Environmental Management

Learn how environmental systems function, and explore contemporary environmental management principles, tools, and legislation that we can use to address human impact on the environment.

You’ll review case studies and current practice to develop your knowledge of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in addition to key concepts such as the circular economy, corporate sustainability, resource management, environmental hazards, and ecosystem services.

You’ll develop key skills needed by professional environmental managers working in the field, including:

• Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• Environmental risk, uncertainty and decision-making
• Ecosystem, energy and waste management
• Ecological survey and monitoring strategies
• Environmental auditing
• Data management and analyses
• Human behaviour change
• Change management
• Reporting and public communication.

Trimester one and two

We provide you with core knowledge and skills, in particular environmental systems and management tools, to work as an environmental professional instigating and managing change, data handling, and reporting.

You’ll study contemporary issues, and benefit from talks from specialists in the environmental industry.

Optional modules give you the opportunity to develop a greater depth of knowledge in several of these components, for example energy and waste management, ecosystem services and sustainability principles.

Trimester three

The third Trimester is devoted to your independent research project where you’ll work with your supervisor or a topic of particular interest to you. This might be a project working with an industry partner, and will allow you to demonstrate your environmental understanding in an area relevant to your interests and career, from biodiversity to business.

This course includes or offers the following modules. Please check the course handbook or definitive programme document for full details on which modules are core, required or optional, including those considered as part of the Business and Management pathway. 

• Principles of Environmental Management
• Waste, Energy and Pollution Management
• Environment and Society: Global Perspectives on Policy and Practice
• Professional Practice
• Ecosystem Management
• Applied Geomorphology
• Research Project.

You’ll tackle a range of assessment types, all with a strong emphasis on applying the skills you learn during your course to workplace scenarios. These include writing technical reports, presentations and the use of electronic media, such as developing web pages or preparing public communications. There are no written examinations.

Teaching comprises a mix of workshops, seminars, small tutor groups, practical/field work sessions, and online/desk-based activities. We invite industry professionals to address specific topics, share their expertise, and enable opportunities for networking.

Newton Park offers a good range of teaching facilities, including well-equipped laboratories and on-site field work resources. In addition we use a network of field sites for developing skills and demonstrating case studies.

From October to May, you’ll have opportunities to visit a materials recycling facility, sewage works, anaerobic digestion plant and a local river system. There are also ad hoc opportunities to engage with ongoing environmental and ecological fieldwork at Newton Park campus. Other field work will depend on your research project. There are no additional charges for these visits.

Our students work with guest speakers from a range of environmental consultancies and from companies in the waste, oil, quarry, construction, and food industries. 

Our learning outcomes for this course meet the standards set by the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Management (IEMA), which is the largest global membership of environment and sustainability professionals. This is an IEMA accredited degree, and as such all students have free membership of IEMA and access to the valuable network and workshop and training opportunities that this provides.

On successful completion of the degree, you’ll be awarded the GradIEMA postnominals (e.g. Joe Bloggs GradIEMA). From here, you can choose to fast-track to practitioner status (PIEMA).

This course will allow you to substitute up to 30 credits of Environmental Management modules with Business and Management modules.

Environmental managers often need a range management skills, such as entrepreneurial skills to set up a business, marketing skills for their environmental products, or the successful financial management of a project, department or company. Optional Business and Management modules provide you with an opportunity to develop some of these important management skills.

We encourage you to participate in research competitions such as the Quarry Life Award (Heidelberg Cement, biannual) and we have an annual prize for the 'Environmental Manager of the Year', sponsored by KIER.

Recent projects related to the Environmental Management course include:

• Quarry Life Award (International winners of the Biodiversity Enhancement Award for woodland enhancement at Whatley Quarry, Somerset)
• Defra-Wessex Water
• Paid Ecosystem Services Research Case Study for treating sewage treatment work effluent using a constructed wetland
• Resilient People, Resilient Ecosystems (RESPiRES)
• Operation Wallacea, Dominica.

The Twinhoe building, which combines study areas with expert laboratories and facilities, will be the base for this course. You will also work on our Newton Park campus, which is a great natural laboratory for environmental management work.

Environmental Management students have access to a wide range of field sampling and recording equipment, well-equipped laboratories, specialist software, and library resources.

You'll also have access to Bath Spa Observer, our digital mapping platform that compiles environmental data collected by students, staff and the public from across our University campuses.