The international degree program of environmental management and sustainable development is held in the hall of Mingjing building on October 9, 2018. Prof. Lei Xinghui, Vice President of Tongji University, and Mr. Ha Yu, Director of Training Plan Unit, Academy for International Business Officials, Ministry of Commerce, People’s Republic of China gave welcome speeches. Mentor Representative, Prof. Lin Sijie, 2018 student representative Tesfai Weldu Dawit (from The State of Eritrea ) delivered speeches and expressed expectations the teachers and students place on a bright future of environment and put forward their own vision and expectations towards learning and living life of this new semester. Prof. LIU Jianxiong, Chairman of College Council, College of Environmental Science and Engineering (CESE), Prof. LI Fengting, Executive Deputy Dean of UN Environment-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD), Vice Dean of CESE, and mentors of the new students attended the opening ceremony.

Since the department of commerce launched the degree program in 2015, 102 government officials from 40 developing countries have participated in the international degree program on environmental management and sustainable development of Tongji University. In 2018, the program enrolled 54 students, including 10 Chinese students and 44 international students. Some of them come from state ministries (Ministry of the Environment, Forestry and Agriculture) and some of them are the project officials of international organizations (African Union). 44 students are selected from over 200 applications with the academic background of environmental science, agricultural science, civil engineering, environmental engineering, and so on. The degree program currently consists of two majors, environmental management and sustainable development and environmental engineering, with students from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and small island countries.The institute has established an advanced international education model to train high-level technical talents for "One Belt And One Road" countries in the field of environment and sustainable development, as well as inter-disciplinary technical management talents required by the government and enterprises. After two years of study, most of the participants hold important positions in government institutions, such as the ministry of environment of France, the ministry of agricultural environment of Serbia, the ministry of natural resources of Ukraine, the ministry of economy and trade of Indonesia, the ministry of energy of Liberia. Some of the graduates have also received job offers from Chinese companies or remain in China to pursue doctoral degrees.