With increasing competition for limited land, water, and other natural resources in the U.S. and throughout the world, as well as growing concern about environmental degradation of various sorts, there is a growing need for professionals who can assist in the process of balancing economic and environmental tradeoffs.

Private firms face serious challenges in meeting stricter environmental regulations and achieving self-imposed environmental goals. Public agencies must continually seek to design policies so that society's resource conservation or environmental quality goals are achieved in a cost-effective manner.

The curriculum builds upon the university-wide general education requirements with a set of core courses in business and economics. Students then take advanced and specialized coursework that focuses on the economic foundations for policies designed to foster natural resource conservation or enhance environmental quality. The curriculum is highly interdisciplinary. Courses are required in the physical and environmental sciences covering subject matter such as conservation, ecology, and forestry, as well as soil and water resource issues. Coursework is required in environmental ethics, environmental law, and other social science disciplines such as sociology. Students gain skills using tools such as geographic information systems for analysis of spatially-referenced data.