The Ph.D. in sustainability fosters innovation and creativity in solving real-world challenges within social, economic, technological, and business realms. In this inherently interdisciplinary program, you’ll become part of a network of academics from across RIT who are working to optimize sustainable systems and practices in engineering, manufacturing, energy, education, and more.
In the sustainability Ph.D. program, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from areas across the entire university to develop your own innovative approach to the field, building off of methodologies such as life cycle assessment, environmental risk and impact assessment, design for the environment, pollution prevention, closed loop supply chain management, and product life assessment. Moreover, you’ll work side-by-side with our world-renowned faculty who are avid researchers in diverse areas including biofuels, transportation, energy policy, resource recovery, smart products and systems, and more.
The Ph.D. degree helps you think innovatively about how sustainability can positively impact systems all over the world through big-picture solutions, from training future business leaders to maximizing natural resources. You don’t need a background in sustainability to join this program; you just need a desire to create positive change in the world. We bring in students of all ages, from all backgrounds from biotechnology to business and from all over the world. You’ll also find a wide range of experience many of the program’s students have more than 10 years of career experience and/or education when they enroll.
Plan of study
With the Ph.D. degree’s integrative curriculum, you will develop a deep foundation in sustainability science, sustainable systems, risk analysis, and more. You can also choose several electives from across colleges at RIT from Computational Modeling and Simulation to Principles of Statistical Data Mining to tailor your degree and create interdisciplinary relationships throughout the university.
September 2025
Golisano Institute for Sustainability
190 Lomb Memorial Drive,
ROCHESTER,
New York,
14623, United States
Applicants must
*There may be different IELTS requirements depending on your chosen course.