Contact Us

Office of Sustainability 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016-8163 United States

Get Involved and Go Green

There are numerous ways to get involved with sustainability on campus whether you are a student, staff, or faculty member at American University. Explore the drop-downs below for more information.

Students

Join a Student Organization

There are numerous student organizations on campus dedicated to waste, gardening, beekeeping, energy, and the environment:

AU Beekeeping Society
AU Community Garden
AU Outdoors
AU Sunrise Hub
AU Zero Waste Club
Climate and Conservation Policy Club
Climate Reality
Engineers for a Sustainable World
Net Impact
RE-volv Solar Ambassadors
Society of Environmental Leaders
Sustainable Ocean Alliance
WCL Community Garden
Email sustainability@american.edu to have your organization added to this list.

Serve as an EcoRep

EcoReps are energetic undergraduate students who volunteer approximately two (2) hours of their time each week to promote sustainability and inspire personal behavior change among students, faculty, and staff. If you are passionate about the environment and want to help make a difference on AU's campus, apply to participate in the EcoRep Program!

Become a Sustainability Intern

Sustainability Interns are part-time, paid students hired to work on a variety of projects in the Office of Sustainability. Projects include data analysis and research related to ongoing sustainability projects, work on green building and campus sustainability reporting, sustainability outreach and communications, and education and curricula development.

Sustainability Interns are hired for an entire academic year, and applications for internships are posted each summer. Subscribe to the sustainability newsletter to receive notifications about upcoming internship opportunities.

Green Your Life

Climate change is a global problem, one that will require action and solutions from every level of government, from our institutions and the private sector, and from individuals like you. It can be challenging to know where to start and how to make a difference; our Green Living Guide can help you get started.

Staff

Become a Green Office

The Green Office Program supports and rewards offices that adopt sustainable practices within their team. Through the completion of three checklists, offices progressively expand their commitment to advancing university sustainability initiatives.

The intent of the program is to:

Establish a culture of sustainability.
Build a community across offices.
Provide tangible guidelines for sustainability focused actions.
Offer sustainability education for the university community.
Establish an opportunity for staff and faculty do their part to meet the university's sustainability goals.
Since 2011, nearly forty campus offices and more than 600 staff and faculty have participated.

Faculty

Sustainability in the Curriculum

Request a sustainability tour, guest lecture by Office of Sustainability staff, or data on campus sustainability by emailing sustainability@american.edu.

ECOllaborative

Join American University's environmental collaborative, ECOllaborative.

Green Teaching Program

The Center for Teaching, Research and Learning manages the Green Teaching Certificate. Faculty members at American University can qualify for a Green Teaching Certificate by answering a number of questions about their efforts to make their courses more sustainable.