Who We Are

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Environmental Justice

Established in 2003, the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) is the University of Pittsburgh’s university-wide center focused on catalyzing sustainability research and education. MCSI leads Pitt’s faculty’s sustainability engagement via strategy and programs focused on integrating sustainability into the curriculum, groundbreaking sustainability research, and community outreach and innovation.

For students, MCSI provides a number of opportunities focused on exploring and experiencing sustainability in research, practice, and performance.

MCSI’s Faculty Sustainability Task Force brings together representatives from every Pitt school to advance sustainability through the integration of a multidisciplinary curriculum, groundbreaking research, innovation, community engagement, and partnership. MCSI also creates opportunities to coordinate academic collaborations across campus with Pitt’s other sustainabilityfocused and -related research centers.

Sustainability work at the University of Pittsburgh has spanned decades, working to advance the balance of equity, environment, and economics so current and future generations can thrive. Defined differently by many, “environmental justice” is focused on maintaining healthy environments, especially for individuals and communities who have traditionally lived, worked, and played closest to sources of pollution and/or negative environmental impacts.

The Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation is committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion a part of its research and education efforts by emphasizing the key role environmental justice plays in sustainability.

MCSI will continue to work with communities facing systemic environmental racism to make a positive change and strive towards environmental justice.