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.


Merlin Bird ID app identifies more than 450 bird species by sound

You love beautiful bird song. But what birds are singing? The free Merlin Bird ID app has more than one way to help you find out.

Around Cornell

Light, oxygen turn waste plastics into useful benzoic acid

Researchers have discovered a new path for polystyrene, a type of plastic that makes up a third of landfill waste worldwide, that includes being upcycled into benzoic acid - a chemical with wide commercial demand.

Renowned environmental photographer James Balog to visit Cornell

Renowned environmental photographer James Balog, an A.D. White Professor at Large, will visit Cornell on April 18-23. 

Around Cornell

Easy test can see if breeding bulls have the right stuff

Forget sending bull semen out for complicated laboratory tests to learn whether the agricultural animal is virile. Cornell scientists have developed a faster, easier microfluidics method.

Cornell team develops more efficient photocathode

A team of researchers at Cornell’s Center for Bright Beams has developed a technique to address limitations with photocathodes, which are vital to the performance of some of the world’s most powerful particle accelerators.

Deserts ‘breathe’ water vapor, study shows

A Cornell-designed probe shows how water vapor penetrates powders and grains – a finding that could have wide-ranging applications in pharmaceutical research, agriculture and food processing, and planetary exploration.

$6.75M EPA grant to fund Great Lakes food web monitoring

Cornell received the grant to continue efforts to monitor and research the lower part of the food web, particularly zooplankton like Mysis and benthic invertebrates.

Student grants serve communities from New York to Ethiopia

Students aim to reduce aviation emissions, support farmworkers and improve a New York animal shelter with the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement’s Serve in Place awards.

Facing high water, Hudson towns reimagine waterfronts

With the Hudson River rising from a fast-warming climate, the cities and towns along its banks now have an opportunity to save and reimagine their municipal waterfronts.