WE NEED A SUSTAINABLE WORLD.
WILL YOU HELP US SHAPE IT?
How to support sustainability research, education and action at LSE
SUSTAINABILITY NEEDS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Our world is on an unsustainable course. We urgently need to find new ways of living and working, so we can improve lives today without compromising future generations.
Sustainability is not just an environmental concern. It is a profound economic, political and social challenge. It demands more than new technology; it requires us to rethink how economies grow, how capital is allocated, how institutions govern risk, how markets are regulated, how legislation is applied, and how groups of people organise themselves. And it requires international collaboration and consensus at a scale the world has not yet managed to achieve.
Creating a sustainable future will not be possible without a deep understanding of how societies function, and actionable insights into how they can change. But for too long, expertise from across the social sciences has not been fully harnessed, coordinated and championed in efforts to set the world on a new path.
The Global School of Sustainability (GSoS) at LSE is changing this. Building on the influential work of our Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, GSoS brings together the wealth of expertise across LSE and its international networks to help steer the most dramatic societal transformation in history.
WHY PARTNER WITH LSE?
LSE is a world-leading specialist social science university, established by social reformers in 1895 for "the betterment of society". Our focus on social science, our connection to policy makers, and our power to convene the world from our home in London make us a unique place from which solutions can be developed and disseminated.
When it comes to sustainability, our impact is renowned. Our faculty produce world-leading, policy-relevant research with case studies and models of how countries are making the transition to net zero. We have issue-driven, multidisciplinary research centres that harness international thinking on health, poverty, green innovation, natural capital, sustainable investment and financing the transition to net zero. Through in-country teams, we have developed partnerships with governments in developing countries across Africa and Asia, most of which have been ongoing for more than 10 years. We innovate in our own fields, developing and applying cutting-edge methodologies to yield new insights, and use our convening power to change policy and spark innovation in sectors beyond our own, including natural sciences, engineering, technology and business. Our work shapes debate and sets agendas for international forums such as UN climate conferences (COPs), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and G20 summits, and the practical tools we create empower people across the world to turn insight into action.
President and Vice Chancellor Larry Kramer discusses how LSE is addressing the great environmental and climate challenges of our age — from reducing carbon emissions to protecting nature and biodiversity — with the power of social science.
Sustainability is embedded throughout our education programmes. Since our founding, the subjects of geography and the environment have been cornerstones of our curriculum, in recognition of the crucial role they play in managing economic, physical and social development. Today, we offer a range of degrees, short courses, summer school modules, capstone projects, field trips, placements and entrepreneurial programmes. By 2030, 100 per cent of our undergraduates will be taking sustainability modules as part of their core training. Beyond their degrees, alumni and non-alumni alike can pursue life-long learning, regularly refreshing their skills and knowledge as careers progress and the sustainability challenge evolves.
We regularly invite the public to engage with, debate and inform our work through a vibrant programme of events, talks, festivals, exhibitions, podcasts, blogs and more, reaching over 8 million people in London and around the world.
The Global School of Sustainability connects, complements and builds upon this work by bringing our sustainability expertise together in one place. Through research, teaching, partnerships and public engagement we open minds, disseminate knowledge, inform decision makers and forge leaders. As a result, we enable better policies, laws and regulations, more responsible investment strategies and financial decisions, and new vehicles for promoting social change, cohesion and innovation.
Natural scientists have told us what to do; now social scientists need to find ways of making it happen. As a world class centre of the social, political and economic sciences, LSE is uniquely positioned to provide such expertise.
Professor Lord Nicholas Stern
Co-founder of the Global School of Sustainability
LSE IS RANKED ONE OF THE TOP TEN UNIVERSITIES IN THE WORLD FOR SUSTAINABILITY
(QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS, 2025)
MORE THAN 50 WORLD LEADERS HAVE STUDIED OR TAUGHT AT LSE
21 NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS HAVE TAUGHT OR STUDIED AT LSE IN THE PAST 100 YEARS
WE WERE THE FIRST UK UNIVERSITY TO BECOME CARBON NEUTRAL
100% OF LSE ELECTRICITY COMES FROM RENEWABLE SOURCES
WE ARE TRULY INTERNATIONAL, WITH STUDENTS FROM 135 COUNTRIES, NEARLY 800 INTERNATIONAL FACULTY AND TEN FORMALISED ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS
OUR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME REACHES MORE THAN 30,000 PEOPLE IN PERSON EACH YEAR, AND 200,000 ONLINE
THE POWER OF PHILANTHROPY
The sustainability challenge is complex and multifaceted.
It demands an interdisciplinary, international response, and long-term thinking coupled with swift action in the here and now.
Traditional public funding often comes with strict disciplinary frameworks and short timeframes, which can force researchers into disciplinary silos and restrict work to near‑term problems. Such funding often fails to keep pace with emerging thought leadership, while new, up‑to‑date funding streams can be slow to develop. Philanthropy, on the other hand, can provide flexible, mission-oriented funding that empowers our people to deploy their time, expertise and resources in the most strategic ways. It can give researchers the freedom to collaborate across disciplines and borders and pursue visionary projects – ones that may be too high-risk, long-term or early stage for conventional funders, despite their potential for impact. Philanthropy can quickly supply essential resources, scale projects and fund crucial behind-the-scenes work that is often overlooked in favour of more headline-grabbing endeavours. And it can offer life-changing opportunities to changemakers from all over the world, removing barriers that prevent them applying their ambition, perspective and expertise for the good of society.
The Global School of Sustainability would not exist without the vision and generosity of its founding donor, LSE alumnus Lei Zhang. Philanthropy brought it to life, and philanthropy is crucial to its ongoing mission.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Support impactful, world-leading research
Sustainability research at LSE coalesces around five interlinked themes:
1. Generating sustainable growth, exploring how economies can deliver prosperity while reducing environmental pressures and increasing resilience.
2. Creating sustainable finance and business, aligning financial systems and corporate decision‑making with long‑term environmental and social value.
3. Mobilising political, legal and governance systems, examining how institutions, laws and political processes enable – or constrain – effective transitions.
4. Protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity, developing policies and economic tools to halt degradation and restore natural systems.
5. Building sustainable societies, ensuring that transitions are fair, inclusive and capable of earning lasting public support.
Your gift can directly support our researchers as they work to reshape societal systems and understand the incentives, drivers, institutions and policies that will enable this. Your support could provide funding for new projects, international collaboration, essential equipment and, crucially, the dissemination of research findings through channels such as academic conferences and open access publications, as well as platforms and resources for the wider public.
Create scholarships for future leaders
Students are the lifeblood of LSE. They are society’s future thought leaders, innovators and catalysts for change.
As those who will be most impacted by the climate crisis and environmental degradation, it is essential that we hear, nurture and empower the younger generations, and ensure students from all backgrounds have the opportunity to become sustainability leaders.
Your gift can create new scholarships at undergraduate, master’s or PhD levels, with a particular emphasis on welcoming students from developing countries. Scholarships remove barriers to education, expand our collective knowledge, and build a community of alumni working to enact positive change throughout the world. By creating new scholarship opportunities, you will equip future leaders to champion sustainable initiatives, manage investments responsibly and lead successful companies that protect natural capital and support a just transition to net zero.
Convene and empower global changemakers
None of our work is possible without exceptional people. By investing in our community, you enable us to attract rising stars and academic leaders, nurture and sustain talent, and convene the world’s experts and decision-makers around pressing sustainability challenges.
Your gift can support:
- The creation of a dedicated convening platform, uniting leading academics, pioneering innovators and emerging thinkers to collaborate, exchange ideas and generate breakthrough solutions to sustainability challenges.
- New academic chairs to secure world-leading academic and strategic leaders.
- Joint teaching and research appointments to deepen collaboration across LSE and with external partners, ensuring ideas and expertise flow freely.
- Professors of practice who bring invaluable real-world insight from outside academia, enriching our teaching and broadening our research impact.
- A high-profile visiting scholar programme that connects our community with international researchers and strengthens our global networks.
- New research posts that expand our teams and help early-career researchers develop their ideas, build their careers, and contribute to major research priorities.
The challenges ahead are formidable. But they are also an invitation to think differently, act collectively, and build a future that is more sustainable, just and resilient. Our work at the Global School for Sustainability is an investment in that future, and is already bringing practical solutions to the table. With additional support, we can continue our innovative work to transform policy, strengthen society and drive real meaningful change.
Professor Jonathan Pershing
Dean of the Global School of Sustainability
BREAKTHROUGHS HAPPEN WHEN WE ALL RISE TO THE CHALLENGE
JOIN US IN SHAPING THE WORLD WE ALL NEED
Built with Shorthand