The Sustainability Science Program is the hub of Harvard's research, teaching, and interventions on the challenges of sustainable development.
Harvard's Sustainability Science Program harnesses the University's strengths to promote the design of institutions, policies, and practices that support sustainable development. The Program addresses the challenge of sustainable development by:
- advancing scientific understanding of human-environment systems;
- improving linkages between research and policy communities; and
- building capacity for linking knowledge with action to promote sustainability.
The Program supports major initiatives in policy-relevant research, faculty research, training of students and fellows, teaching, and outreach.
What's New
- Videos showcasing 40 speed talks from Boston-area research at the nexus of food, agriculture, health, environment, and society are now available on the Global Food+ website. Held in February and March, Global Food+ 2021 was a joint webinar series run by researchers at Boston University, Harvard, MIT, and Tufts.
- Videos and meeting materials are now available for the virtual public workshop, "Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities for Sustainability Science" which was convened by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine November-December 2020 and co-chaired by SSP’s Bill Clark with Prof. Pamela Matson of Stanford University.
- New book Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat by Robert Paarlberg (Research Associate '21) noted as New & Noteworthy by New York Times (2/21)
- Clark and Harley on Sustainability science: Toward a synthesis in Annual Review of Environment and Resources (10/20)
- SustainabilityScience.org launch with dynamic Research Guide (9/11)
- Book release by Blal Aden Esmail and Davide Geneletti (Fellow '11), Ecosystem Services for Urban Water Security: Concepts and Applications in Sub-Saharan Africa. SpringerBriefs in Geography (Cham: Springer International Publishing) (5/18)
- Prof. Ray Goldberg discusses the impact of climate change on agriculture throughout history, using food as medicine, the pros/cons of GMOs, and business model innovations some consumer brands are implementing to improve the profitability and financial resilience of their farmers in developing countries on the podcast Agriculture Adapts by ClimateAi: The Father of Agribusiness: 60+ Years of Catalyzing Progress in Global Food Systems (4/23)
- Molly Leavens (Goldberg Fellow '17; College '20) featured in Crimson's "Fifteen Most Interesting Seniors" [Profile] (12/12)
- Seminar hosted on Deliberation Improves Collective Decision-Making: Experimental Evidence from Kenya, Tara Grillos, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Purdue University [Paper] (11/14)
- Workshop on Transformation of Coupled Social-ecological and Socio-technical Systems: Defining the Contours of an Integrative Research Agenda cosponsored by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) and SSP in Kastanienbaum, Switzerland. The event was organized by Christian Binz (EAWAG; Ruffolo Fellow '15), Alicia Harley (Harvard/SSP; Ruffolo Fellow), Helene Ahlborg (Univ. Gothenburg) and Manuel Fischer (EAWAG) (5/6-8)
Bill Clark on "Pursuing Sustainability: How Do We Make Progress?"