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.
George Mason is the only institution in Virginia, and the only public R1 university on the East Coast, to earn the Carnegie Elective Classification for Sustainability, and has earned four consecutive Gold ratings from AASHE's STARS program.
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.
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George Mason's first Grand Challenge Exchange Day builds connections across disciplines
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.”
President 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.
Events
Campus Sustainability Month begins in October at George Mason, in alignment with the international celebration of sustainability in higher education.
Students and alumni collect on-the-water samples from Gunston Cove for the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center.
George Mason University earns Carnegie Elective Classification for Sustainability
George Mason University has earned the Carnegie Elective Classification for Sustainability, becoming one of the first 14 institutions to receive the new classification for integrating sustainability across the curriculum, research, operations, career preparation, and community engagement. Learn more.
Honors College students mapped beech trees and disease symptoms in Daniels Run Park in Fairfax.
Helping City of Fairfax respond to Beech Leaf Disease on the 9/11 Day of Service
On the 9/11 Day of Service, first-year Honors College students helped the City of Fairfax confront beech leaf disease, mapping trees and symptoms to protect a canopy of 4.2 million beech trees. Read more.
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.
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 is 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. In 2026, George Mason received more than $1 million from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the second-largest award to any Virginia college or university, to expand food rescue and composting on campus. Read the full story.
