Health and Well-Being for People, Place, and Planet
We’re committed to making UMass Amherst a place to live, work, and learn in a healthy, supportive, and sustainable environment.
Our Planet, Our Well-Being
As a Health Promoting University, UMass Amherst is committed to creating, cultivating, and sustaining healthy people, healthy places, and a healthy planet. Our holistic vision of health integrates physical, mental, spiritual, and social well-being.
Well-being and sustainability go hand in hand. The long-term health and viability of the planet and its resources directly underpin a healthy and flourishing society. At UMass Amherst, we value our planet and natural resources, highly prioritize sustainability efforts, and facilitate the integration of sustainability initiatives across campus and across categories.
What is health promotion?
According to the World Health Organization, health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behavior toward a wide range of social and environmental interventions.
As a core function of public health, health promotion supports institutions, communities, and individuals in coping with and addressing health challenges. This is accomplished by building healthy policies, creating supportive environments, and strengthening community action and personal skills.
The Okanagan Charter
In 2022, UMass Amherst became the 14th university in the nation to sign the Okanagan Charter, an international charter for health promotion that calls on universities and colleges to embed health into all aspects of campus culture and to lead health promotion action locally and globally.
Associate Vice Chancellor of Campus Life & Wellbeing
Integrating campus sustainability initiatives encompassing academics and research, buildings and infrastructure, campus life and student activities, climate change and energy, food systems and permaculture, and waste and recycling. Email with questions