STARS Gold

The university’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) Gold rating was reaffirmed from the Association of Sustainability in Higher Education. STARS measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education – not just operational aspects like energy efficiency, but academics, research and engagement. STARS is the most widely recognized framework in the world for publicly reporting comprehensive information related to the sustainability performance of colleges and universities. And VCU is proud to be recognized with its gold rating. Learn more about VCU's STARS Gold rating here.

New VCU School of Life Sciences and Sustainability

In 2025, VCU launched the new School of Life Sciences and Sustainability, within the College of Humanities and Sciences, which will administer and oversee biological, environmental, life and sustainability sciences academic programming, research and other relevant initiatives at VCU. The new school offers undergraduate and master’s degrees in bioinformatics, biology, environmental studies and a doctorate degree in integrative life sciences, as well as certificates in outdoor leadership, river studies and sustainable innovation. Learn more about the VCU School of Life Sciences and Sustainability's degree programs and experiential learning opportunities for students at slss.vcu.edu.

Green buildings

VCU continues to employ green building standards. The university is now home to 24 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings, including one LEED Platinum (Walter L. Rice Center Education Building) – the highest designation – and six LEED Gold buildings. View the full list of LEED certified buildings at VCU.

Experiential learning for students

Optimizing our physical environment is significant operationally but it also presents opportunities for learning and engagement. For example, VCU’s Facilities Management department is looking for ways to reduce stormwater runoff (which improves water quality and conservation). And they are working with the School of Engineering faculty to identify an opportunity for students to create new prototypes of infrastructure (such as a raised garden bed designed for stormwater capture) – starting with the Monroe Park Campus Child Development Center, where pooling, stagnant water is becoming an issue.

VCU also launched the Convergence Lab initiative in Fall 2025, identifying five overarching research themes, including health outcomes and sustainability. The Enterprise Health Outcomes lab and future sustainability lab pave the way for research that contributes to both environmental health and community health outcomes.

Energy performance contract with guaranteed savings

An energy performance contract is a "pay-as-you-save" partnership that allows organizations to modernize their facilities without any upfront capital. VCU used an energy performance contract vendor to identify and install energy-saving upgrades. The contract guarantees that the energy saved will be enough to pay for the entire project over a set period. VCU’s contract yields significant annual savings and long-term infrastructure benefits:

• More than $1M in annual savings.
• Addressed over $12 million in deferred maintenance, allowing the university to fix or replace aging infrastructure (like boilers and cooling towers) that would have otherwise required separate capital funding
• The project is self-funding, meaning the energy savings are used to pay off the cost of the upgrades over time
• Positive environmental impacts
• Annual reduction of 8,956,200 kilowatt-hours per year in electricity consumption (roughly enough to power 842 average US homes annually).
• Annual reduction of 5,317 metric tons of CO2
• Upgrades included LED lighting, building envelope improvements, new chemical fume hood controls and high-efficiency boiler replacements.
• The success of this contract earned VCU a 2021 Virginia Energy Efficiency Leadership Award in the academic category, highlighting it as a model for how large public institutions can modernize their facilities without increasing the tax or tuition burden.

We examine solar on every project and where we can justify it we will use it but currently the costs have been prohibitive. We have also examined retrofits but many require structural modifications that render the projects cost prohibitive. We continue to see new technologies that we may be able to use in the future.

Green labs

VCU’s Department of Occupational Health and Safety in conjunction with VCU Sustainability launched its Green Labs initiatives, optimizing ultra-low freezer temperatures and fume hood efficiency in labs across our campuses. They visited every lab to educate staff, post reminders to close fume hoods when not in use, increase freezer temps, and minimize chemical inventory – in more than 600 fume hoods. We estimate a savings of about 28,500 kWh a year (enough to power about two homes) and, over a decade, savings of about 77 metric tons of CO2 emissions. Learn more about the Green Labs initiative here.

Health

Sustainability is not just about carbon, it is also about community resilience. VCU Health is partnering with community organizations like The Underground Kitchen and the Prescription Produce Program (PPP) to help people with chronic conditions use foods/produce to support overall wellness and care. Through its Mobile Health and Wellness program, the VCU School of Nursing provides "food bags," nutrition counseling and support to navigate social drivers of health. Read more about the initiative here.

VCU is also a major food-service provider serving thousands of meals daily through Aramark-operated academic campus dining and the Morrison-managed hospital system. Faculty and staff representing the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability, the College of Health Professions, School of Business, School of Engineering, Division of Student Affairs, and VCU Sustainability worked collaboratively to create a proposal that integrates food waste prevention, rescue, and composting into a single coordinated framework that can operate across both university and health-system contexts. This project will build upon existing work. The grant team received over $1M of funding from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality which was announced on April 20, 2026.

Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environment

VCU’s Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environment (ISEE), established to create national and international collaborations, held its annual symposium in April 2026. Led by VCU’s Dr. Puru Jena, ISEE was established to coordinate and facilitate collaboration across the varied disciplines who study this important issue – both here at VCU as well as national and international collaborations. ISEE’s annual symposium provides a forum for both students and faculty to pursue innovative scientific, technological, policy and social solutions to address climate and energy. This year’s symposium covered topics including global challenges in sustainable energy; energy distribution, security and efficiency; air pollution; fusion energy in Virginia; human health impacts; education and outreach; and industry and government partnerships. ISEE’s annual symposium is a showcase of research and work across the country – with guest speakers from Duke, Notre Dame, George Washington University, University of Delaware and University of Maryland; our in-state peers and colleagues including George Mason and Christopher Newport; state government and industry partners including the Virginia Department of Energy and Dupont; and VCU’s very own subject-matter experts from science, engineering, technology, business, public health, medicine.

Recycling

VCU added trash and recycling bins to some of the busiest campus and health system thoroughfares, which contributed to the diversion of 1.6 tons of recycling from the landfill, including specialty streams like metal, lighting, electronics and batteries. The Monroe Park Campus diversion rate increased 33.14%, up from 30.34% in 2024. VCU Health's diversion rate was 9.97%, a change from 10.37% in 2024.

Biodiversity

Students and staff transformed 4,000 square feet of steep, hillside turf grass to a biodiverse native plant meadow, reducing the need to mow and inviting beneficial native insect species to the area.

Composting

When VCU added just one strategic location to food composting service, we increased food waste diversion by nearly 37% (in 2025, the university diverted more than 125K pounds of food waste from landfills). 

Food distribution

A new compositing program was established in five dining facilities on the Monroe Park and MCV campuses, including: Shafer Court Dining Center, Laurel & Grace Place, University Student Commons, Children's Hospital of Richmond and the Adult Outpatient Pavilion. As of April 2026, more than 124,700 pounds of food waste have been diverted from landfill. Since adding The Student Commons in August of 2025, the average monthly compost diversion increased by 36.97%.

Green operating rooms

VCU Health System is formalizing green operating room protocols. This includes a transition away from high-impact anesthetic gases toward more sustainable alternatives, which can reduce a hospital's surgical carbon footprint.

Procurement

VCU Health facilities have made commendable progress phasing out styrofoam service ware, like cups and trays, and these items will be replaced entirely by non-styrofoam alternatives by July 1, 2026. The VCU Health system did not utilize a wide variety of styrofoam items, but since they serve many patients and guests each day, phasing out the limited styrofoam items that were in use will notably reduce plastic waste.

Curriculum

A system to track courses that incorporate sustainability content, prioritizing ease of use for faculty and students, is in development.

New sustainability and well-being resources

VCU is expanding sustainability as a component of new student and employee orientations by incorporating more information and materials about culture and sustainability resources in orientation materials. VCU Sustainability also developed a new Green Guide for current students and employees to learn about the One VCU Sustainability Plan and how sustainable behaviors can be incorporated into our daily lives. VCU Employee Health is also implementing resources to support employee well-being, including wellness screenings, health system resource referrals, a dedicated nurse call line, TimelyCare (on-demand emotional and mental health support), healthy heart assessments, medication reviews with a pharmacist, and travel vaccine consultations. Additionally, VCU installed informational signage in two outdoor garden spaces and is identifying outdated outdoor signage and new areas that would benefit from educational signage.

Stormwater runoff

VCU is employing stormwater strategies to reduce runoff from buildings and grounds. This includes identifying a pilot project to understand potential strategies and their impacts on stormwater runoff management. The pilot project consists of landscape and stormwater improvements for the Monroe Park Campus Child Development Center, where pooling and stagnant water has been an issue. The improvements would provide programming opportunities for the center's staff and educational benefits for students, as well as aesthetics and functional improvements.

Additionally, VCU School of Engineering faculty are identifying opportunities for students to fabricate infrastructure prototypes, including raised garden beds designed to capture stormwater.

Community partnerships

VCU is initiating partnerships with external institutions to build a network of collaboration and information sharing. This includes, but is not limited to, VCU Sustainability serving as chair for the Virginia Sustainability in Higher Education (VASHE) in 2025 and remains an active participant in the organization, which shares information and creates collaborative opportunities across institutions. VCU Sustainability brought together and led a new VASHE working group to discuss and establish best practices for sustainability reporting.