Sustainability and Consultancy MSc

Prepare yourself for a career in the increasingly relevant field of sustainability consultancy through our hands-on and industry-led Sustainability and Consultancy MSc.

This course aligns closely with the challenges of sustainability and the skills that businesses and organisations need to tackle those challenges, with a strong emphasis on project skills. You will be taught the principles of the field, and have the opportunity to choose sustainability topics which align to your specific interest, as you build up to a focused professional consultancy project in which you will carry out discrete analysis with one of our industry partners.

Specialist modules are delivered by academic staff, practising consultants and other practitioners, giving you exposure to real-life, international case studies with a good understanding of the contemporary project and sustainability management techniques and solutions you will need to become a leader in the field.

Course highlights

• This is an accredited Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) course and is widely recognised by employers as a real benefit for anyone in a role with environmental responsibility.

• A major component of this Masters is that you will manage a consultancy project, which is usually in the form of an engagement with a professional organisation. This experience plays a key role in your personal and professional development.

• Sustainability is an integrated issue across our teaching, rather than separating the environmental, economic and social elements.

• You will benefit from the School of Earth and Environment’s active research environment as well as our excellent links with industry, ensuring that course content is both research-led and relevant to the industry.

Industry links

We have successful and productive links with many partners with different perspectives on sustainability and consultancy. During your studies, you will come into contact with our network of industrial partners through teaching, personal development workshops and whilst undertaking your final consultancy project.

External partners include consultancy providers such as Aecom, Arup, Buro Happold, JBA Consulting, Jacobs, ERM, Mott MacDonald and WSP in the multidisciplinary and environmental consulting fields, as well as other consultancy providers with management and wider sustainability portfolios such as Sodexo, retail bank small business services and Business in the Community.

We also work closely, on both research projects and teaching, with consultancy clients from the private sector (e.g. Yorkshire Water, Burberry), non-profits (Opera North, UnLtd) and public sector (e.g. Leeds City Council, Environment Agency, NHS).

Our industrial partners consistently report that the combination of academic rigour, professional skills development and project management experience inherent in this degree, ensures that you will have the combination of skills and knowledge to be effective straight away.

As a result, you will be seen as ‘work ready’, with fresh ideas and innovative ways of working in your chosen career area.

The strong relationship with businesses and other influential organisations in the field of sustainability means that, through your consultancy project, you will be able to contribute to transforming business to prepare for a more sustainable future.

Programme team

The Programme Leader, Paul Abbott, is an experienced sustainability consultant who has spent over 30 years delivering high quality projects and services to large companies, SMEs, government departments, professional institutes, awarding and validating bodies and institutes of further and higher education.

Leading in the field for over 10 years, academics from the Sustainability Research Institute – one of the largest academic groups of sustainability experts in the world – will form part of the wider programme team.

Online taster courses

Our Environmental Challenges collection is a five-part series of free online courses, delivered via FutureLearn. Ideal for current undergraduate students or mid-career professionals considering a Masters degree, this series explores how environmental management policies are developed and the challenges surrounding their formulation.

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Accreditation

This course is accredited by IEMA, the professional body for everyone working in environment and sustainability. This course entitles you to student membership for the duration of the course and on successful completion you qualify for GradIEMA.

Graduate membership is a launchpad for future leaders within environment and sustainability and offers a range of benefits to support you throughout your career. You can then “Fast track” to Practitioner Membership.

You will take nine months of taught classes, followed by approximately three months of independent project work in association with an industry partner.

Semester 1

You will take lectures and seminars which lay the theoretical foundation needed for you to gain an in-depth understanding of sustainability topics, beginning with project management. Through lectures and seminars you will learn how to manage both projects and contracts in a sustainability context and will be taught essential skills for a consultant such as managing budgets, dealing with changes in scope of a project, managing activities and developing tasks to successfully deliver a consultancy project.

During semester one you will also have the opportunity to choose modules which focus on a broad range of consultancy theoretical topics. These topics may include issues associated with corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, alternative economic models such as ecological economics or challenges faced by climate change in a sustainability setting.

Semester 2

During semester two you will apply the knowledge gained in semester one in a more practical way, beginning to think about how these things will work in practice.

The focus of the modules you will study will be on embedding sustainability within both projects and a wider organisation. You will approach this idea from two different angles; delivering sustainability on discrete projects and embedding sustainability at an organisational level.

Optional modules in this semester will allow you to choose which topic appeals most to you; regulation and planning or issues and cases in corporate responsibility. The former tackles an area in which many consultants often end up, working with developers working on planning big infrastructure projects such as power stations and railways. Whereas the latter will allow you to focus more on CSR and in-company sustainability.

Throughout the year you can also take part in personal development workshops and activities including networking with project hosts, helping you secure a successful research project for semester 3.

Semester 3

The focus now switches to your individual work in which you will apply the knowledge and skills that you have developed in both semester one and two in a real world scenario. Over 10 weeks you will work with one of our industry partners to deliver a sustainability consultancy project, in which you will carry out some discrete analysis and produce tangible outputs to the client/host organisation.

The School will help you to find a partner company through our industry contacts, though you are free to develop your own project with a company of choice should you already have connections or links within industry. For many of our students the links formed through this project work has led to a job after graduating.

You will then present the progression you have made in your project around the end of June, submitting your final dissertation in late August.

Want to find out more about your modules?

Take a look at the Sustainability and Consultancy module descriptions for more detail on what you will study.

Course structure

The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our Terms and conditions.

For more information and a full list of typical modules available on this course, please read Sustainability and Consultancy MSc in the course catalogue

Modules

Year 1

Learning and teaching

You will learn through a variety of methods including lectures, practical workshops, computer lab sessions, research seminars, field trips and project work.

The research-intensive environment of the School ensures that your course material is both up-to-date and research led. And our strong links with industry ensures that course content is relevant to needs of the sustainability industry.

You'll also learn the scientific and rational principles lying behind the practical approaches used in the world outside academia, so that your skills keep pace with changes in technology or the regulatory environment.

You will be assigned a personal tutor, who will maintain contact with you throughout the year and offer pastoral guidance. They will help you to settle into the university and clarify any procedures, as well as helping you prepare for employment on graduation. You will also receive administrative support from SEE’s dedicated Student Education Support office.

Our Virtual Learning Environment will help to support your studies: it’s a central place where you can find all the information and resources for the School, your programme and modules.

You can also benefit from support to develop your academic skills, within the curriculum and through online resources, workshops, one-to-one appointments and drop-in sessions.

On this course you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

You will be assessed through a variety of ways including both written and oral assignments and exams. And through individual and group work.

Your final project work will involve you presenting your findings before completing your project and dissertation. You will also complete assessments which help you develop your knowledge of the consultancy sector and how to present yourself for consultancy roles, as well as gaining experience in the essential practical processes of health and safety and ethical risk assessment.

Entry requirements

A bachelor degree with a 2:1 (hons) in a natural, environmental, physical, geographical, management or social science subject.

This course is ideal if you have enthusiasm for environmental debate and concern over the future sustainability of human and environmental systems. You are also likely to benefit from this course if you have a background in other disciplines with relevant work experience in the fields of environment and/or development.

Applicants with a 2:2, or equivalent, will be considered on a case by case basis where applicants can demonstrate relevant work experience or aptitude in a relevant specialist field. Graduates from other disciplines and those with professional experience in the sector will also be considered.

We accept a range of international equivalent qualifications. For more information please contact the Admissions Team.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English

International students who do not meet the English language requirements for this programme may be able to study our postgraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

This pre-sessional course is designed with a progression route to your degree programme and you’ll learn academic English in the context of your subject area. To find out more, read Language for Science (6 weeks) and Language for Science: General Science (10 weeks). 

If you need to study for longer than 10 weeks, read more about our postgraduate pre-sessional English course.

How to apply

Application deadlines

Applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible.

29 July 2022 – International applicants

9 September 2022 – UK applicants

Applications for 2022 entry will open on Friday 1 October 2021. From that date this page will contain a link to take you to information on applying for taught programmes and to the University's online application system.

If you're unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Taught Admissions Policy 2022

Fees

• UK: £12,250 (total)
• International: £26,000 (total)

Read more about paying fees and charges.

Brexit 
Visit our Brexit page for the latest information on the effect of the UK's exit from the EU on current students and applicants to the University.

For fees information for international taught postgraduate students, read Masters fees.

Additional cost information

We hope to run our fieldwork activities as planned for the 22/23 academic year, but it might not be possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are continually reviewing the situation and will communicate any decisions to applicants and offer holders at the earliest possible opportunity.

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more about additional costs

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There may be help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government.  Find out more at Masters funding overview.

A degree from Leeds and the experience you'll gain here will give you the edge to find the career you want. Your course will give you the experience and knowledge that employers are looking for to help you secure a job.

The University of Leeds is in the top five most targeted universities in the UK by graduate recruiters, according to High Fliers’ The Graduate Market in 2021 report.

Sustainability is a hot topic. We know that we are facing issues such as climate change, problems caused by the production of waste, the loss of bio-diversity and much of these can be caused by our industrial and commercial activities.

To meet the challenges of the future we must address these issues, and that’s why businesses and organisations across the world are looking for sustainability experts to help them reduce and mitigate their environmental and social impact.

Sustainability consultants can be found all across the globe, in a number of different organisations. Many work in the big engineering consultancy firms that build big pieces of infrastructure such as power stations, tunnels, roads and railways, where they assess the environmental and social impact of these developments and come up with plans to mitigate the effects.

Other consultants may work at business level, helping companies to reduce their own environmental and social impact caused by the execution of their business activities. Whilst many find themselves working in the public sector such as with local authorities.

Regardless of where in the world you want to live and work there is a need for sustainability expertise, and with increasing legislation from governments and industry’s own desire to remain competitive, this need is only going to become more prominent.

Graduates have gone on to a wide variety of careers in sustainability, including areas such as:

• environmental consultancy and planning

• corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility

• sustainability strategy

• environmental and social impact assessments and project financing

• environmental management

• carbon reduction and energy management

• stakeholder management and engagement

• policy development

• project management

• sustainability assessment.

• environmental, social and governance consulting (ESG)

Recent graduates have secured positions within the public, private and NGO sectors including:

• Consultants: Aecom, Arup, Buro Happold, ERM, Jacobs, JBA Consulting, Mott MacDonald, PWC, RPS, Sweco, WSP, WYG

• Other private sector: Heathrow, Primark, Burberry, National Grid

• NGOs and Public sector: 2degrees, Bradford Council, Environment Agency

Our alumni are currently working in many parts of the world including Australia, Canada, Germany, India, the Netherland, UK and USA.

Read profiles of our alumni to find out more about where some of our graduates are working.

Careers support

Careers support

At Leeds we help you to prepare for your future from day one. Our Leeds for Life initiative is designed to help you develop and demonstrate the skills and experience you need for when you graduate. We will help you to access opportunities across the University and record your key achievements so you are able to articulate them clearly and confidently.

You’ll have access to the wide range of careers resources and support from your Careers Service. You’ll have the chance to attend industry presentations, book appointments with qualified careers consultants and take part in employability workshops and webinars. Our careers fairs provide further opportunities to explore your career options with some of the UKs leading employers.

You will also have full access to the University’s Careers Centre, which is one of the largest in the country.

There are also plenty of exciting ways you can volunteer during your time at Leeds. Find out more at the Leeds University Union website.