View courses related to climate across Harvard Kennedy School
Advancing sustainable development research and practice at Harvard Kennedy School and beyond, while tackling challenges that affect our planet to ensure everyone has a chance at a better future.
What is Sustainable Development?
Development is sustainable when it enhances people’s well-being in the here and now without diminishing the capacity of people elsewhere or in the future to improve their own lives. Learn more about the evolution of thinking about sustainability in this essay by SSP program scholars.
What is sustainability science?
“Sustainability science” is one term for many contributions by the research community to the pursuit of sustainable development. The field is defined by the problems it tackles, not the methods it uses. Sustainability science draws on work from across the arts and sciences, law, engineering and medicine.
Learn more about the field of sustainability science in this review by SSP program scholars.
Sustainability Science Program at Harvard Kennedy School
The Sustainability Science Program began in 2006 to support research on how interactions between society and nature affect human well-being. Based at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, it promotes university-wide, collaborative research projects that aim to meet our needs for water, energy, food, and health while also protecting the planet.
Ongoing program initiatives
Strengthening the Field of Sustainability Science
Advancing research, training, and outreach in rapidly expanding programs of use-inspired, multidisciplinary science and practice.
Knowledge Systems for Sustainable Development
Examining how science and technology can better support sustainable development. This initiative focuses on connecting practical knowledge with research and harnessing innovation to promote fair sustainability around the world.
Capacity Building for Sustainable Development
Integrating emerging scholarship and real-world practice to help agents of change identify and build the essential skills and resources needed to achieve sustainability goals.
Food Policy Initiatives
Bringing together farmers, businesses, scientists, policymakers, academics, nonprofits, and consumer activists to discuss important food-related topics that affect the global food system and society.
Pursuing the UN’s 2002 WEHAB agenda
Harvard has conducted exciting 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, including water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture, and biodiversity. See a list of WEHAB-related projects to learn more about this research.
Foundation projects and initiatives
The Sustainability Science Program is built on previous collaborative research projects based at Harvard in the following areas:
- Innovations in governance and technology
- Land use for energy, food, biodiversity and climate goals
- Clean water and human health
- Institutions for linking knowledge with action
Learn more about the Sustainability Science Program’s past initiatives.
Read past research publications and working papers from the Sustainability Science Program.
Sustainability science resources
Sustainability Science Fellows Program 2005-2016
The Sustainability Science Program offered doctoral, post-doctoral, and mid-career fellowships from 2005-2016. The Fellows Program ended in June 2016 after hosting 140 fellows who were citizens of over 30 countries. Learn more about our past Alumni Fellows.
Salata Institute Fellows Program
The Salata Institute Fellows Program accepts exceptional academics and practitioners working on climate change and sustainability for the purpose of supporting their scholarship or professional development.
Other fellowship opportunities
Related fellowship opportunities are often available through a number of other Harvard Programs and Centers, including:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs: Post-doctoral and doctoral fellowships
- Harvard University Center for the Environment: Post-doctoral fellowships
- Center for International Development: Fellowship and Visting Researchers
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs: Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars fellowships and grants
- Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies: Post-doctoral fellowships
- David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies: Visiting scholars and professional fellows
- Charles Bullard Fellowship in Forest Research: Mid-career fellowships
Harvard Climate Internship Program
The Harvard Climate Internship Program (HCIP) is a university-wide program supporting graduate students who work in a climate policy-oriented summer internship. Apply for the Harvard Climate Internship Program.
Looking for more summer internships in climate and sustainability? Explore the growing list of summer opportunities throughout Harvard, put together by the Salata Institute.
Programs at Harvard
If you’re interested in sustainability, we encourage you to explore programs within Harvard.
Harvard Kennedy School offers several graduate degrees. Undergrads can consider a concentration in Environmental Sciences and Public Policy. Harvard Extension School offers a Sustainability masters degree program.
HKS students and faculty study a range of topics that focus on environmental and development concerns:
- Doctoral dissertations
- HKS Master in Public Administration: International Development papers
- HKS Master in Public Policy: Policy Analysis Exercises
- Find courses related to climate and sustainability on the HKS Climate Course Guide and the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability website.
Finding degree programs in sustainability
The number of programs offering degrees in (or closely related to) sustainable development has ballooned over the past decade. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education offers resources for students pursuing sustainability in their studies and is a great place to start the search for relevant programs.
Networking to link researchers and practitioners
There are a growing number of networks for linking researchers and practitioners. Here are two to consider:
- The International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) provides a forum for academia, government, civil society, UN agencies, and the private sector to come together to share practical solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- The National Sustainability Society (US) seeks to build an organization for shared, integrated, and globally flourishing professional practice and research for sustainability. It is guided and inspired by the vision of a future where all people and nature can thrive with dignity.
Sustainability science spans many disciplines, interests, and organizations, making it challenging to stay updated on research. In 2020, scholars in the Sustainability Science Program analyzed the field, identifying top research programs and journals, and creating keyword searches to find relevant studies efficiently.
This analysis serves as a starting point for anyone wanting to keep up with the field, though maintaining a complete list of literature is difficult due to its wide scope and rapid growth.
For a “big picture” view of the existing literature, we suggest:
- Start with the comprehensive review of the relevant literature by Sustainability Science Program scholars (mentioned above) that was originally published in 2020.
- Continue by scanning abstracts of the review articles published each year in the open access journal Annual Review of Environment and Resources, which has become a review of sustainable development.
Sustainability programs across Harvard
The Sustainability Science Program works closely with many other initiatives promoting sustainable development at Harvard Kennedy School and across Harvard University. Explore these programs for up-to-date information on faculty, research, events, and relevant fellowship opportunities.
Programs at Harvard Kennedy School
- The Sustainability Science Program is based at Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government as part of the Center’s broader agenda of work on Achieving Shared and Sustainable Prosperity.
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs conducts work relevant to sustainable development with programs in Environment and Climate Change and Science and Technology.
- Sustainability in HKS Operations bring cutting edge science of sustainability into the school’s everyday practices and strategic planning.
Programs throughout Harvard University
The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability brings together Harvard’s diverse areas of expertise to find practical solutions to all aspects of the climate crisis.
- Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE), as part of the Salata Institute, seeks to harness the intellectual power of Harvard to understand and shape our environmental future.
- Harvard Center for International Development works across the university and a global network of researchers and practitioners to build an international pool of talent, convene academic and practitioner networks, and deploy breakthrough research to address the world’s most pressing development challenges.
- Harvard Office for Sustainability (OFS) collaborates with Schools and Units across the University, as well as governing bodies like the Presidential Committee on Sustainability and the Sustainability Management Council, to ensure we are working together and aligned in our mission and vision.
Program leadership
William Clark
William Clark
Sustainability Science Program Director
Harvey Brooks Research Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development
Learn more about Professor Clark and contact him at william_clark@hks.harvard.edu.
Our partners
The Sustainability Science Program’s current support is provided by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School and a generous gift from the Italy’s Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea. Earlier initiatives of the Program were supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Energy (DoE), and the MacArthur Foundation.