Sustainability

The Gambia Goat Dairy builds sustainability through community

Since its founding by Penn Vet students in 2016, the Gambia Goat Dairy has worked in partnership with Gambians to serve its community. The research and teaching farm also gives current students the opportunity to use their veterinary skills for social good.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano

Engineering a solution for microplastic pollution

May graduates Sarah Beth Gleeson, Shoshana Weintraub, and Julia Yan will use their President’s Sustainability Prize to create a device for trapping microfibers in laundry machines to reduce ocean microplastic pollution.

Erica K. Brockmeier , Amanda Mott

A multidisciplinary approach to considering the Earth’s changing systems

Bringing expertise from each of their disciplines, the School of Arts & Sciences’ Kathleen Morrison and Joseph Francisco and the Environmental Innovations Initiative’s Melissa Brown Goodall infused chemistry, anthropology, policy, and more into an introductory course on climate and the environment.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A farm-to-table meal at Penn, in photos

Honoring Earth Week, Penn Dining and the Penn Food and Wellness Collaborative teamed up to create a vegetable-forward menu for Quaker Kitchen, sourcing produce from local purveyors to highlight what’s currently growing on the quarter-acre Penn Park Farm.

Michele W. Berger

The Clean Water Act at 50

Approaching the half-century mark of this landmark piece of environmental legislation, Penn students, staff, and faculty share their reflections on its legacy, both strengths and shortcomings.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Turning Latin America green

Santiago Cunial, a doctoral candidate in political science, investigates issues surrounding green energy in Chile and Argentina.

Climate scientist Michael Mann to join Penn faculty

Mann is the first new faculty member to be recruited as part of the recently announced Energy and Sustainability Initiative as a Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Understanding climate stories

In the latest episode of Penn Today’s “Understand This …” podcast series, Bethany Wiggin of the School of Arts & Sciences and Jennifer Pinto-Martin of the School of Nursing discuss climate stories, climate grief, and climate literacy.

Brandon K. Baker



In the News


Inside Climate News

As California pushes increased ethanol use, experts sound the alarm on environmental impacts

Danny Cullenward of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design says that the negative impacts of biofuels on land are difficult to overstate.

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Philadelphia Citizen

Penn bets big on green

Penn’s Climate and Sustainability Action Plan outlines the University’s efforts to combat climate change during the next five years.

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WHYY (Philadelphia)

Climate policy under a second Trump presidency

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses how much a president can do or undo when it comes to environmental policy.

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Salon.com

Exxon CEO wants Trump to stay in Paris climate accord

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences voices his concern about the possibility that the U.S. could become a petrostate.

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Associated Press

Amid Earth’s heat records, scientists report another bump upward in annual carbon emissions

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that total carbon emissions including fossil fuel pollution and land use changes such as deforestation are basically flat because land emissions are declining.

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The Wall Street Journal

How can we remove carbon from the air? Here are a few ideas

Jennifer Wilcox of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design says that the carbon-removal potential of forestation can’t always be reliably measured in terms of how much removal and for how long.

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