A Study of the Environment, Connectivity, and the World Around Us

Pacific Lutheran University sits upon the traditional lands of the Nisqually, Puyallup, Squaxin Island, and Steilacoom peoples; we acknowledge and respect the traditional caretakers of this land.

Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the relationships between humans and the environment. Managing the environment requires interdisciplinary tools and knowledge about natural systems, human institutions, beliefs and values, and the dissemination of these ideas through business, education, nursing and other professions.

Within the environmental studies curriculum, the social sciences provide perspectives on the environment from a human point of view, balancing the ecological perspectives contributed by the natural sciences with the economic and political aspects of human society.

Courses in the humanities bring the insights of religion and ethics as well as a body of literature and artistic appreciation that connect the natural world to human sensibility.

Natural sciences bring the insights of biologists, chemists, and geoscientists to studies of human interaction with the natural ecosystems, seeking answers to complex, inter-related problems of resources, population and pollution in an effort to care for the world we live in.

Junior and senior-level environmental studies courses draw on these diverse disciplines to integrate understandings of and solutions to environmental problems.

Majors and Minors

Our majors and minors learn how to ask questions about the complex relationships between people and the environment by drawing from a range of disciplinary perspectives.

Clover Creek Watershed

Check out our Clover Creek Watershed website to learn about the unique interdisciplinary coursework our students complete in ENVT 350.

Meet Our Faculty

Passionate faculty committed to critical thinking and care for the Earth support environmental studies students as they learn how to integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives to environmental issues on campus and on the Clover Creek watershed.

Earth Day Lectures

Each spring semester, Environmental Studies coordinates the PLU Earth Day Lecture. Our speakers have included prominent scholars, noted activists, and political leaders.

Learn more about Earth Day Lectures