News and Blog Landing | MIT Sustainability

RoCycle can detect if an object is paper, metal, or plastic. CSAIL researchers say that such a system could potentially help enable the convenience of single-stream recycling with lower contamination rates that confirm to China's new recyclin...

MIT News Office

April 16, 2019

Robots that can sort recycling

CSAIL’s "RoCycle" system uses in-hand sensors to detect if an object is paper, metal or plastic.

The economist Lord Nicholas Stern delivers the MIT Undergraduate Economics Association’s annual lecture, on climate economics, at MIT on Tuesday, April 9, 2019.Image: Chelsea Turner

MIT News Office

April 11, 2019

Climate expert emphasizes the fierce urgency of now

In MIT talk, Lord Nicholas Stern calls the next 20 years “absolutely defining” for society.

$Heavy trucks such as these 18-wheelers contribute a significant fraction of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. MIT researchers say these emissions could be drastically reduced by using flex-fuel plug-in hybrid powertrains instead of diesel engines.$

MIT News Office

April 9, 2019

Engineers develop concept for hybrid heavy-duty trucks

Long-haul trucks with electric motors combined with gas-alcohol engines could slash pollution levels and greenhouse gases.

MIT researchers used these manganese oxide nanoparticles to catalyze the breakdown of water and the subsequent incorporation of oxygen into useful compounds called epoxides. Courtesy of the researchers

MIT News Office

April 9, 2019

Shrinking the carbon footprint of a chemical in everyday objects

New method for synthesizing the epoxides found in plastics, textiles, and pharmaceuticals could be powered by electricity.

Janus emulsion droplets are captured in the process of changing form in response to the presence of contamination by a food pathogen in a lab setting. The emulsions can be viewed by the naked eye and, with the aid of a handheld sensor currently i...

MIT News Office

April 9, 2019

MIT spinout seeks to transform food safety testing

An affordable, easy-to-use handheld sensor, soon to enter the market, can indicate the presence of bacterial contaminants in food in seconds.

Steven Lacey, host of The Energy Gang, leads a live taping of the show during the MIT Energy Conference.Image: Cherry Tree Photography

MIT News Office

April 9, 2019

MIT Energy Conference explores changes to the grid in coming decades

Student-run event spans energy policy, carbon pricing, storage technologies, and the rise of renewables.

The researchers found that traditional long-term strategies, which employ rigid schedules for future road treatments, may overestimate total life-cycle costs.Image: Nextvoyage/Pexels

MIT News Office

April 8, 2019

Paving ahead: Model aims for infrastructure preservation

MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub researchers outline a new pavement maintenance model that accounts for future uncertainties in cost and deterioration.

MIT researchers have developed a new polymer membrane that can dramatically improve the efficiency of natural gas purification, while reducing its environmental impact.Image: Chelsea Turner, MIT

MIT News Office

April 8, 2019

Greener, more efficient natural gas filtration

Novel membrane material removes more impurities, without the need for toxic solvents.

A $30 million award from USAID will support MIT over the next five years in developing a Center of Excellence in Energy at Ain Shams University, Mansoura University, and Aswan University, in Egypt. The center will serve to connect researchers at th...

MIT News Office

March 27, 2019

MIT receives $30 million to help address energy challenges in Egypt

Award from USAID will support research collaborations through new Center of Excellence in Energy at Ain Shams University in Cairo.