Product Stewardship for Sustainability Certificate Program | Johns Hopkins

About the Product Stewardship for Sustainability Certificate Program

The Certificate in Product Stewardship for Sustainability enables professionals to promote responsible design, development, and management of products throughout their life cycle. This certificate program addresses the need for professionals trained in minimizing the health, safety, environmental, and social impacts of a product and its packaging throughout all lifecycle stages, while also maximizing economic benefits. Individuals who complete a Certificate in Product Stewardship for Sustainability will gain competencies that will enable them to manage products and their packaging throughout all lifecycle stages while minimizing human health and ecological impacts.

The certificate program is designed for junior, mid-level, and executive-level professionals (non-degree students) desiring to expand their knowledge of product stewardship to advance their careers. These include working professionals who are already active in the product stewardship field, and those from a wide range of other backgrounds, including environmental health, regulatory compliance, industrial hygiene, occupational health and safety, sustainability, product development, supply chain, and law. The certificate program is also open to masters and doctoral degree students and post-doctoral trainees at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Whiting School of Engineering.

Educational Objectives

Students completing the certificate program will be able to:

Describe the core functions, values and principles of environmental and occupational public health.
Identify and characterize product hazards, exposures, and risk through inherent product characteristics, uses, and misuses of products.
Identify points in the production and distribution processes that create risks for workers, communities, consumers, and the ecosystem.
Select and apply appropriate frameworks to analyze product risks to humans and the environment throughout product supply chains and product lifecycles.
Determine and document appropriate and effective systems for ongoing assessment and management of product and business risk.
Identify and evaluate current and emerging societal issues, regulatory requirements, and voluntary frameworks that may affect products throughout their lifecycle.
Assess risk throughout the products' movement within the supply chain (product trail) to determine if appropriate stewardship systems and risk management activities are in place.
Assess and apply best practices to improve product sustainability and competitive advantage while minimizing business risk through management and product development.

Apply as a non-degree student

Curriculum for the Product Stewardship for Sustainability Certificate Program

Please visit our Academic Catalogue to see the full certificate curriculum requirements. Please also review the certificate completion requirements.

Admissions Requirements

Degree Students

All JHU graduate students are eligible for admission to this certificate program, with the exception of MAS students, who are not eligible to apply until they have completed their primary degree program.

Applying to the certificate program as a JHU graduate student:

Students already enrolled in a graduate program at JHU are not required to submit the School's electronic admissions application, but must submit a declaration of intent form prior to starting coursework.

Eligible Start Terms:

1st and 4th

Non-Degree Students

Junior or mid-level professionals (ie, non-degree students) with at least a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and a strong academic record are eligible for admission to this certificate program.