Get Involved
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Sustainability Newsletter
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Attend a Campus Event
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How to Green Your Event
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Visit the CECE Clearinghouse
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Become a Green Office
Contact Us
Spring Valley, Room 3rd Floor on a map
Office of Sustainability 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016-8163 United States
CECEcollaborative
The AU CECEcollaborative is a listserv for environmental faculty. Login with your AU credentials to subscribe.
Green Teaching
Become a certified green teacher through the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning.
Sustainability Tours
Request and schedule a tour of campus sustainability features for your class or view our virtual tour options.
Curriculum and Education Resources
Incorporating AU Campus Sustainability into the Classroom
In collaboration with the Center for Teaching, Research & Learning, the Office of Sustainability created a campus sustainability lesson plan that instructors can use in the classroom. This lesson plan includes a narrated video, interactive map, multiple activities, discussion questions, and resources to help instructors incorporate aspects of campus sustainability into their courses. The activities in the lesson plan can be assigned to students during a class period when the instructor will or will not be present.
Faculty can also request campus sustainability or Arboretum tours, use data from STARS, real time energy use, LEED case studies, or the annual greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Faculty are also welcome to partner with the office on special projects which may include work on current sustainability initiatives or research for future projects. Please contact the office in advance to determine a timeline to ensure office staff availability.
Additional Resources
Accessing Curriculum Materials from the U.S. Green Building Council
All instructors and students have access to American University’s institutional subscription to the U.S. Green Building Council. This subscription provides many resources, lesson plans, presentations, and case studies related to green buildings and sustainability.
To access USGBC Reources:
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Create an account through the USGBC website using your american.edu email address.
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Within your account settings, you will see an option to connect your account with an institutional account.
Accessing Curriculum and other Faculty Resources from AASHE
All faculty members have access to resources from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) through AU’s campus membership.
To access AASHE materials:
- Create an account using your American email address.
- Explore curriculum ideas, case studies, mentorship programs, and more.
AU Sustainability Fund
American University's Sustainability Fund advances the university's active pursuit of sustainability by providing financial and administrative support for campus sustainability projects developed and proposed by members of the university community and must help advance the achievement of the sustainability plan.
This program is open to any member of the university community, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and neighborhood residents to propose sustainability projects. Projects must have a research or implementation component on the American University campus or in the community.
Sustainability in the Classroom
The Office of Sustainability asked faculty to self-identify whether any of their classes were sustainability courses or courses that included sustainability. In the 2022/2023 academic year, more than 400 courses were identified as such.
American University has sustainability-supportive learning outcomes in the AU Learning Outcomes from the Provost.
Sustainability Research
A list of sustainability-related research can be found here.