Sustainability Research

Jeremy Campbell, associate director for strategic engagement in Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth, says that at the current pace the Amazon rainforest, in five to 10 years, could pass a tipping point in which it could transform into grasslands. That process, fueled by deforestation and climate change, has already begun and is a threat to the biodiversity and socio-cultural aspects that define the region.

The National Science Foundation's Navigating the New Arctic researchers traveled to a remote location to attend the Permafrost and Infrastructure Symposium in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, some 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

Mason graduate students helped the environment, nonprofit organizations and the local community with summer projects through the Sustainability Summer Graduate Research Fellowships. This summer marked the first time Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) has offered the fellowship program.

Mason senior Eva Noroski spent a month assisting alumna and Elephant Trails keeper Ashley Fortner at the National Zoo, researching elephant sleep patterns.

Solving climate change is a grand challenge facing the planet. As more individuals and leaders are recognizing the need to switch to environmentally friendly practices, George Mason University’s Local Climate Change Planning Initiative (LCCPI) is helping make that a reality for counties across Virginia.

“Our vision is to have Mason be the lead university in helping counties that lack the resources and expertise in [addressing climate change] get this done,” said Paul Bubbosh, a 1988 Mason alumnus and adjunct professor at the Schar School and College of Science.

Lisa Gring-Pemble, co-director of Mason's Business for a Better World Center and co-founder of the Honey Bee Initiative explains how the initiative has become and international phenomenon and how the Business for a Better World Center is helping businesses drive sustainability success.

Through a new large collaborative grant funded by the National Science Foundation, Aditya Johri, professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology, will work with researchers from Iowa State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on use-inspired research to address one of the world’s grand challenges‑‑sustainably feeding the nearly 9 billion people who will inhabit the Earth by 2050.