Sustainability

While many of their peers were spending spring break catching sun at the beach, members of the Impact Fellows Program were busy engaging with organizations and professionals in New York City to see how they run their operations while being dedicated to social impact, sustainability, and community service. 

George Mason professor Celso Ferreira recently redesigned his Flood Hazard Engineering and Adaptation course to work with community partners to deliver real projects as part of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth’s (ISE’s) NSF Accelerating Research Translation (ART) Seed Translational Research Project (STRP) Program.

As part of its commitment to sustainability and community engagement, George Mason University Korea held its fifth annual beach clean-up at Masian Beach in Yeongjongdo, Incheon, on April 19. Students, faculty, and staff from both Mason Korea and the University of Utah Asia Campus participated.

Through a new solar array at George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus, the sun will play double-duty in the successful growth of plants. Solar energy will power the President’s Park Greenhouse with the electricity it needs to support the plants growing inside.

Since the arrival of Steve Pulis, purchasing manager in Facilities, George Mason University has earned more than $1 million in surplus property sales—including furniture, equipment, and more. Pulis started working at George Mason in 2017 and has helped the university add money to its general fund by effectively managing the commonwealth’s surplus sales process.

The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution is one of only two U.S. universities to receive the honor.

For its commitment to campus sustainability, George Mason University has earned a Gold rating in the STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System) Assessment. STARS is a self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance and is offered by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

Mason Korea student Yoonseo Cho is a rising senior in George Mason’s Global Affairs Program and a greenhouse research intern for University Sustainability.

Three Virginia municipalities will see lower energy costs and lower emissions thanks to the Schar School’s Local Climate Action Planning Initiative’s Energy Action Plans. More are coming.

Helping the community understand the parameters of recycling and composting is one of the biggest challenges in recycling and waste management, according to Kevin Brim, supervisor in Facilities Management at George Mason University. “It can be confusing trying to decide what is recycling, trash, or compostable,” said Brim. His team is working hard to change that.