Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology

Course summary

The world is facing increasing environmental threats which are posing severe scientific, social and economic challenges to the human race. These challenges include: the depletion of natural resources, the loss of diversity and the need to develop new forms of energy generation whilst efficiently utilising existing energy sources. Tackling these environmental problems and establishing a sustainable environment requires the adoption of appropriate policies and managerial strategies.

The MSc in Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology is designed to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental challenges whilst giving the opportunity to specialise in several sustainability themes related to geosciences, energy generation, biological science, green information technology, environmental policy and politics, and project management.

We’ll help you develop the broad skillset needed to devise, implement and evaluate sustainability initiatives, or plan and conduct the research to develop the new solutions, processes and technologies to support them. You'll then put skills, such as critical evaluation, research design, scientific writing, project management, data collection, analysis and interpretation, presentation and more, into practice during your research project.

Our interdisciplinary programme aims to equip you with the following key skills:

• An understanding of knowledge in the areas of science, technology, policy and green political theory relevant to environmental sustainability
• Experience in analytical and computer techniques which would allow them to contribute to the solving of environmental challenges
• A conceptual understanding to evaluate critically current research and advance scholarship in environmental sustainability
• A comprehensive understanding of experimental design, planning and scientific techniques within a research project
• Problem-solving and team-working skills relevant to the implementation of sustainable technologies and policies

Additional opportunities

Depending on availability, you could have the opportunity to collaborate with an external organisation and work with them on a real-life issue, giving you valuable experience and boosting your job prospects. In the past, for example, our students have gone on to PhD studies, and careers in clean energy, waste management and sustainability in organisations such as the NHS, local authorities and commercial businesses.

Learn from our campus - our own 'living laboratory'

As a student on the MSc in Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology, you will benefit from learning on a campus featuring a Low Carbon Energy Generation Park which is supporting Keele University's pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030, featuring two wind turbines, 12,500 solar panels and an industrial-sized battery to store the generated energy. You will access on-site energy projects such as the recent HyDeploy project and the HyDEX project, which are driving forward demonstration of low-carbon hydrogen technology, and the Smart Energy Network Demonstrator (SEND) project. SEND, a European first, is an at-scale environment providing a platform that allows energy generation, distribution, storage, forecasting and energy balancing to be intelligently carried out across different energy sources using the Keele University campus as a genuine ‘living laboratory’.

Other courses you may be interested in:

• MSc Biodiversity and Conservation
• MSc Geoscience Research
• MA Human Geography and Sustainability Research

All of our courses require an English language qualification or test. For most students, this requirement can be met with a 4 or C in GCSE English. Please see our English Language guidance pages for further details, including English language test information for international students. For those students who require an English language test, this course requires a test from Group B.

Your career

This course is designed to prepare you for a successful career in environment and sustainability, in research and development, teaching, management, regulation or consultancy, guiding activities such as energy or waste management, recycling, air quality, flood risk and other effects of climate change.

Previous graduates of this course have secured roles, for example, as an environmental sustainability specialist, sustainability and wellbeing consultant, project manager, innovation associate or assistant engineer.

They can be found working for employers all over the globe, from the London headquarters of one of the world's leading industrial groups (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) to the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), a Bogotá-based publishers and Chinese R&D firm specialising in chemical fungicides.

The transferrable skills you gain in critical thinking, problem-solving, project management, communication, leadership and creativity will equip to find work across a wide range of professions, from business and management, to systems analysis, academia or scientific journalism. One graduate, for example, became an account executive for a medical communications company.

Since the course develops your research skills, it is an excellent route for those who wish to progress onto further study at PhD level, which a large number of our graduates choose to do.