George Mason University plays a leading role in addressing critical sustainability challenges through its research, academic mission, and physical footprint. We celebrate Earth Month all year long through our dedication to solving big problems in collaboration with the local, regional, and international community to foster healthy people, a healthy planet, a healthy economy, and a healthy society.
Grand Challenge Initiative
George Mason’s Grand Challenge Initiative is a university-wide collaboration addressing humanity’s most pressing challenges through six interlocking strategies, supported by a $15 million investment over five years.
Sustainability is one of George Mason's core values.
We educate leaders, conduct interdisciplinary research, invest in sustainable infrastructure, and promote and support socially conscious entrepreneurship. Join us in solving the complex challenges of today to create a better world tomorrow.
Rescuing our future to ensure a healthy planet, healthy people, healthy economies, and healthy societies will be the central organizing cause of the rest of our lives. It is our job to conduct research to find solutions to our overlapping grand challenges – and to educate students to solve them.”
Dr. Gregory Washington
George Mason's Campuses are a Living Lab
From the canopies of the trees in our accredited arboretum to the stormwater running into Mason Pond, George Mason experts are conducting research locally that can and will have an impact globally. Learn more.
The Jarvis family installing the rainwater harvesting system in collaboration with Facilities and Campus Operations.
Making every drop count at the campus greenhouse
A new rainwater harvesting system is coming to George Mason University’s Presidents Park Greenhouse, thanks to a donation from the Society for a Secure and Sustainable Water Future, a nonprofit organization based in James City County, Virginia, and dedicated to advancing long-term water sustainability through practical solutions, sound policy, and public education.
Professor Luis Ortiz with his Micrometeorological Modeling class.
This course turns climate science into real-world impact for Virginia communities
What difference does a tree make? That’s what George Mason University researcher Luis Ortiz wanted to find out with his course, CLIM 759 Micrometeorological Modeling for Local Climate Action, in which students work individually with community groups to study their needs and model the outcomes of various interventions.
Access to Excellence Podcast
The modern grid: the intersection of energy and the environment
On this episode of Access to Excellence, Leah Nichols and Liling Huang join President Gregory Washington to discuss George Mason’s capabilities as a living laboratory for students, faculty, and staff to find solutions to our Grand Challenge of preserving and protecting humanity's ability to build the future of its choosing. Listen now.
Are Earth's oceans suffocating?
President Washington speaks with Geoffrey Gilleaudeau, associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences Department in the College of Science, about the past, present, and future of Earth’s oceans according to the physical and chemical characteristics of sedimentary rocks. Listen to this episode.
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Follow George Mason
George Mason University puts research and scholarship into action to support a just, prosperous, and sustainable world. George Mason launched its Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) to lead this applied research. The ISE supports interdisciplinary research by connecting experts in various fields with each other and to policymakers, businesses, civic organizations, and communities.
In addition to the ISE and the university-wide Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities, nine of our schools and colleges have affiliated research centers that focus on an aspect of sustainability. George Mason is one of the top research universities in the nation, holding an R1 designation from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
Learn More
Institute for Sustainable Earth
Center for Climate Change Communication
Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation
Potomac Science Center
Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC)
- PEREC focuses on Potomac River restoration and local sustainability practices, so that the local ecosystem will be healthy for years to come. We translate our research into award winning and engaging field programs for K-12 students and the larger community.
- PEREC faculty and students have researched a large number of watersheds within the northern Virginia area including many in Fairfax County, Prince William County, and Clarke County.
Mason Research Centers
George Mason has a variety of degree programs, minors, and classes in the field, such as Environmental Science, Conservation Biology, and Food Systems. Many are designated Green Leaf Programs and Courses focusing on sustainability. George Mason provides students interested in sustainability with an immersive experience that will allow them to craft a career in any field.
Buildings
Our practices include: constructing LEED buildings; managing stormwater runoff; growing food in our greenhouse; planting bee pollinator gardens and teaching apiary management; making carbon-neutral/green purchases; being energy efficient; composting; and reducing waste.
Fuse at Mason Square will be a LEED Platinum, smart, net-zero-ready building with Fitwell 2-star and RELi resiliency. It will feature a green roof for energy-efficient heating and cooling, an agile floor design to enable responsive team or project growth, and specialized labs for robotics, virtual reality, simulation, security and data visualization.
Potomac Science Center is a destination for environmental science research along the Chesapeake Bay watershed and meets LEED Silver certification standards.
Food Sustainability
Our food system produces approximately 2,000 pounds of fresh produce every year, which supplies our dining halls and raises $20,000 to pay for supplies, staff, and utilities.
