The Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education incubates and supports community-engaged sustainability projects, courses, and professional development programs. Its curricular and co-curricular programs welcome students from all majors and reflect a commitment to an interdisciplinary, experiential approach to sustainability education and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Our educational programs and projects are fueled by collaborations with on-campus and community-based partners in areas such as climate equity and a just energy transition, in which GT students are poised to become change-makers.

ILSI is an interdisciplinary initiative that promotes servant leadership and organizational practices that contribute to a more just, caring, and equitable world. Through workshops, coursework, grants, and a major lecture series, ILSI empowers our community to account for the economic, social, and environmental impacts of businesses. We bring together students, researchers, business leaders, and social entrepreneurs in ways that stimulate core-level change.

The BBISS Graduate Fellows Program trains grad students to work and study as an interdisciplinary sustainability research team. Launched in the Fall of 2021 with funding provided by a generous gift from Brook and Shawn Byers and guidance from a Faculty Advisory Board, the BBISS Fellows receive supplemental training in sustainability, team science, and leadership. They will apply their skills and talents, working directly with their peers, faculty, and external partners on a long-term, large team, sustainability relevant Vertically Integrated Project. They will participate in the organization and hosting of a seminar series in which they will invite and meet global leaders in sustainability, and they will have additional opportunities to develop professional networks, to publish, to draft proposals, and to acquire knowledge and develop other skills critical to their professional success and relevant to their intellectual interests.

The Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research (VPIR) and the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) are excited to announce an institutionalization plan for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) that will advance two of Georgia Tech’s Institute Strategic Plan (ISP) initiatives - Sustainability Next and Transformative Teaching and Learning (TTL) - and strengthen our service learning, community engagement, and sustainability ecosystems at Georgia Tech. Established as Georgia Tech’s last Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), SLS launched in 2016 as a unit in OUE and concluded its official QEP work in 2021.

Devised by the BBISS and sponsored by the Kendeda Building Advisory Board, the Micro-Grants Research Program solicits proposals for very small scale ($50 to $500), short term, sustainability related, research studies to be conducted by members of the Georgia Tech community. Community investigators are encouraged to explore ways in which the Georgia Tech campus can continue to innovate, demonstrate, prove, and promote the adoption of best and next practices in regenerative design and operations. Researchers were also encouraged to use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for research design. All members of the Georgia Tech community are encouraged to apply. The program especially sought proposals from students and staff that had little or no prior research experience.