Research & Teaching

An educational experience that explores climate change and sustainability is available to all students and faculty inside and outside the classroom at Penn. The Environmental Innovations Initiative, launched in 2020, is dedicated to leveraging Penn’s academic strengths to meaningfully impact the environmental challenges of today.

 

A student presents their work during a poster session in the 'Humans and the Earth System: How it Works, How We Got Here, and How to Save Our Planet' class.

Initiatives

Academic Advancement

Challenges such as loss of biodiversity, our changing climate, and the resulting vulnerability of people and communities require multifaceted solutions. Housed in the Office of the Provost, the mission of the Environmental Innovations Initiative is to catalyze solutions to significant real-world challenges. The Initiative works with key partners throughout the University to convene, enable, spotlight, and grow the work being done at Penn. The resources included below reflect the leadership, teaching, research, and service of these partners.

The searchable course inventory allows students from any school and at any stage of their academic journey to find classes related to climate change, nature, environmental justice, and more.

Using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework, the faculty database illuminates Penn’s relative strengths in generating knowledge to support solutions.

Research Communities bring together multi-disciplinary faculty members to collaborate around common themes of broad environmental significance resulting in public-facing outcomes and hands-on opportunities for students.

By bringing together researchers, scholars and students to develop new ideas and innovative solutions to our global environment, the Initiative supports the academic advancement of the Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0 (CSAP 3.0).

Caring for the campus landscape with an ecological mindset

The Ecological Landscape Stewardship Plan, developed in 2018, offers a framework for the Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services to design, maintain, and celebrate the beauty of the campus landscape with an emphasis on its role as a balanced ecological system.

full story via Penn today
garden out side of penn library