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

• University of Bergen Summer Research School hosts lectures by Bill Clark on state of sustainability science [Slide Presentation] and usable knowledge [Slide Presentation] (6/19)
• Alessandra Voena (Ruffolo Fellow '12) receives 2017 Carlo Alberto Medal, rewarding an Italian scholar under 40 for outstanding contributions to economics, for her work on the economics of family in developed and developing countries, as well as the economics of knowledge and innovation (6/11)
•  SSP Faculty featured on Harvard Speaks on Climate Change: Profs. Bill Clark, Dan Schrag, and Paul Moorcroft are among the 30+ Harvard faculty members presenting 5-minute video briefings on climate change and its connections with sustainability. [Harvard Gazette coverage] (4/24)
• Alumni Fellow Livio Valenti (Vaxess VP) announces Gates Foundation $6M support for Vaxess Technologies to develop a novel microneedle patch for eradication of polio, measles and rubella (3/6)
• Global Food+ 2017 conference features 24 “speed talk” presentations highlighting current research findings at the important nexus between food, agriculture, health, society, and the environment Video and more on the Weatherhead Center Facebook page. Harvard Gazette coverage of the event (2/27)
• M-RCBG Business and Government Seminar features Bill Clark on Pursuing Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities [Slide Presentation] (2/16)
• Binz et al. on “Spatial lifecycles of cleantech industries – The global development history of solar photovoltaics” in Energy Policy (11/3)
• Andrew Mude (Ruffolo Fellow ‘11, now principal scientist at the Intl. Livestock Research Inst.) and his team receive 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application and the USAID Award for Scientific Excellence at 2016 World Food Prize event (10/17)
• Bill Clark presents Wege Lecture on Sustainability at University of Michigan. [Video] [Slide Presentation] (9/29)

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