News and Blog Landing | MIT Sustainability

“We are overusing natural resources. Why not be efficient with the climate?” Alpha Arsano says. “It is a misconception that building energy-efficient structures is more expensive. In the long-term it is much cheaper.”
Image: Jake Belcher

MIT News Office

July 24, 2017

Lessons from pre-industrial climate control

Graduate student Alpha Arsano wants to bring natural ventilation to the forefront of modern architecture.

Troy Van Voorhis is the Haslam and Dewey Professor of Chemistry. Photo: Justin Knight

MIT News Office

July 24, 2017

Laying the foundation for new energy technology

Theoretical chemist Troy Van Voorhis probes big energy-related questions, scrutinizing electrons and chemical bonds to improve sustainable energy solutions.

“The Indian monsoon is considered a textbook, clearly defined phenomenon, and we think we know a lot about it, but we don’t,” says Senior Research Scientist Chien Wang. An image from Varanasi, India, shows flooding in 2011.

MIT News Office

July 24, 2017

Study: Indian monsoons have strengthened over past 15 years

A 50-year dry spell has reversed, with more rain to come.

The Varanasi research group visits the MIT Central Utilities Plant cooling towers, where they will test their water-recapture technology with support from the new Campus Sustainability Incubator Fund. Photo: Paul Wolff/MITOS

MIT News Office

July 21, 2017

New fund makes MIT a living sustainability lab

MIT Office of Sustainability announces awards to multi-departmental projects that test management, design, and operations solutions on campus.

Susan Solomon, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies

MIT News Office

July 18, 2017

Susan Solomon awarded the Royal Society's Bakerian Medal

Professor of atmospheric chemistry honored for her contributions to atmospheric science.

MIT Energy Initiative Director of Research Francis O'Sullivan is pondering decarbonization, decentralization, and the smart electric grid of the future.Photo: Dominick Reuter

MIT News Office

July 14, 2017

3 Questions: The future of the electric utility

MIT Energy Initiative Director of Research Francis O’Sullivan reflects on current trends in the utility industry, as well as potential solutions to current challenges.

“In the Southwest, water availability for irrigation is already a concern,” says Elodie Blanc, a research scientist at MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. “If we mitigate, this could prevent added stres...

MIT News Office

July 11, 2017

Climate change to deplete some US water basins, reduce irrigated crop yields

By 2050, the Southwest will produce significantly less cotton and forage, researchers report.

Angela Belcher (left) and Kristala PratherPhoto: Kelley Travers/MIT Energy Initiative

MIT News Office

July 10, 2017

3 Questions: Angela Belcher and Kristala Prather on the promise of energy bioscience

Engineers and co-directors of MITEI's Energy Bioscience Low-Carbon Energy Center discuss their vision for transforming the energy system.

$MIT climate scientists have found that the ocean’s export efficiency, or the fraction of total plankton growth that is sinking to its depths, is decreasing, due mainly to rising global temperatures.Image: MIT News$

MIT News Office

July 6, 2017

Rising temperatures are curbing ocean’s capacity to store carbon

Study finds large amounts of carbon dioxide, equivalent to yearly U.K. emissions, remain in surface waters.