UNITY -- Search for the term "sustainability" and Google will spit out 16 million Web references, all presumably revolving around practices that can be continued indefinitely without adversely impacting the environment.

Fortune 500 companies looking to save energy, homeowners hoping to curb their carbon footprints and presidential candidates on both sides of the political spectrum all have started preaching and practicing sustainability.

Unity College is on top of that trend. Beginning in the fall, the school will begin offering two four-year degrees in sustainability. Students graduating with a bachelor of science degree in either of the new programs -- Sustainable Design and Technology or Agriculture, Food and Sustainability -- will be uniquely trained to satisfy government and industry needs at every level, college president Mitchell Thomashow says.

"This is really a national movement. It's very exciting," Thomashow said. "Unity is taking the lead and making a statement. We want to play our role in making this movement really work."

The courses of study for the new majors were developed over two years of research and consultation with those in the business, government and non-profit sectors, said Mick Womersley, professor and director of sustainability at the college. The curricula were approved by the faculty last month.

"We consulted with a lot of people before we designed this degree," Womersley said. "We put in the economic analysis skills, policy knowledge and business skills. This is not just engineering. Engineers can fix engineering problems but they can't fix societal and business problems. You need business management and communication skills as well as the engineering and economics."

Students who complete the sustainable design and technology program will be able to do everything from helping communities and businesses cut energy costs to lobbying for public policy changes.

"Corporations are competing with one another these days for green-ness," Womersley said. "They all want to be the greenest, but somebody's got to do the work. It's a hot industry and very competitive."

The market will get even hotter once there is a national climate bill, which Womersley sees as an inevitability.

"It's a matter of time," Womersley said. "I go to trade shows and national conferences and I see people trying to get positions and be in the right place when we get (a climate bill). These corporations want to be on the right side of technology."

College officials also expect demand to grow for those with a sustainable foods and agriculture degree. The emphasis on selling, buying and consuming locally-grown foods is a national trend, as evidenced by the local foods program implemented in the congressional cafeteria.

"There are a lot of agriculture majors, but this is a food systems and agriculture major," Womersley said. "Graduates of this program will know how to work with food systems from production ... to distribution to the end user. They will be just as effective as farmers, marketing managers, food cooperative managers or high school local foods program managers."

Andrew Marshall, educational programs director for the Unity-based Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, spent nearly a year helping design the agriculture and foods degree. The program dovetails with MOFGA's emphasis on training the next generation of farmers, service providers and policy makers.

"Who we're targeting is people who may want to farm, but they may not," Marshall said. "We're going to give them a really strong grounding in theory and understanding food systems that agricultural schools may not get into. It's a much more multidisciplinary approach than the average agricultural school would give you."

If the programs will produce marketable students, the degrees themselves are already proving marketable for the college. Kay Fiedler, director of admissions for Unity College, said she received 40 inquiries from prospective students about the new majors even before they were officially approved.

"I find that very encouraging, since this is brand-new," Fiedler said. "I think it addresses the fact that nationally there is a need for these types of programs."

And the need is only growing, said Julie Churchill of the office of innovation at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. News of a possibly pending recession and soaring energy costs means there will be increasing needs for sustainability programs that affect economics and the environment.

"Even now there is competition among large companies implementing green practices," Churchill said.

"Any college that is considering a program that touches on those concepts is really forward-thinking," she said. "We need more of our young people educated on these projects and troubleshooting and helping these companies reach sustainable goals."

Unity College in particular, which tends to attract students who enjoy hands-on learning, is primed to help fill the gap, said Stephen Cole, director of Natural Resources and Sustainable Communities at Coastal Enterprises, which promotes environmentally friendly practices.

"They like to do as well as to learn," Cole said. "It's an appropriate school for these kinds of programs."

Unity College has always taught and emphasized environmental practices, but the new majors represent a focus that was not there before, Thomashow said.

"It's a way for a student body and faculty to say we're organizing around these concepts," he said. "This is a way to say sustainability is my profession, not only the way I live my life."

Craig Crosby -- 487-3288

ccrosby@centralmaine.com