Program Initiatives

At Harvard, the Sustainability Science Program supports initiatives focused on current policy challenges of sustainable development. There is exciting work underway on problem-driven research at the intersection of environment and development to address the WEHAB-plus sustainability challenges. WEHAB refers to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's "WEHAB agenda" of sustainability challenges as presented at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development: Water and sanitation; Energy; Health; Agriculture productivity and food security; Biodiversity and ecosystem management; and habitation. Earlier work supported by the Sustainability Science Program focused on how science and technology could help promote sustainability in the individual sectors of energy, food, water, and health. That work showed that some of the most serious constraints to sustainable development lie in the interconnections among these individual sectors: energy's growing need for water; the impacts of water use on human health; the competition for land among food, energy and conservation initiatives; and the cumulative impact of all sectoral initiatives on climate and other key environmental services. A central challenge moving forward is to develop an integrated understanding of how sectoral initiatives for sustainability can compete with and complement one another in particular regional contexts. The current initiatives focus on regional initiatives pursing an integrated perspective on sustainable development in India, China and the Amazon. It also includes a cross-cutting research initiative to integrate work focused on the theme of Innovation and Access to Technologies for Sustainable Development and a forum to broaden communication on the global food system and the consumers that it serves. Links to some of other initiatives and projects underway at Harvard are also provided. Additional activities are described on the web pages of the Harvard University Center for the Environment.

Governance Innovations for Sustainable Development: Building Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Environmental Regulation and Energy Use in India
Rohini Pande

Technology Innovation for Sustainable Development
William Clark

Sustainable Development of the Energy Sector in China: Challenges and Options
Henry Lee

Sustainable Development of the Amazon and its Surrounding Regions: The Interplay of Changing Climate, Hydrology, and Land Use
Paul Moorcroft

Private and Public Science, Academic, and Consumer Food Policy Group (PAPSAC) 
Ray Goldberg

Governance Innovations for Sustainable Development
Rohini Pande

Integrated Use of Land and Water Resources
Noel Michele Holbrook

Clean Water, Human Health, and Sustainable Development
Michael Kremer

Biofuels and Globalization
Henry Lee

Linking Knowledge with Action for Sustainable Development
William Clark