Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Green isn’t just a school color at George Mason University. At Mason, “green” is way of life, and sustainability is central to the university’s mission.

A Mason professor is the sole academic working with the U.S. government in an unprecedented effort to measure environmental-economic activity.

The project, “A study on the ultrahigh salt adsorption capacity of an energy-efficiency water desalination technology,” was supported by a 4-VA@Mason Collaborative Research Grant with the goal of designing next-generation electrode materials to advance the energy-efficient CDI technology.

Mason graduate student’s cherry blossom monitoring research uses Mason as a living lab to assess how climate change affects the bloom date of cherry blossom trees on the Fairfax Campus.

Since 2019, George Mason University’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) has led the university’s contribution to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) North America chapter.

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.

It’s common to think of Indigenous peoples as living in the past. We may think of them around Thanksgiving or in old films and books. But Native Americans are very much here and now, said Jeremy Campbell, and after decades of struggle, that’s starting to be recognized.

In 2018, U.S. legislation granted federal recognition to six tribes in Virginia. A George Mason University team has been partnering with two of them, the Upper Mattaponi and Chickahominy nations, as they embark on being sovereign nations.

John Kotcher, research assistant professor at Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication, says that emphasizing the health implications of climate change is one of best ways to engage the public to fight for better policies.

Mason students attended a screening of the documentary “Guardians of the Forest” and the talkback with leaders of the Maijuna indigenous group in Peru, who were featured in the film.

This spring a small team of George Mason University students used the Patriot Green Fund to enhance the diversity of the university’s Honey Bee Pollinator Garden. This garden, which sits outside of Roberts House on the Mason’s Fairfax Campus, serves as a biodiverse pollinator haven for the bees currently residing nearby in one of the Honey Bee Initiative’s apiaries.