- Minimize environmental impacts across the entire lifecycle of a product or process while simultaneously maximizing the benefits to social and economic stakeholders.
- Focus your thesis in an area that supports sustainability-themed research being conducted at RIT, such as fuel-cell development, life-cycle engineering, or sustainable process implementation.
Sustainable engineering refers to the integration of social, environmental, and economic considerations into the design of products, processes, and energy systems. Additionally, sustainable engineering encourages the consideration of the complete product and process lifecycle during the design effort. The intent is to minimize environmental impacts across the entire lifecycle of a product or process while simultaneously maximizing the benefits to social and economic stakeholders. This degree builds on RIT's work in sustainability research and education, and offers students the flexibility to develop tracks in areas such as renewable energy systems, systems modeling and analysis, product design, and engineering policy and management.
What is Sustainable Engineering?
Sustainable engineering is the process of deliberately designing systems, manufacturing operations, or products that use energy and natural resources sustainably. Or, in other words, using energy and resources in responsible ways that do not compromise our natural environment, negatively impact our natural resources, or create harm that impacts future generations.
Our sustainable engineering degree is designed to:
- Heighten your awareness of issues in areas of sustainability (e.g., global warming, ozone layer depletion, deforestation, pollution, ethical issues, fair trade, gender equity, etc.).
- Establish a clear understanding of the role and impact of various aspects of engineering (design, technology, etc.) and engineering decisions on environmental, societal, and economic problems. Particular emphasis is placed on the potential trade-offs between environmental, social, and economic objectives.
- Strong ability to apply engineering and decision-making tools and methodologies to sustainability-related problems.
- Demonstrate a capacity to distinguish professional and ethical responsibilities associated with the practice of engineering.
RIT's Sustainable Engineering Degree
The MS in sustainable engineering builds on RIT's work in sustainability research and education and offers you the flexibility to develop tracks in areas such as renewable energy systems, systems modeling and analysis, product design, and engineering policy and management. Course work is offered on campus and available on a full- or part-time basis. Technical in nature, the program equips engineers with the tools they need to meet the challenges associated with delivering goods, energy, and services through sustainable means. In addition to basic course work in engineering and classes in public policy and environmental management, students are required to complete a final project related to sustainable design challenges impacting society. Many of these projects support the sustainability-themed research being conducted by RIT faculty in research domains such as energy management, life-cycle engineering, packaging design, and sustainable process implementation.
Students must successfully complete four required core courses, two graduate engineering electives in an area of interest (such as energy, modeling, manufacturing and materials, transportation and logistics, or product design and development), one social context elective, one environmental technology elective, two semesters of graduate seminar, and a final project. The program is designed to be completed in two years.
Students are also interested in: Sustainable Systems MS, Industrial and Systems Engineering MS, Engineering Management ME, Environmental, Health and Safety Management MS