The George Washington University is an institution where students come from all over the world to connect to diverse ideas, cultures, and ways of life. Our Sustainability Minor offers students a platform to examine the critical sustainability issues, and solutions, that affect us all. Students begin with Introduction to Sustainability, a team-taught course that equips students with a strong foundation in global sustainability principles and paradigms. Students build on this foundation by further Investigating sustainability through the lenses of ecosystems, economies, communities, and practices. The capstone experience provides students with a structure for applying what they’ve learned through a semester-long research, service, and/or internship project. Students will be empowered, to consider the competing perspectives of stakeholders, the unintended consequences of decisions, and how action at different levels and scales will affect systems and their component parts. Ultimately, students will gain the tools necessary to bring us closer to achieving our supreme goal: creating healthy and thriving resource systems for all.
Our program collaborates with key faculty and staff spanning a multitude of departments and disciplines across campus. We work closely with Planet Forward, the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, the Food Policy Institute and the Environmental and Energy Management Institute. We support these partners by encouraging students to enroll in their sustainability courses, participate in research and service, and engage in their events and activities. These partners support the minor by identifying students who are committed to sustainability and are interested in pursuing the minor.