Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Design
Incorporating the disciplines of design, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban and regional planning, the Sustainable Design major focuses on the places, things, systems, and policies needed to help solve problems in a sustainable society.
Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Design
The College of Fine and Applied Arts recognized a unique opportunity to draw on the expertise from across the college to create a new degree program: the Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Design. Incorporating the disciplines of design, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban and regional planning, this undergraduate major will focus on the places, things, systems, and policies needed to help solve problems in a sustainable society. Through a combination of existing and newly developed classes, students will experience an innovative, interdisciplinary, and unique course of study that will prepare them to enter jobs in the public or private sector guiding institutions and society to greater sustainability or continue their educational pursuits in a variety of graduate programs.
Why a Degree in Sustainable Design?
- Rigorous broad-based education in design with a focus on building sustainable communities through intentional design of environmentally sensitive products, buildings, landscapes, and cities
- Draws on disciplines of design, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban and regional planning
- Focuses on the places, things, systems, and policies needed to help solve problems in a sustainable society
- Prepares you for the future in a sustainable world where ideas from many disciplines will be necessary to solve complex problems
- After graduation
- Enter jobs in design firms, planning agencies, industry, nonprofits, and public policy institutes
- Continue preparation in a variety of graduate or professional programs such as landscape architecture, architecture, industrial design, graphic design, urban design, and urban planning or accelerated graduate design programs at Illinois
Study sustainable design at Illinois, a 2022 Gold STARS campus for sustainability performance awarded by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Opportunities and Events for Sustainable Design Majors
Join Sustainable Design and related organizations in these ongoing events and activities, virtually and in person! As the faculty committee learns of relevant opportunities related to the major, they will be listed here. RSOs can email sustaindesign@illinois.edu to have their events included.
BSSD Newsletter Archives
Catch up on news, opportunities, and events through our weekly newsletter! Subscribe here.
We're on Instagram!
🖼️ Have you checked out the ARTD 326 exhibition in the Siebel Center for Design? Stop by before March 24th to see the amazing mycelium projects made by Sustainable Design and Industrial Design students this semester! ARTD 326 Sustainability & Manufacturing is taught by Assistant Professor Savio Mukachirayil! This work is the culmination of a group research project where students work together to research and develop innovative product solutions using mycelium.
🌱 Over the next several weeks we will be highlighting student accomplishments supported by a Fall 2025 BSSD Opportunity Scholarship. This week, we look at Ethan Anderson`s project: "Kingfisher Composting Community-Driven Waste Reduction and Soil Renewal!"
BSSD: Tell us about your project and the progress you`ve made thus far.
🌱 EA: “Last fall, Kingfisher Composting ran a pilot where, once a week, breakfast food scraps were collected from 3-4 classrooms at Yankee Ridge Elementary School and composted in our Black Soldier Fly bins. Students interacted hands-on with the system and participated in presentations by the team about composting, circularity, and sustainability. This spring, we’re expanding our pilot to the lunchroom, with the goal of expanding our impact within the school.”
BSSD: How has the Scholarship supported your development?
🌱 EA: The Scholarship provided resources to implement a food waste design intervention in a community setting. This has required working with teachers, students, community members, school administration, grounds and maintenance, etc., to see through the successful implementation. Navigating these relationships and logistical challenges has strengthened my project management, stakeholder communication, and systems-thinking skills in ways that coursework alone could not.
BSSD: What are your future goals or plans for the project?
🌱 EA: This spring, we are expanding our pilot from classroom breakfast scraps to the school lunchroom at Yankee Ridge Elementary, significantly increasing our waste diversion and educational impact. Longer term, I plan to use the data and relationships built through this project to advocate for composting infrastructure at the district level and to connect Kingfischer Composting’s school programs with university sustainability research and outreach efforts. With the neighborhood curbside pickup program, I`ll look to sustain it for the time being while exploring ways to increase the system`s efficiency so it can handle future expansion.
Congrats, Ethan! We`re excited to follow along as the project progresses!
📢 Make sure you are aware of these important deadlines on March 13
⏰ Deadline to drop POT 1 (full semester) course via Student Self-Service without a grade of W
⏰ Deadline to remove an incomplete grade from the previous semester to prevent a change to an F grade
⏰ Deadline to elect credit/no credit or change credit/no credit to a regular grade basis in POT 1 course
⏰ Deadline to file intent to use Campus Grade Replacement option in POT 1 course
⏰ Deadline to withdraw from the Spring 2026 semester (drop all courses) without a grade of W
📢 Join us for our first BSSD Brown Bag Seminar: How to Ask for Everything: Getting What You Want from Your College Experience! Wednesday, March 11th from12:30-1:30 pm in the BSSD Office (210C Architecture)
👥 Have you ever found yourself stuck but unsure how to ask for help? You`re not alone! Join BSSD students as they share how they`ve built meaningful support networks and shaped their college journeys. Come hear their stories, learn practical support-seeking strategies, and cultivate your own support network!
🍎 Bring your lunch and share in the community!
🍏 BSSD Brown Bag Seminars are informal, student-centered gatherings where you can discuss compelling topics and connect with peers who share your curiosity. This is a space to explore ideas, ask questions, and learn from one another.
Then save the date for the next two programs in the series:
April 6: Getting involved: RSOs, study abroad, design competitions, and community engagement
April 29: Grad School: Why am I thinking about it, and how can I prepare?
@arthistoryatuiuc In conjunction with the exhibition Another Place: Storymaking the Entangled Prairie.
Please come hear the conversation about putting exhibitions together — from concept to collaboration, from research to installation. We’ll also be thinking about who exhibitions are for, how viewers shape meaning, and what it means to create space with — not just for — the public.
Hope to see you there!!
Sustainable Design Students, this will be a great conversation between Design historians and thinking about audiences!
BSSD students check out what`s happening!
📚 March 2- Shannon Mattern Artist Lecture | on Zoom | 5:30 pm
Shannon Mattern is the Director of Creative Research at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. In this talk, she will explore the cross-disciplinary design practice through which the Metropolitan New York Library Council’s new Library Field project is coming into fruition. We’ll examine how myriad design fields — from traffic and water engineering, to landscape and interface design, to wayfinding and media curation — converge in this project, sited on a plot of land just north of New York City. Go to the link in bio to register in advance.
🖇️ March 6- Supply Chain Management Conference | 8:30 am
The focus of this conference is sustainable and socially responsible supply chains. This conference will 1.) bring together leading academic researchers and industry professionals who are committed to sustainable and socially responsible supply chains, 2.) provide a platform for students to learn about recent research and development in these areas. https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/business-administration/supply-chain-management-conference
📐 March 8- Deadline to apply for Architecture Minor
🍁 March 9- Summer and Fall class schedules are available on Course Explorer
📖 March 13- Registration Deadline for Undergraduate Research Symposium
Are you interested in presenting your design research to a larger audience, connecting with fellow researchers across campus, gaining valuable feedback on your designs, and bolstering your resume? Design projects are welcome, and students can present individually or in groups. Applications, including title and abstract, are due March 13th, and the symposium takes place on April 30th. Learn more and apply here: https://undergradresearch.illinois.edu/symposium.html
🏖️ March 14- Spring Break!
As career month wraps up, we`re looking back with appreciation for the alumni who kicked us off with a BSSD mentorship event and round table. Here, they share some of the skills they`ve found essential working in the Sustainable Design field.
🌱 What if we created a library outside? What if the clouds and leaves, snowflakes and weeds, roots and rocks were our collection?
Join us on Zoom, Monday, March 2nd at 5:30 pm for a special guest lecture with Shannon Mattern. Use the QR code or go to the link in bio to register in advance.
Shannon Mattern is the Director of Creative Research at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. In this talk, she will explore the cross-disciplinary design practice through which the Metropolitan New York Library Council’s new Library Field project is coming into fruition. We’ll examine how myriad design fields — from traffic and water engineering, to landscape and interface design, to wayfinding and media curation — converge in this project, sited on a plot of land just north of New York City.
Previously, Mattern held full professorships in media studies, anthropology, and art history at The New School and the University of Pennsylvania. Her research and teaching focus on media architectures, information infrastructures, and urban technologies. She is the author of The New Downtown Library: Designing with Communities; Deep Mapping the Media City; Code and Clay, Data and Dirt: 5000 Years of Urban Media; and A City Is Not a Computer. She also contributes a regular long-form column about urban data and mediated infrastructures to Places Journal and regularly collaborates on public design and interactive projects and exhibitions. In 2025, she was the Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the Library of Congress and the Design Indexer in residence at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. You can find her at wordsinspace.net.
