Student Groups
Women & Sustainability (W&S) is a group that was established by the Earth Institute’s M.S. in Sustainability Management Program. The group strives to advance female leaders working in sustainability through academic, professional, and personal development. W&S also looks to develop a community of women that will act as a support network, providing encouragement and fostering growth.
Events to date have included topics on corporate sustainability, nonprofit and NGO sector initiatives in sustainability, impact investing, and general professional development workshops.
SUMASA is the Student Association for the Master of Science in Sustainability Management program at Columbia University. Co-sponsored by the Earth Institute and the School of Continuing Education, this professional graduate program is designed to equip sustainability leaders with the practical knowledge and cutting-edge skills required to effectively manage the complex opportunities and risks of sustainable development.
Email: [email protected]
The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) Environmental Coalition (ECO) is a graduate student and alumni organization dedicated to elevating the most pressing global and local environmental policy challenges of our time. ECO raises awareness by offering skills-based trainings, hosting educational and social activities, and providing opportunities for advocacy through collaboration. Our goal is to spur action and engage the Columbia community in dialogues that highlight the linkages among our fields.
The SIPA Energy Association (SEA) is one of the largest student organizations at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. We are dedicated to building relationships among SIPA students and energy sector practitioners in the field.
Working with partner organizations across the private, public and nonprofit sectors, SEA aims to educate SIPA students about professional opportunities in energy and to foster information-sharing that complements SIPA's Energy and Environment concentration.
SEA's diverse membership brings a variety of professional backgrounds to the organization. Our student members are enrolled in a number of Columbia University programs and SIPA concentrations, including energy, finance, environmental policy, development, sustainability and security. SEA's members look forward to careers in fields that will directly impact the world's energy future.
Email: [email protected]
The Green Business Club (GBC) is a professional student organization at Columbia Business School. It serves member students by providing educational and career development resources focused on a wide range of sustainable business industries. Its membership has extensive experience working in renewable energy, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, and sustainable consumer goods. It strives to create a network for like-minded individuals in its community to share knowledge and facilitate career building.
Columbia Law School’s Environmental Law Society (ELS) is an organization for students who are concerned about environmental issues and/or are interested in environmental careers.
The group actively advocates for the curriculum to include environmental subjects, and its members promote environmental efforts at the Law School. ELS hosts events with top environmental practitioners from the government, public interest groups, and private law firms. These gatherings include panel discussions and informal lunches.
In addition, ELS also hosts large-scale events. These include an Earth Day celebration and outdoor events such as hiking trips, park clean-ups, and tree-planting.
ELS welcomes all interested and new students, and the organization offers an ample opportunity to become involved at any level.
Email: [email protected]
Visit the Columbia Law School Environmental Law Society website
We are a student-edited journal for environmental law scholarship. We publish articles by scholars, practitioners, and students, as well as short-form online content.
The EcoReps are Columbia’s student-run environmental group. The EcoReps work to make this campus greener and more sustainable in a number of ways.
Email: [email protected]
The first club within the School of Professional Studies (SPS) to focus solely on sustainability in the built environment. Our goal is to foster discussions on building sustainable design and to become a resource for innovative, and impactful advances in the field.
Email: [email protected]
GreenSAPP is GSAPP’s student organization for all things climate and sustainability-focused. Our mission is for students to engage with the climate-centered resources and community of Columbia and New York City. The organization gathers interested students across GSAPP for discussion, events, and site visits related to green built environment topics, including climate adaptation, green building, net zero, environmental conservation, and community engagement. This year, we will have a special focus on increasing cross-program learning and collaboration and hands-on exercises engaging with sustainability and climate change.
To learn more, follow us on Instagram (@columbia_greensapp) or drop us an email at [email protected]!
The Energy & Infrastructure Club aims to foster an active energy community at Columbia Business School (CBS), to provide its members with opportunities to enhance their business knowledge of the energy and infrastructure industries, connect members with energy and infrastructure professionals, and provide access to energy and infrastructure career opportunities.
This group aims to connect academia and industry to work on solutions where finance is used as a lever to promote a sustainable future.
Website: https://www.csfpn.org
Columbia University Impact Investing Network (CUIIN) is a student group on campus committed to informing the Columbia community about sustainable finance. CUIIN focuses on building a supportive community of students with a desire to learn about how the world of finance can be a catalyst for positive societal and environmental change instead of a detriment to it. Our community values diversity in majors, backgrounds, and life experiences because we can only solve the world’s toughest challenges if we work together.
Website: https://cuimpactinvesting.wixsite.com/cuiin
Instagram: @cuiin.columbia
The Student Union for Sustainable Development (SUSD) is an organization of students majoring, concentrating, or interested in sustainable development at Columbia University. In addition to collaborating with the program to strengthen student advocacy in campus administration, the students serve as peer advisers to interested students as well as provide student feedback to the program staff and faculty throughout the year.
Facebook: goSUSD
We teach children concepts in Environmental Science, Sustainability, and the unique ecosystems that surrounds them. During the earliest stages of their educational development, we encourage kids to think in new ways about the world around them through activities, experiments, and discussions, inspiring them to bring the message of environmental stewardship home to their families and friends. In this way, we cultivate the next generation of passionate caretakers of the Earth and promote sustainability from the youngest members of society up.
Website: https://www.sproutup.org/bc-cu
Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development is an online journal dedicated to promoting dialogue on sustainable development by bringing students, researchers, professors, and practitioners from a variety of disciplines and geographical regions in direct conversation with each other through an online, academically rigorous medium. As a multidisciplinary academic journal, our name is inspired by American biologist E.O. Wilson's eponymous text, which proposes ways in which to unite the sciences with the humanities.
Website: https://consiliencejournal.org/
Facebook: ConsilienceJournal
Twitter: @ConsilienceCU
Instagram: @consiliencecu
Nourish International addresses the problem of global poverty by engaging students and empowering communities around the world to fight against poverty.
Facebook: Columbia Nourish
Instagram: @cunourish
Sunrise Columbia is a climate action collective aiming to expose and help fill urgent gaps and loopholes both at Columbia and the broader NYC area. We are also a supportive community for climate anxiety and grief and aim to bring broad inclusivity to the climate movement.
Instagram: @sunrisecolumbia
The Columbia Vegan Society is an academic community that seeks to engage students and professionals on topics related to public health, sustainability and bioethics. The goal of the group is to legitimize veganism by focusing on professional conduct and effective outreach.
Facebook: ColumbiaVeganSociety
Instagram: @columbiavegansociety
Designing initiatives for social impact
Instagram: bcdfa
The Columbia Policy Institute is a progressive, nonpartisan, student-run think tank previously associated with the Roosevelt Institute’s National Campus Network. We release a yearly undergraduate public policy journal, hold weekly policy discussions, and host events with elected officials, policy professionals, and Columbia faculty. Additionally, our policy centers pursue policy-oriented projects, typically involving advocacy, activism, or research, that are designed to create meaningful change on campus and in the local community.
The Energy and Environment Center endeavors to combat the climate crisis and its consequences through policy solutions and community support. The crisis is global, but the Center aims to ensure Columbia, its students, and our broader community play a leading role in its solutions. A previous project helped secure the University's pledge to divest from fossil fuels. However, lack of transparency, vague divestment criteria, and an indirect investment loophole weaken the effect of these commitments. This year, the Center will engage with administration and utilize community pressure to compel the University to adopt a more honest and impactful fossil fuel divestment policy. We will demand well-defined divestment criteria, recognition of scope 3 emissions, and divestment from mutual and index funds that fail to meet a specific standard for promoting carbon neutrality. Join the E&E Center to turn research and community organizing into a policy change that makes our University a global leader in the fight against climate change.
Website: columbiapolicyinstitute.org
Instagram: @columbiapolicyinstitute
A community of creative people who support and inspire one another to imagine just, resilient and dynamic climate futures.
Website: climateimaginations.org
The Environmental Justice Initiative aims to center the voices and the activism of marginalized groups that are both disproportionately harmed by climate change and environmental degradation and disproportionately left out of and consequently harmed by mainstream environmental justice movements. We center race, class, gender, disability, nationality, and sexuality and recognize that the intersections of these identities are often multiply marginalized.
Website: https://actionlab.socialwork.columbia.edu/content/environmental-justice-initiative
Instagram: @ccswaction
SUMA Chapter is the Master of Science in Sustainability Management Program’s Net Impact Chapter at Columbia University in the City of New York. The Sustainability Management Program at Columbia is co-sponsored by The Earth Institute and the School of Professional Studies. SUMA Net Impact was launched in April 2013 and has since developed a growing reception base of over 800 students, including alumni.
Website: https://netimpact.org/chapters/columbia-university-school-of-professional-studies-graduate
Facebook: netimpactsuma
Instagram: @sumanetimpact