The University of Texas at Austin’s clear commitment to advancing sustainability is evident in its operational, academic, and policy level initiatives. Students, faculty, and staff are collaborating across disciplines and departments to reduce life cycle costs, restore and maintain the university’s natural systems, and enhance human well-being through education and research, campus planning, administration, and outreach.
For information about specific operational divisions, go to the Campus Partners page.
Academics
The university’s academic community is fully engaged in creating meaningful interdisciplinary and sustainability-focused learning and research opportunities for its students on both the undergraduate and graduate level. With over forty sustainability-related degree plans and concentrations and thirty UT Austin Centers and Institutes engaged in sustainability research on campus, the university is forging new academic pathways to prepare the next generation of leaders to address the world’s most pressing economic, environmental, and social challenges.
Operations
Offices and administrative departments across campus are dedicated to decreasing the university’s operational footprint through areas such as resource conservation, green building, sustainable building occupant behavior, maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems, green purchasing, waste reduction and diversion initiatives. Review our Natural Resources Conservation Plan, or click through to the Operations page for more initiatives.
Policy
The university’s commitment to sustainability includes having sustainability goals that inform administrative policies and procedures in the areas of planning, decision-making assessment, reporting and alignment. Policies such as the university’s Campus Sustainability Policy aim to integrate knowledge of sustainability with actions to promote it at all university levels.
