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.


Elephant expert shares calls, images from the wild

Peter H. Wrege, director of the Elephant Listening Project, shared sounds of the animals at play and under siege in central Africa. He spoke in New York City April 10.

Land-mending advocate to give Iscol lecture April 22

Luc Gnacadja, former executive director of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, will deliver Cornell’s 2014 Iscol lecture Tuesday, April 22, at 5 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall.

Ninth AguaClara water plant in Honduras opens

With the inauguration of another student-designed AguaClara water treatment plant in Honduras, 36,000 Hondurans and counting have access to clean water.

At once-verdant delta, prologue of ecological tale begins

Where once the Colorado River flowed with 5 trillion gallons of water into its verdant delta at the Gulf of California, that gush has trickled to zero. Cornell and Paleontological Research Institution researchers gathered baseline samples to understand the delta’s ecological profile.

Fiber science takes center stage at fashion show April 12

The 30th Cornell Fashion Collective runway show incorporates use of futuristic materials that detect heat and glow in the dark, April 12 in Barton Hall.

'Sustainable shale development' chair speaks April 15

Jared Cohon, board chair for the Center for Sustainable Shale Development and president emeritus of Carnegie Mellon University, will share insight into incorporating diverse, impassioned opinions to frame effective policy in his talk, “Working Together on Shale Gas Policy and Practice,” April 15.

Physical, social scientists tackle big questions

In her new book Sara Pritchard, associate professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, looks at interdisciplinary collaboration on key questions.

Students study responses to flooding in new course

A new course by Shorna Allred, associate professor of natural resources, is helping students study the social impact of flooding at home and abroad.

Dry future climate could reduce orchid bee habitat

By looking at how past climate changes may have affected orchid bees, Cornell researchers make predictions of how these forest bees might respond to future climate changes.