Golisano Institute for Sustainability
About GIS
A Message from the Director
I would like to welcome you to
the Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) at Rochester Institute of Technology.
The ability of our planet to sustain current environmental quality is threatened by a host of interrelated factors, with climate change, population growth, and industrial development among the most serious. Industrial development is particularly challenging because it is simultaneously the mechanism by which quality of life is maintained and by which the environment is damaged. In 1987, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development identified the grave and inevitable consequences that would result from a failure to change our industrial production, consumption, and development practices.
The Golisano Institute for Sustainability will undertake comprehensive interdisciplinary initiatives in education, research, and technology transfer that build upon a set of RIT’s strongest academic programs and the internationally respected successes of the Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies (CIMS). Over time, GIS will offer a variety of broadly defined interdisciplinary degree programs focused on preparing graduates to serve as skilled change agents at all levels of government, nongovernmental agencies, and business enterprises.
We are very excited about this initiative at RIT and look forward to working with scientists, engineers, social scientists and policy makers world wide to effect changes in industrial development that will benefit future generations.
Nabil Nasr
Golisano Institute for Sustainability
Vision and Mission Statement
Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) at Rochester Institute of Technology is an exciting and wholly unique initiative. GIS will play a major role in enabling the transformation of global industrial enterprises into sustainable systems by undertaking comprehensive interdisciplinary initiatives in education, research, and technology transfer. Programs within GIS will take a holistic approach toward optimizing production and consumption systems by simultaneously addressing material flow, energy utilization, societal needs, ecological impacts, technology and policy factors, and the economics of sustainable business enterprises. Graduates of GIS will be prepared to effect meaningful change on a global scale.