Sustainability & Environment

Rising nearly as high as the surrounding buildings and featuring more than 1,400 native plants, Polinature—a temporary garden installation at the Harvard Graduate School of Design—demonstrates a low-cost, low-tech, off-the-grid solution to provide cooling relief to urban areas from acute summer heat. 

The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability announced a fourth round of seed grant awards for work on understudied and emerging topics in climate and sustainability. The projects include research into upcycling dairy waste, the role of autoworkers in the EV transition, measuring the effectiveness of climate adaptation strategies, and more.

The 2023-2024 Harvard Sustainability Report details how the University is leveraging its research and thought leadership to accelerate action toward a healthy, sustainable, fossil fuel-free future.

Harvard engineering students partnered with NASA to design a low-cost, low-altitude blimp capable of tracking emissions from factories, traffic, and wildfires and transmitting the data in real time.

Professor and pulmonologist Mary Rice discusses her new role as the director of Harvard Chan School's Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) and how she's thinking about the intersection of health and climate.

A grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund a new center, based at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, that aims to bring sustainable climate solutions to heat stressed, low-income communities around the globe.

Merging economics with educational psychology, Chika Okafor PhD ’24 finds that emphasizing solutions may offer a better way to communicate about climate change and help address inequality.

Combining data, art, and nature, Bas Smets, an engineer and professor in practice of landscape architecture, builds urban spaces that are prepared for the climate of today—and tomorrow.

As CEO and co-founder of the impact venture Celeste, Leni Peterson R. MS/MBA ’23 aims to help companies mitigate water risks in their supply chains and enhance water stewardship.

People who follow this Planetary Health Diet have a lower risk of every major cause of death, including cancer, heart disease, and lung disease, according to a recent study by Harvard Chan School researchers.