Sustainability & Environment

Startups commercializing foundational research developed in Harvard labs have created various solutions to address climate and sustainability issues, tackling global challenges in industries ranging from cooling buildings to less resource-intensive agriculture and technologies powering our electric grid.

Recent federal funding cuts are hitting climate research hard. The losses will hamper progress, Harvard environmental scientists say, but they won’t stop it.

A new collaboration between Harvard and Berkeley, the Green Industrial Strategy Project is exploring how governments and companies can develop strategies that enhance economic competitiveness and facilitate global decarbonization in a world of intensifying geo-economic competition.

A Harvard atmospheric modeling team has created an online platform that could help communities identify areas in need of controlled burns or other fire management strategies, with the goal of preventing future uncontrolled fires and, more specifically, reducing smoke exposures.

Using NASA laser technology from the International Space Station, a new Harvard study reveals the impact of climate change on global tropical forests with greater depth and breadth than ever before.

Climate change is altering the Earth’s smells and how we perceive them. Experts gathered at Harvard Radcliffe Institute to explore—and try to remedy—this sensory deficit.

Harvard research leads to a new law giving states profits from clean energy, which will be particularly beneficial for rural communities in the American West. 

Climate Up Close—a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that includes climate scientists from Harvard—discusses climate change at community centers across the U.S., where they with presentations designed to foster open dialogue and trust between scientists and American communities. 

Applying the skills she developed at Harvard, Kirsten Van Fossen SB ’12 is exploring how to employ electrochemistry to convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into usable, sustainable fuel.

Inspired by his upbringing, public policy expert Dustin Tingley studies how the transition to renewable energy impacts communities by merging data with insights from people’s lived experiences.