From the "two mountains theory" to the "double carbon goal", the national demand for eco-environmental protection and high-level talents is increasing day by day. Improving the quality of postgraduate talent training has become one of the important topics in the construction of an innovative country and the implementation of the strategy of strengthening the country with talents. Taking North Carolina State University as an example, this paper deeply analyzed the training mode of graduate students in environmental engineering from the aspects of educational system, objectives, curriculum and requirements of graduate training, and compared and analyzed the similarities and differences between Chinese and American graduate training. The results show that well-designed training objectives and curriculum system, as well as the close combination of learning and practicing are the effective experience of environmental engineering graduate training in American public research universities. The results warrant certain practical values for the cultivation of postgraduates of environmental engineering in China, promoting the training quality of high-level talents and the further improvement of scientific and technological innovation and creativity.