LSR Minor
Minor in Leadership in Social Responsibility
We are proud to offer the country’s first undergraduate minor in social responsibility designed specifically for engineers and applied scientists. The Minor in Leadership in Social Responsibility prepares Mines students to become leaders in promoting shared social, environmental and economic value for companies and their stakeholders.
Graduates of the minor will be sought out by corporate employers desiring engineers who are prepared to factor in public perception and community acceptance into the decisions they make and the technologies and processes they design. They will also be well prepared to take jobs that explicitly address corporate social responsibility, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability.
The minor is 18 credits (6 courses), includes a mix of social science and engineering courses, and is designed to fit into the flowchart for your major. Please email Prof. Kevin Moore, Director of the Humanitarian Engineering Program, at kmoore@mines.edu to sign up for the minor or for an up-to-date course listing.
Course List
For the most current course information, please confirm against the Mines undergraduate course catalog.
Course Code |
COURSE TITLE |
COURSE CREDITS |
H&SS ELECTIVE CREDIT |
|
| Minor-Specific Requirement | ||||
| EDNS 430 | Corporate Social Responsibility | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| HE Core (Take All Three) | ||||
| EDNS 315 | Engineering for Social and Environmental Responsibility | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| EDNS 478 | Engineering & Social Justice | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| EDNS 479 | Community-Based Research | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| HE Elective (Pick One) | ||||
| EDNS 401 | Projects for People | 3.0 | x | |
| CEEN 401 | Life Cycle Assessment | 3.0 | x | |
| CEEN 472 | Onsite Water Reclamation and Reuse | 3.0 | x | |
| CEEN 475 | Site Remediation | 3.0 | x | |
| CEEN 477 | Sustainable Engineering Design | 3.0 | x | |
| CEEN 479 | Air Pollution | 3.0 | x | |
| CEEN 556 | Mining and the Environment | 3.0 | x | |
| EBGN 340 | Energy and Environmental Policy | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| MNGN 470 | Safety and Health Management in the Mining Industry | 3.0 | x | |
| PEGN 430/530 | Environmental Law and Sustainability | 3.0 | x | |
| Or another course approved by the minor director as appropriate | ||||
| H&SS Elective (Pick One) | ||||
| Any 400+ McBride Honors course | ||||
| HASS 419 | Environmental Communication | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| HASS 425 | Intercutural Communication | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| HASS 468 | Environmental Justice | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| HASS 490 | Energy and Society | 3.0 | ✓ | |
| Or another H&SS course approved by the minor director as appropriate | ||||
| Please note that only 9.0 credits can be double-counted toward other graduation requirements. Please see the course catalog and minor director for additional information. | ||||
Students who graduate with the LSR minor will be able to:
- Understand and envision the critical and transformative role that engineers can play inside corporations to advance the interests of environmental and social sustainability, the two pillars of the triple bottom line that can be easily neglected in favor of economic sustainability
- Articulate the business case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the financial costs to companies of operating without a social license to operate
- Identify critical social and environmental issues related to project development and operation; the strengths and limitations of current corporate practices for mitigating them; and the relevant international performance standards that set best practices for managing them
- Minimize social risks by recognizing best practices in community engagement (including contextual listening; stakeholder mapping, ranking and prioritization; and grievance management), and tailoring these to specific cultural contexts
- Select key outcomes and success criteria for CSR programs, including the need for an exit strategy to ensure long-term sustainability
- Effectively integrate CSR into the project scoping, planning and development timeline
- Define and solve engineering problems and design solutions in a way that promotes a company’s social license to operate with local communities, including by incorporating stakeholder feedback into engineering design criteria
- Recognize different perceptions, both positive and negative, around development projects by listening to diverse stakeholders, including special interest groups such as indigenous peoples
- Work in multidisciplinary teams, recognizing the value of the knowledge and skills brought by people from other disciplines, industry practitioners, community members, and the trades.