Sustainability shows up across businesses—from finance and analytics to entrepreneurship, marketing, and management. And as a Kogod student, you’ll find plenty of ways to explore sustainability both inside and outside the classroom, whether you want to compete, invest, meet industry leaders, or make an impact right here on campus.
Want to build something?
Kogod’s sustainability competitions give you the chance to work with students from different disciplines and tackle real-world challenges.
At the Sustainability Invent-o-Thon, students develop ideas inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, build prototypes in Kogod’s Design & Build Lab, get feedback from faculty, and pitch their solutions.
The AI x Sustainability Challenge takes a different approach, bringing together AI and sustainability. Over eight weeks, student teams use emerging AI and low-code tools to develop solutions to sustainability challenges affecting DC communities.
If sustainable finance is your thing, Kogod’s Student-Advised Impact Investment Fund gives students the opportunity to research and recommend ESG-focused investments for a portion of American University’s endowment.
Students analyze companies, research potential investments, learn from faculty and professional advisors, and ultimately present their recommendations to the Finance Committee of AU’s Board of Trustees.
It’s a chance to see how sustainability considerations factor into real financial decisions—and gain investment experience while you’re still a student.
The Kogod Sustainability Club brings together students interested in responsible business, corporate sustainability, and environmental and social impact.
Through networking events, guest speakers, career conversations, workshops, and collaborations with other student organizations, you can meet classmates who share your interests while connecting with professionals already doing this work.
You can also tap into 15+ university-wide organizations focused on sustainability; volunteer at the AU Community Garden, where produce supports the AU Food Pantry; learn about biodiversity through the AU Beekeeping Society; become an EcoRep; apply for sustainability internships; or even propose your own campus project through the AU Sustainability Fund.
The Kogod Sustainability Review gives students interested in research, writing, policy, or communications another way to get involved.
The student-led research journal explores issues shaping sustainable business today, including AI, sustainable finance, climate resilience, environmental justice, corporate responsibility, and the circular economy.
And you don’t have to be a sustainability student to contribute. Any AU student can submit work or become an editor!
Kogod regularly brings executives, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and nonprofit leaders to campus through programs like Gamechangers in Sustainability.
Speakers from organizations including WWF, Marriott International, EY, and Eat the Change, give students the chance to hear how sustainability challenges are playing out across industries—and ask questions of the people working on them.
Some of the easiest ways to experience sustainability at Kogod don’t require signing up for anything.
You’ll see it in the Kogod building and across AU’s campus. Kogod’s green roof contributes to AU’s approach to green buildings and stormwater management, while all 84 acres of AU’s campus are an accredited arboretum, making biodiversity and sustainable landscaping part of your everyday surroundings.
Sustainability reaches into classrooms and offices, too. AU’s Green Teaching Program encourages faculty to incorporate sustainable practices into their courses, while the Green Office Program helps offices put those same ideas into practice. Kogod is currently recognized as a Gold-level participant in the Green Office Program.
Together, those features make campus itself another place to see the concepts you encounter in class put into practice.
You don’t need to do everything—or know exactly where your interest in sustainability will take you.
Enter a competition. Go to a speaker event. Join a club. Write something. Explore sustainable investing. Volunteer on campus. Or simply start noticing the ways sustainability is already built into the place where you’re building your future.
At Kogod, sustainability isn’t just something you can study. It’s something you can see, experience, and start putting into practice from day one.