Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon has many student organizations and activities that allow our students to actively participate in the greening of the campus and community!  If you would like your student environmental organization to be listed here or if you are looking for the student contacts for any of these organizations please contact Barb at bk11@andrew.cmu.edu

The Carnegie Mellon University chapter of the non-profit humanitarian organization Engineers Without Borders is a group of students dedicated to understanding the challenges that face humanity today, and creating socially-conscious and environmentally sustainable technologies to improve quality of life for local, national, and international communities.

The Smart Growth Club provides a venue for future leaders to come together and address critical issues affecting the livability of our region. Balancing the long-term impacts and short-term outcomes of sustainable and equitable growth requires an integrated understanding of social and environmental factors, economic development, and public policy. The ability to analyze information and build partnerships across these areas is critical for success in both public and private spheres, and is what we aim to promote among members of the Heinz College community.


The mission of the Heinz College Smart Growth Club is to help students explore the intricacies of and interconnections between three key fields and their practitioners: community and economic development, environmental policy, and state and local government.


Sustainable Earth aims to encourage Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh Community to actively practice ways of living sustainably. We also aim to network with other organizations, on and off-campus, who are interested in strengthening environmental initiatives in Pittsburgh. We organize participatory community events and volunteer activities open to all, such as: The Environment Today, a student-developed course on current environmental issues; trips to local sites of interest to learn or volunteer; work days in the community garden we maintain; a campaign to reduce the use of bottled water (and other plastic waste) on campus; a campaign to promote and introduce more local, sustainable, organic food options on campus; a campaign for alternative energy systems on campus; our sustainable design and build group's projects; trips to national conferences and competitions; Environmental Leadership Programs; and other activities that educate the campus and Pittsburgh Community.

The Net Impact chapter at the Tepper School of Business has a mission to promote the education and understanding of business ethics and corporate sustainability and responsibility among MBA students and other interested graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University.

Net Impact's mission is to make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of new leaders who use business to improve the world. With over 150 student and professional chapters on six continents in 80 cities and 110 graduate schools, a central office in San Francisco, and partnerships with leading for and nonprofit organizations, Net Impact enables members to use business for social good in their graduate education, careers, and communities.

"The Green Practices Committee will strive to develop university practices that improve environmental quality, decrease waste and conserve natural resources and energy, thereby establishing Carnegie Mellon as a practical model for other universities and companies."

As a non-advocacy, educational organization, Carnegie Mellon Student Pugwash strives to increase awareness of the ethical dilemmas created by the interactions of science, technology, and medicine within contemporary society and approaches to dealing with these dilemmas. Our interdisciplinary perspective helps to bridge the gap between knowledge and action in areas such as biotechnology, computers in society, management of technology, national security and nuclear weapons, energy, technology transfer, and the environment.

Carnegie Mellon Student Pugwash is non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, non-partisan, and student run. At its center, Pugwash has a steering committee, all which directs the group through popular consensus.

Carnegie Mellon Student Pugwash encourages participation of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. We encourage participation from all majors, as this leads to an interdisciplinary approach that stimulates more universal, well-rounded thought and discussion. All of our meetings are open to those willing to contribute and learn from its activities.


Habitat for Humanity is an international, nonprofit, ecumenical Christian ministry founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live. Through the work of Habitat, thousands of low-income families have found new hope in the form of affordable housing. Churches, community groups and others have joined together to successfully tackle a significant social problem - decent housing for all.  Today, Habitat for Humanity has built more than 400,000 houses, sheltering more than 2 million people worldwide.

Since its founding in 2000, Carnegie Mellon's campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity has spent the past eleven years striving to achieve the mission of the organization.  Student members of the campus chapter provide aid not only in the Pittsburgh area through monthly builds with local affiliates, but also on a national and international level by conducting service trips to various parts of America and the world.

The Carnegie Mellon University Explorers Club is a student run organization dedicated to bringing together people with an interest in the outdoors since 1959. We venture into the wilderness through organized activities such as rock and ice climbing, mountaineering, caving, hiking, backpacking, flat and white water boating, sailing, skydiving, mountain biking, scuba diving, and more.

Solar Splash is an intercollegiate solar boat competition sponsored by the IEEE Power Electronics Society. This year it will be held in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The competition has several different events which showcase different aspects in the design and engineering of a solar electric boat.

We are a group of undergraduate students organized in an effort to promote alternative fuels and energy sources. The group is open to any Carnegie Mellon student and many majors are represented in the organization.

The group is mainly composed of engineers because the technical aspect of designing an efficient and competitive boat provides hands on experience that can't be gained in the classroom. We are students who have dedication and will work on a project to ensure its completion, even though most of us are not receiving credit for our work.

CMU Solar Splash is a rich interdisciplinary setting with students from many different majors. Students from Tepper, MCS, CFA, and H&SS are involved in both the construction of the boat and the business and the running of the organization. This includes raising funds through grant proposals, promoting the organization, and keeping track of the organization's finances.

The Carnegie Mellon University Spring Carnival is the biggest annual event in the school year. Student organizations across campus, whether independent or Greek, work very hard to succeed in uniquely competitive events featured during the three-day period.

Alternative Break is a student-managed organization which endeavors to provide service-learning experiences to the Carnegie Mellon community. Alternative Break accomplishes this goal by planning student trips that involve participating in experimental service-learning opportunities, pre-departure educational sessions, academic credit, and outreach sessions to share these experiences with the larger campus and regional community. Previous Alternative Break trips include Immigration Studies in the United States and Mexico border region, Hurricane Relief in the Gulf Coast, and environmentalism and Spanish culture at the Congal Biomarine Reserve in Ecuador. we have also rebuilt homes damaged in Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, helped teach english in Peru and worked at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

For information: altbreak@andrew.cmu.edu