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.


To bolster lithium battery life, add a little salt

Striving to achieve safer, longer-lasting batteries for the modern world’s trappings – automobiles, cell phones, computers, autonomous robots – Cornell chemical engineers have added salt to their chemistry.

$20M grant to support developing eco-friendly plastics

A five-year, $20 million National Science Foundation grant will allow chemists from Cornell and other institutions to study new ways to make plastics more sustainable.

Grad students master mentoring in Arizona field course

Three graduate students learned from faculty members Jed Sparks and Harry Greene how to teach field courses to undergraduates on a 10-day field course to Arizona.

Liners can protect pipelines during earthquakes

Cornell civil engineers have found that retrofitting pipelines with flexible tubular membranes saturated with thermosetting resin could prevent earthquake damage to seismically vulnerable pipelines in the U.S.

Ag secretary briefed on nutrition, dairy, climate research

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack met with Cornell faculty members July 29 to learn about solutions in the realm of dairy, nutrition and climate change.

Book on international development has site for online dialogue

A book on international development co-edited by a Cornell professor has spawned a website for continuing discussion.

Ag business is no longer business as usual, says expert

Mike Hoffmann, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, discussed climate change issues July 29 for the Agricultural Working Group of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in Washington, D.C.

Groundwater is safe in potential N.Y. fracking area

Two Cornell hydrologists have examined drinking water in a potential hydraulic fracturing area in New York’s Southern Tier, determining that it is safe to drink and within federal guidelines.

North Atlantic right whale's prospects tied to climate

A pleasant scientific surprise: The North Atlantic right whale population – once projected for extinction – exhibited an unexpected increase in calf production and population size during the past decade.