Preparing students for world-changing careers
Join us to…
EXPLORE the world’s most pressing issues, from racial and economic injustice, to unsustainable food systems and food insecurity, to climate change
ANALYZE the social, economic, and environmental transformations necessary to address them
DEVELOP the skills, knowledge, and hands-on experience to make a difference
DISCOVER how you can join the people and organizations leading change
IMAGINE thriving, equitable, and sustainable communities within an ecologically healthy world
Welcome letter from the Department Chair, Dr. Laird Christensen
News
SD Student Sophie Schneider Selected as Chancellor's Scholar
Oct 21, 2026
The College of Fine and Applied Arts is proud to recognize Sophie Schneider, a Sustainable Development major with a concentration in Agroecology and S...
SD Student Kate Borkowski Summits Mt. Kilimanjaro
Oct 11, 2026
Sustainable Development (SD) sophomore Kate Borkowski recently traveled to Tanzania to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, a snow-capped volcano that is Africa’...
The Goodnight Family Sustainable Development Department Hosts Inaugural "Front Porch” Event
Oct 8, 2026
On Wednesday, September 16th, The Goodnight Family Sustainable Development (SD) Department hosted the inaugural event of its “Front Porch” series....
What Our Alumni Are Saying
"The SD program helped me learn to be a systems thinker, to integrate information from all kinds of seemingly unrelated domains, to come up with original ideas, new realizations, and to find solutions to new and challenging problems. I don't know that I would be as facile with these approaches to my work and life if I had not been through the SD program in concert with what was called the IDS department back in the early 90s. My time and work at Appalachian taught me not just subject details and specific information, but it taught me how to think, how to process information, and how to work hard to see a future result. The value is not only in the subject expertise you walk out with, but the abilities that will let you become a lifelong explorer and discoverer.
Students entering today are very lucky to have this grounded and established SD program to foster their knowledge and practical acquisition of new skills the world definitely needs more of. Learning how to learn, and how to learn deeply and quickly is a critical life skill in 2014, where there is more superficial pseudo-information around than we could have imagined in the 90s. Students today must acquire strong critical thinking and filtering skills."