Students

How can MIT students get involved with sustainability activities on campus?

Work with the Office of Sustainability

Apply to become a Student Sustainability Researcher
Check out past student projects
- Students reflect on a summer of work with the Office of Sustainability
- Student Researcher Stories: Climate Action Researcher Mahwish Khalil SMArchS '24
- Student Researcher Stories: Climate Action Researcher Janka Hamori '25
- Graduate Community Fellow actively engages the graduate student community in campus sustainability and climate action initiatives.

Use MIT data in your research

Learn about Campus as a Testbed projects
The MIT Sustainability DataPool is an essential tool for tracking MIT's campus sustainability metrics and progress towards climate goals.
The MIT Energy Initiative’s support enables energy research teams across MIT to collaborate with industry, government, and other academic institutions—analyzing challenges and developing solutions.
MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative uses seed grants to encourage new, cross-disciplinary research partnerships that advance progress and solutions on issues of environmental significance to humanity.
MIT's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) offers the chance to work on cutting-edge research—whether you join established research projects with faculty or pursue your own ideas.

Join a student group on campus

Student Sustainability Coalition: Acts as a centralized overarching student sustainability organization, making connections between groups to elevate student voices
UA Sustain: A committee of the MIT Undergraduate Association that’s working to make MIT more sustainable
Waste Watchers: Students trained on the details of MIT’s waste disposal system (i.e. what items go where) and paid to staff shifts at campus events
MIT Food and Agriculture Club (FAC): Brings together students and other MIT community members to coordinate and support work in the areas of food and agriculture.
MIT Water: Brings together creative, passionate, and motivated individuals to explore ways by which research, innovation, and policy can help solve the most pressing challenges in the water sector.
Graduate Student Council (GSC) Sustainability: A gathering point for climate-conscious, action-driven students to collaborate on implementing sustainable practices on the MIT campus with the knowledge, motivation and interest of graduate students at its center.
MIT Sustainability Summit: An annual student-run event that has grown to include hundreds of attendees ranging from professionals, academics and students.
Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development (SEID): The intersection of international development and entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan.
MIT Outing Club (MITOC): Dedicated to helping the MIT and Cambridge community enjoy the great outdoors.
MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team: Road legal, fully solar powered vehicles designed and built by students since 1985

Commute to work or class sustainably

Your commute matters. Check out some options for a low-carbon trip to school or your job.

Explore MIT’s Bachelor of Science in Climate System Science and Engineering

Climate change is the most pressing global challenge of our time. Solutions for mitigating and adapting to climate change require an understanding of both the Earth system and engineering applications—as well as an understanding of human and institutional behavior.

Many of the best jobs held by leaders in the field, will combine scientific understanding of the earth’s systems with engineering skills. The Course 1-12 Climate System Science and Engineering degree program, jointly offered by the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), prepares students to become leaders, helping to accelerate high-impact, science-based solutions to aid the global response to climate change.

Check out MIT's Environment & Sustainability Minor

The Environment & Sustainability Minor is an undergraduate minor offering interdisciplinary coursework and investigations into the real-world challenges facing people and the planet.

Participate in a challenge

IDEAS is an annual innovation and social entrepreneurship competition for MIT students and their collaborators.
The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize honors promising collegiate inventors around the country. The student prize is open to teams of undergraduate students and individual graduate students who have inventions in categories that represent significant sectors of the economy; healthcare, transportation, food and agriculture, or consumer devices.
The MindHandHeart Innovation Fund seeks to leverage the enthusiasm and problem-solving skills of the MIT community to find new and inventive ways of increasing awareness about mental health, building communities of support, and promoting life and wellness skills.
The MIT Climate and Energy Prize is a multi-stage, student-organized business plan competition.
The MIT Water, Food, and Agricultural Innovation Prize brings together early-stage, student-led startups from across the US driving the future of sustainable water, food, and agricultural solutions.

Progress Report

20+

number of student groups on campus focused on climate or sustainability issues

100%

percent of incoming First Year students invited to experience Climate Interactive’s En-Roads workshop at orientation in 2024

63%

percent of undergraduate programs include sustainability-focused learning outcomes

>20%

percent of MIT students who participate in sustainability activities outside of the classroom