Environmental Sociology is a sub-discipline of Sociology focused on researching, analyzing and communicating the complex and wide range of interactions among human societies and the environments that they inhabit. The growing recognition, among all segments of humankind, of the interface of individual and societal well-being and environmental quality helps to define—and elevate—the remit of Environmental Sociology. Significantly, the field has focused on the social dimensions of the ambient, natural environment and the built, human-made environment.

Topical examples of Environmental Sociology include efforts to: understand environmental thought and action as parts of wider social endeavor; clarify how and why people and their cultures perceive environmental opportunities as well as environmental problems; and, investigate, interpret and communicate the nature of drivers of natural and human-induced decline or improvement in environmental condition. Additional foci of the discipline are designed to address the spectrum of issues from environmental degradation and globalization to sustainability and local food systems. Increasingly, these foci aim to disclose the reasons behind inequitable distribution of environmental hazards (for example, investigations of circumstances wherein socially disadvantaged populations often encounter greater exposures to myriad environmental stressors and hazards).