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Campus Sustainability News

News on campus sustainability initiatives, emerging programs, rankings, awards, student initiatives, green teams, and more from across the Cornell University campus.

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Students volunteering food recovery network

Cornell students are turning campus into a hands‑on sustainability lab—reducing food waste, redistributing surplus meals, and tackling trash with real‑world solutions that make an immediate impact.

Cows

Cornell’s new campus biodigester will turn food waste and manure into clean energy, serving as a model for smaller New York dairy farms.

mobile battery demo

Cornell University is piloting a mobile battery system to replace diesel generators at major events and potentially provide emergency backup power across campus

Students in ALS 2000, Leadership for Sustainability.

Whatever your passion or major, Cornell offers a sustainability course and degree program for you.

Solar panels on Day Hall

Three more North Campus residential buildings turned on their rooftop solar panels over winter break and now help the campus generate more electricity using renewables.

Flowchart depicting the research field of multi-sector dynamics.

A Cornell engineer is advancing the field of ‘multi-sector dynamics’ with a new $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that will focus on techniques for better projecting the outcomes of human interactions with the natural world. As scientists and policy makers increasingly turn toward mathematical modeling to help inform their decision making, the project aims to better predict how human systems – such as the economy, urbanization, technology, and agriculture – co-evolve with Earth systems, such as climate, natural resources and wildlife.

Arctic ice in Greenland, shown above, is severely affected by climate change. Cornell Climate Engineering will model the effects of introducing aerosols into the stratosphere for reducing climate change impact.

Global warming reduction may someday get a cool new tool: climate engineering. The SilverLining Safe Climate Research Initiative has awarded a $500,000 grant to a Cornell engineering researcher, who will model the effects of introducing reflective aerosols into the stratosphere, which could deflect enough sunbeams to reduce Earth’s temperature and limit climate change impact.

Dr. Ayana Johnson on a zoom lecture

The conference featured three days of problem-solving workshops, such as finding ways to engage students with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Wheat and corn are shown growing side by side. Researchers from CALS have developed a tool, FAST-GHG, to help farmers quantify greenhouse gas emissions in crop production.

An important tactic for slowing climate change is for private companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but knowing exactly how much they’re emitting can be a challenge.  To address this need, researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) have developed an online greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting tool, FAST-GHG, to help quantify these emissions in crop production.