Overview

Founded in 1986, YSEC strives to educate the Yale community about current environmental challenges and debates, advocating for environmentally conscious behavior, responsible consumer choice, sustainable university policy, and environmental justice. We seek to partner with campus organizations, other colleges and universities, non-profits, and major international initiatives in order to bring our objectives to light at Yale, within New Haven, and around the world. Since 1986, the Yale Student Environmental Coalition and its constituent groups have built a genuine tradition of successful environmental initiatives. It was a YSEC report authored at the turn of the last century, “The Yale Green Plan,” which led to the creation of the Yale Office of Sustainability. The President of Yale University, Peter Salovey, has credited work of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition as being “very influential in helping to establish the kinds of sustainability policies and organized effort around sustainability that we see on campus today.” The Yale Student Environmental Coalition is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, an observer NGO at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and an indispensable part of the Yale community. Over the years, YSEC has won multiple external awards for its work and its contributions to the global good. We unite Yale undergraduates, bringing together those who share an understanding that environmental issues worldwide overarch many of the very greatest threats to political justice and economic prosperity. Welcome to YSEC.