What should MIT’s Office of Sustainability prioritize to address student needs and interests?

In January 2025, nineteen undergraduate delegates came together for a three-day Student Assembly on Sustainability to learn, deliberate, and vote on a set of recommendations for the MIT Office of Sustainability.

The Questions We Asked

When did you first hear about sustainability or climate issues? What feelings accompanied that experience?
Do you think it’s possible for individuals to make a meaningful impact on sustainability, do you think it’s primarily an institutional responsibility, or a mix of both?
Imagine a sustainable MIT campus 50 years from now—what changes do you envision, and how would you like your contributions to be remembered?
What questions do you have for experts in sustainability or experts in making change on MIT’s campus?

The Answers We Received

Student trust in large institutions is currently strained because of what feels like a lack of transparency and ineffective community engagement.
Students want to stay up-to-date with sustainability news and opportunities, but there is no effective, central communication channel, so it is difficult for both administrators and students to know how to reach one another.
Students know that sustainability is a core issue for this generation, but they are barred from action by the complexity of this polarized issue as well as their own limited energy.
As an influential center of higher education, delegates believe MIT should be integrating education about sustainability into every students’ experiences, if not their coursework.

Our Partners

MIT Office of Sustainability
MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative
The Office of Experiential Learning
The Boston Climate Action Network
Extinction Rebellion Boston
DemocracyNext

Hannah F, MIT Undergraduate

JS Needed

Personally, I think that it really just shows that, yes, it's a widespread problem, but it's also there's a lot of really inspiring and really intelligent people out there who really want to create a solution.

Next Steps

Delegates drafted, deliberated on, and voted for a list of recommendations to be passed on to the Office of Sustainability. Fifteen of these recommendations received the Assembly’s endorsement (80% or more of the delegates’ votes).

Additionally, the realtalk team created a public portal to share data from the deliberations with MIT stakeholders and beyond as they plan on-campus engagement and communication strategies.

Get Involved

Check out our opportunities, fill out the interest form to pitch your own project, or email realtalk@mit.edu with questions! We would love to hear from you.