News and Blog Landing | MIT Sustainability

“I believe that selecting a geologically sound site and communicating the science clearly — in terms that anyone can grasp — are the essential first steps toward achieving the permanent and safe disposal of nuclear waste,” says Haruko Wainwright.

MIT News Office

September 15, 2026

3 Questions: Putting nuclear waste into perspective

Professor Haruko Wainwright believes the risks posed by radioactive wastes cannot be properly assessed without also considering the hazards of chemical wastes.

Fran Selvaggio, senior building management systems engineer in the MIT Department of Facilities, stands in the newly renovated Met Warehouse, where an innovative heat-recovery system captures heat rejected from the campus cooling system and uses electric heat pumps to generate heat for the building.

MIT News Office

September 15, 2026

MIT makes progress on campus climate goals

Innovative strategies, technologies, and collaborations are helping MIT advance solutions on campus and beyond.

No single microbe can break down fucoidan, a tough carbohydrate molecule produced by ocean algae. A team of researchers shows that communities of marine bacteria divide the work instead, offering new insight into how the ocean stores carbon over long periods of time.

MIT News Office

September 14, 2026

Marine bacteria team up to break down one of the ocean's toughest carbon-storing molecules

Researchers reveal how communities of marine bacteria divide the task of degrading fucoidan, a key player in ocean carbon storage.

Atlas Building Composites, an MIT spinout, recently supplied the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with American-made recycled composite trusses to construct a 40-foot bridge in a Massachusetts wetland, pictured.

MIT News Office

September 14, 2026

MIT spinout turns plastic waste into resilient building materials

Atlas Building Composites is commercializing MIT research to turn plastic waste into parts for buildings and other infrastructure.

MIT researchers have developed a new way to extract pure hydrogen gas from ammonia and other hydrogen carrier molecules. Their strategy, which uses electricity to speed up the extraction, reduces the temperature and energy required to recover hydrogen from these molecules.

MIT News Office

September 9, 2026

An electrochemical approach turns ammonia into pure hydrogen

An MIT team has demonstrated a more efficient way to extract pure hydrogen gas from hydrogen carrier molecules.

A new study focuses on forecasting future access to food, water, and energy in 2050.

MIT News Office

September 8, 2026

Study predicts large disparities in access to food, water, and energy in 2050

In some regions of the world, the poorest people may spend about 50 percent of their income on food, while the richest spend about 5 percent.

Flags planted in the Arctic ice by countries participating in Operation Ice Camp 2026 wave in the wind against a backdrop of the northern lights.

MIT News Office

September 4, 2026

Researchers tune into Arctic under-ice sounds and test through-ice communication

The work is part of a multiyear effort to develop a distributed sensor network for relaying data collected from this critical region.

Enrolling in the DEDP program “has been game-changing,” graduate student Lyonel Tanganco says. “The program provides a solid foundation for understanding the world and how to make a positive, measurable difference in the lives of other people, especially the least fortunate among us.”

MIT News Office

August 31, 2026

Translating economic growth into better lives

Graduate student Lyonel Tanganco investigates how to improve public policy interventions and address challenges in nutrition, climate, and development.

Left to right: Researchers Anamitra Saha and Sai Ravela of the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and Jayanta Basu of the University of Calcutta design the board for a "snakes and ladders" game. The game is the first step in encouraging community members to use an app-based simulation that suggests solutions to their unique geographical and environmental challenges.

MIT News Office

August 31, 2026

Playing against climate risk

Climate scientist Sai Ravela is using games to help coastal communities find creative adaptations to climate change.