Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Cornell is a global leader in sustainability and climate change research, teaching and engagement. Our campuses are living laboratories for developing, testing and implementing solutions that address these most challenging issues.


What’s old is new: customizable system for sustainable cooling

Researchers in Cornell’s Matter of Tech Lab have developed CeraPiper, a fabrication system that creates customized sizes and shapes of ceramic pipes that can be fitted together and filled with water for environmentally friendly evaporative cooling.

The mystery of the Seneca Drums persists

Researchers are plumbing the depths of the largest and deepest of New York’s Finger Lakes to explain the source of its famous booming sounds.

From Milstein scholar to design tech pioneer

Julia Beitel is pursuing a master’s in Design Technology at Cornell Tech, creating projects that fuse design, sustainability, and technology.

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‘Hemp house’ project kicks off new support for NYS hemp

With a $5 million investment from New York state, Cornell is building a processing hub and “service center,” where businesses can research, develop and prototype new hemp-based materials. 

From greener AI to richer 3D worlds: 23 papers debuted at NeurIPS conference

Contributions unveiled tools for analyzing environmental and health interventions, matching images to architectural plans, and generating realistic 3D scenes with unprecedented efficiency.

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Congestion pricing improved air quality in NYC and suburbs

Cornell researchers tallied the environmental benefits of New York City’s congestion pricing program and found air pollution dropped by 22% in Manhattan, with additional declines across the city’s five boroughs and surrounding suburbs.

Groundwork: cultivation rooted in art and action

At the intersection of art, ecology, and community, students enrolled in a course led by Associate Professor Jen de los Reyes explore research and practice that moves beyond the studio and into Ithaca's local ecologies.

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New research initiative to advance finance and insurance solutions that promote U.S. farmer resilience

The new initiative will support finance and insurance innovations that provide producers and agribusinesses with science-based strategies that strengthen soil health, improve water use efficiency, and build farmer resiliency to extreme weather events.  

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A cleaner, less toxic way of making a staple chemical

Hydrogen peroxide plays a key role in paper bleaching, wastewater treatment and electronics manufacturing, and it can be made in an entirely new way.