Graphene oxide (GO), the functionalized graphene with oxygen-containing chemical groups, has recently attracted resurgent interests because of its superior properties such as large surface area, mechanical stability, tunable electrical and optical properties. Moreover, the surface functional groups of hydroxyl, epoxy and carboxyl make GO an excellent candidate in coordinating with other materials or molecules. Owing to the expanded structural diversity and improved overall properties, GO and its composites hold great promise for versatile applications of energy storage/conversion and environment protection, including hydrogen storage materials, photocatalyst for water splitting, removal of air pollutants and water purification, as well as electrode materials for various lithium batteries and supercapacitors. In this review, we present an overview on the current successes, as well as the challenges, of the GO-based materials for energy and environmental applications. A schematic showing the GO/RGO-based hybrid materials for energy and environmental applications along with the SCI-indexed journal publications until now (January, 2015), searched from ISI by the keyword of graphene oxide combined with another one listed in the outer circle (left panel) or the X axis (right panel). Display omitted •The progresses of GO application in hydrogen storage and photocatalytic water splitting have been elaborately summarized.•The progresses of GO application in lithium batteries and supercapacitors have been systematically discussed.•We summarized the versatile application of GO in air and water purification.