News and Blog Landing | MIT Sustainability

Ronald Prinn speaks at the 45th anniversary of the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) in 2023.

MIT News Office

September 12, 2024

3 Questions: The past, present, and future of sustainability science

Professor Ronald Prinn reflects on how far sustainability has come as a discipline, and where it all began at MIT.

Electric Vehicle Team members (from left to right) Anand John, Rachel Mohammed, and Aditya Mehrotra '22, SM '24 monitor their bike’s performance, battery levels, and hydrogen tank levels to estimate the vehicle’s range.

MIT News Office

September 9, 2024

MIT students combat climate anxiety through extracurricular teams

The MIT Electric Vehicle Team, Sustainable Engine Team, Solar Electric Vehicle Team, Motorsports Team, First Nations Launch Team, and Arcturus are each doing their part to improve the health of our planet.

The team plans to continue working on improving the material, especially in terms of durability and availability of source materials.

MIT News Office

September 6, 2024

New filtration material could remove long-lasting chemicals from water

Membranes based on natural silk and cellulose can remove many contaminants, including “forever chemicals” and heavy metals.

Allan Shtofenmakher's research interests reside at the intersection of space situational awareness and control of multi-agent systems, with a focus on tracking orbital debris.

MIT News Office

September 5, 2024

Keeping the cosmos clean

MIT PhD student Allan Shtofenmakher wants to keep space sustainable.

MIT engineers’ new theory could improve the way turbine blades and wind farms are designed and how wind turbines are controlled.

MIT News Office

August 21, 2024

MIT engineers’ new theory could improve the design and operation of wind farms

The first comprehensive model of rotor aerodynamics could improve the way turbine blades and wind farms are designed and how wind turbines are controlled.

“Photography was a door into science journalism,” Graduate Program in Science Writing student Sophie Hartley notes. “It lets you capture the raw beauty of a moment and return to it later.”

MIT News Office

August 20, 2024

Creating connection with science communication

Sophie Hartley wants to help people learn about the importance of natural resources and land management through science writing.

Based on theoretical and experimental studies, MIT engineers have shown that adding nanoparticles of certain ceramics to the metal walls of the vessel containing the reacting plasma inside a nuclear fusion reactor can protect the metal from damage, significantly extending its lifetime. Professor Ju Li (right) and postdoc So Yeon Kim (left) examine samples of the composite they have fabricated for their demonstrations.

MIT News Office

August 19, 2024

More durable metals for fusion power reactors

MIT researchers have found a way to make structural materials last longer under the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor.

“Cement enabled civilization as we know it today, but now it needs to be reinvented,” says Sublime Systems co-founder Yet-Ming Chiang.

MIT News Office

August 9, 2024

With sustainable cement, startup aims to eliminate gigatons of CO₂

Sublime Systems, founded by Professor Yet-Ming Chiang and former postdoc Leah Ellis, has developed a sustainable way to make one of the world’s most common materials.

Despite their importance and impact, there are often scarce data for evaluating the environmental impact of roads across their whole life cycle, from producing raw materials through demolition. The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub’s streamlined framework reduces the overall data collection burden by up to 85 percent.

MIT News Office

August 9, 2024

New tool empowers pavement life-cycle decision-making while reducing data collection burden

MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub research presents a streamlined pavement life-cycle assessment tool to enable a large set of stakeholders to conduct environmental analysis of pavements.