University of St. Thomas
AC-4: Graduate Program

The Graduate Certificate in Sustainability is designed to give students the knowledge and skills necessary to lead and manage sustainability initiatives and foster transformational change within organizations. Students of this certificate program will gain a deep understanding of sustainability principles and their practical applications, including the challenges and opportunities of transitioning to sustainable practices. Students will learn how to use sustainability assessment tools to measure, manage, verify, and report on their organization's sustainability efforts.

This interdisciplinary graduate certificate program is designed to be accessible to students from a variety of fields and backgrounds, including engineering, law, business, policy and more.

This certificate addresses the microgrid and the penetration of alternative energy systems (Distributed Energy Resources - DERs) into the legacy power grid and the humanitarian/sustainable evolution in developing countries where microgrids may leap-frog grid-deployment itself. Two of the four required courses are sustainability-focused (Power Electronics and Smart Grids; Renewable Energy Generation) and a third course is sustainability-inclusive (Electric Machines and Vehicles).

There is significant demand, especially in regulated industries, for individuals with a strong understanding of corporate risk management, compliance, governance, social responsibility and sustainability – and a specific need for leaders with knowledge and skills across these critical functions, which are seldom optimally aligned in organizations. The graduate certificate in Strategic Risk and Responsibility aims to explore the interconnectivity and influence of these key areas to improve managerial decisions and strategic planning, while providing students with the fundamentals of risk evaluation and decision theory, reputation management, corporate governance, compliance programs and processes, and organizational business ethics—with particular attention paid to corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and resilience.

The two core courses, BETH 650: Compliance Programming and MGMT 751: Risk Management, are based on the organizing principle of the relationship between risk management, compliance, governance, and sustainability. All students choose an elective from one of the following Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability courses (3 credits):
- Global Risk Leadership & Sustainability (MGMT 753)
- Strategic Sustainability (MGMT 714)
- Social Entrepreneurship (ENTR 708)