September 3, 2025

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Welcome back to campus! We are excited to begin another year of advancing sustainability together and building on the incredible momentum you’ve helped create. We had a busy summer developing resources and programs that we are excited to share with the campus community in the coming months. This year, our work will focus on several key initiatives that bring our commitment to a more resilient, sustainable campus to life.

Through our living campus projects, we’ll continue transforming our campus into living laboratories that connect learning with practice. Our utility data management efforts will help advance energy efficiency and conservation efforts, while our recently launched green labs program will support researchers in reducing energy costs. We are also driving progress toward a circular economy through multiple zero waste initiatives and continuing to build on our sustainability reporting and resilience planning.

The passion for sustainability across our Institute is a constant source of inspiration. We have seen how the Georgia Tech community's willingness to embrace the toughest sustainability challenges with creativity drives us toward solutions. Thank you for your support. Our team looks forward to working with you this year.

Jennifer Chirico, PhD, MPH

Associate Vice President of Sustainability 

We are excited to share our newly developed, interactive GHG Reduction Strategy Simulator! Our online campus tool is the first of its kind in the Southeast. It allows students, faculty, and staff to learn more about greenhouse gas scenarios by "choosing your own adventure" towards net-zero emissions. Users can test the impacts of scenarios and strategies and develop their own mix of solutions. 

Please send us your results and share your input to sustain@gatech.edu. We look forward to seeing creative applications across the campus community!

After more than a year of stakeholder engagement and planning, Infrastructure and Sustainability (I&S) completed the Institute's Utility Master Plan. The plan defines the major infrastructure projects needed to support the Institute over the next ten years, aligning short term needs with long term campus growth. This is a major achievement and a positive step forward in meeting our sustainability goals, including: 

Members of our team served on the steering committee (Jennifer Chirico, associate vice president of sustainability; Jermaine Clonts, associate director of utilities; and Abby Bower, program and portfolio manager). We are grateful to Executive Director of Infrastructure, Greg Spiro, with I&S, for his leadership in spearheading the plan and to Hanisha Dandamudi, senior planner, for project management support. Read highlights of the plan here.

Sustainability can feel like it has its own language, especially on a college campus. In a recent article published in the Times Higher Education, AVP of Sustainability Jennifer Chirico helped demystify "Key terms you should know to advance net zero goals across the university." Check it out!

The Office of Sustainability is thrilled to welcome a new cohort of Living Campus Fellows and Student Assistants this year. Below are the projects we have lined up for them this semester. We look forward to working with them and supporting their efforts in advancing sustainability on campus.

Join fellow lab managers, faculty, and students to discuss best practices in lab sustainability. Registration required.

Register for the SMART Campus Forum: Water Management on Sept. 18 and save the date for the Campus Sustainability Forum on Oct. 15.