Growing up in the late 1980s, doctoral candidate Kate Parrot SM ’07, favored the big-hair look that was popular at the time. “It was fashionable to have 4-inch bangs,” she says, laughing at the memory. But, probably unlike most of her peers, Parrot was worried about the growing hole in the Ozone layer — she … learn more→

Thanks to everyone who voted to put UMass in FIRST PLACE in the White House Campus Champions of Change Challenge! … learn more→

Scientific knowledge alone isn’t enough to save the planet – we must also act on that knowledge and radically change our behaviour, according to the authors of an international study. The study, carried out by researchers from The Australian National University and colleagues in Germany, the UK and the USA, suggests that the greatest barrier … learn more→

A recent cartoon (below) extrapolates the use of the word “sustainable”. It predicts that in 50 years each sentence will on average contain the word at least once. The cartoon is clever, and “sustainable” is indeed overused. But there is a good reason why we hear about sustainability so much these days. It is important. … learn more→

New requirements on beef exports could have a negative ecological impact on the country. … learn more→

Nearly a third of companies now say that the adoption of sustainable practices has added to their profitability, according to a new MIT study — and manufacturing firms are in the vanguard. Two-thirds of more than 2,800 companies surveyed by MIT Sloan Management Review say they have made sustainability a permanent agenda topic within their … learn more→

Sustainability studies, for me, is an opportunity to explore our relationship with some power greater than finite ourselves. And what could possibly be more important than that? … learn more→

The world’s farmers produced more grain in 2011 than ever before. Estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the global grain harvest coming in at 2,295 million tons, up 53 million tons from the previous record in 2009. Consumption grew by 90 million tons over the same period to 2,280 million tons. Yet with … learn more→

If its not local (or at least regional)….. its not sustainable! … learn more→

A problem as complex and potentially intractable as climate change demands equally big solutions. At the first Harvard Thinks Green on Thursday, six Harvard professors gathered at Sanders Theatre to provide just that kind of thinking. The event was meant to tap into the “original fundamental reason why we are all here on campus for … learn more→