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.


AI helps shrink Amazon dams’ greenhouse gas emissions

A Cornell-led team has developed a computational model that uses artificial intelligence to find the most sustainable configurations of hydropower dam sites in the Amazon basin.

Professor delivers sustainability report to UN secretary-general

The U.N.’s Global Sustainable Development Goals report – prepared by independent scientists, including Cornell’s Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue – was delivered Sept. 10 to the U.N. Secretary-General.

Cooling tech company heats up with NSF small-business award

Thanks to a Small Business Innovation Research award funded by the National Science Foundation, cooling technology startup Heat Inverse is set to scale up and pilot its product with customers.

New ‘Botanic Buzzline’ trail connects people, pollinators

The Botanic Buzzline, a 380-foot-long, flower-lined pathway developed by students to help pollinating insects navigate fragmented green spaces, opens Sept. 14 in Cornell Botanic Gardens. 

New council to guide campus sustainability, climate efforts

The Sustainable Cornell Council, announced Sept. 9, will direct and coordinate Cornell’s role as an international leader in addressing climate change and promoting sustainability. It replaces two previous sustainability groups.

Staff News

Interdisciplinary team gets $2M grant for bioenergy conversion

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded an interdisciplinary team of Cornell researchers $2 million to study the combination of inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles and bacterial cells for more efficient bioenergy conversion.

Sustainable polymers center gets NSF renewal grant

Geoffrey Coates is leading a team of Cornell researchers working on the next generation of environment-friendly plastics as part of the Center for Sustainable Polymers, which received a five-year, $20 million grant renewal from the NSF.

Students hunt for maple seedlings in the name of science

Two CALS students worked with local landowners and conservationists in the forests of central New Hampshire this summer, helping communities cope with the decline of sugar-maple populations.

Global partnership plots path forward for Egyptian agriculture

An Egyptian delegation that included that country’s minister of agriculture gathered on campus in early August as part of the Cornell-led Center of Excellence for Agriculture in Egypt.