big Ideas Courses

Students can focus their electives on a series of 'Big Ideas' courses. These courses are designed to give students an opportunity to explore topical and challenging issues from examining the role of social media and the internet to the importance of energy in impacting the environment. They are taught by faculty from various departments fulfilling the school’s mandate to foster shared teaching related to the environment.

ENV360H1: Is the Internet Green?
ENV361H1: Social Media and Environmentalism
ENV262H1: The Science of Energy in the Environment
ENV362H1: Energy and Environment: Transitions in History
ENV462H1: Energy and Environment: Economics, Politics and Sustainability

Cool New Courses

ENV196H1: Environment, Culture and Film
ENV198H1: Idleness and the Environment: What Does Sustainable Work Mean?

Research & Experiential Courses

ENV421Y1: Environmental Research - In this course, senior undergraduate students work together in small groups to conduct research related to a broad environmental research theme for the class. 

ENV440H1: Professional Experience Course - This course provides an opportunity for students to gain practical work experience in the environmental field through placements with organizations and agencies engaged in a wide range of issues from local to global scales. 

ENV461H1: The U of T Campus as a Living Lab of Sustainability - In this course, students use the U of T campus as a living laboratory for sustainable practices, working with campus facilities and operations staff to implement and evaluate campus sustainability initiatives, while developing the analytical and communication skills needed to work across disciplines and fields of study, and with non-academic partners.

ENV463H1: Edible Campus - This course situates students and campuses within the context of broader movements for more ecologically rational and socially-just food systems. Topics include critical food systems pedagogy; the political economy of campus food systems; student food (in)security and health; campus food systems alternatives; campus food growing spaces; student/campus-based food movements; campus-community partnerships. The course is praxis-driven and will provide students with opportunities to engage in change-making on their campus, and beyond, through an action-focused project with a campus and/or community partner. (New for 2023-24)

Summer Abroad

ENV395Y0: Special Topics Field Course: Ecology and Conservation in the Amazon, Galápagos, and Andes
ENV397Y0: Special Topics Field Course: Costa Rica: A Living Laboratory for Sustainable Practice  (new for Summer 2023)

Trinity Sustainability Initiative

The Trinity Sustainability Initiative (TSI) is a collaboration between Trinity College and the School of the Environment. The TSI offers academic programming related to sustainability and will Introduce ways in which students can have personal impact and feel connected to important issues such as climate change and the environment. 

TRN140Y1: Ethics, Humans, and Nature 
TRN141Y1: Environmental Science and Pathways to Sustainability 
TRN312H1: Sustainability Issues in Ethics, Society, and Law
TRN350H1: Scarcity, Sustainability, and the Future of International Relations