Sustainability

By Anders Hart, Active Transportation Intern Thank you to everyone who participated in Winter Bike Day! Despite 14-degree temperatures, we welcomed over 50 people, including 12 cyclists. The University Police gave free U locks to cyclists who registered their bikes, and Commuter Services provided Campus Bike Shop services. We also gave out much-needed hot chocolate […]

By Maria Archibald, Sustainability Office Dr. Jennifer Follstad Shah grew up in northern Wisconsin where she loved spending time near the water with her family. “Rivers and lakes are near and dear to my heart,” she says. “I have always been drawn to the outdoors, which is why I became an ecologist.” Follstad Shah, who […]

By Maria Archibald, Sustainability Office. Photo credit: Dave Titensor/University of Utah When Dr. Lazarus Adua read a book about “super polluters”—or major powerplants that account for a large chunk of global carbon emissions—he was inspired with a new research idea. “I was thinking—could the same thing apply at the household level?” Adua says. “I wanted […]

This article was originally written by Kate Whitbeck and published in @theu on Feb. 5, 2020. It was updated in 2022 by Maria Archibald. Want to stay warm this winter while reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions? Consider participating in our program “Heat People, Not Spaces!” If you are a U faculty, staff, or intern, you […]

By Maria Archibald, Sustainability Office “Baja California, for me is a siren song,” says Dr. Shane Macfarlan. “I went there once. And I listened to the song. And it drew me in.” Macfarlan, a cultural anthropologist who researches kinship, social networks, and natural resource use in rural ranching communities on the Baja California Peninsula, will […]

By Maria Archibald, Sustainability Office Salt Lake City is famous for its winter inversions, which often cause residents to hunker down indoors, turn on their air filters, and avoid the dark cloud of smog hanging above the city. As climate change intensifies, residual wildfire smoke often makes summer air unsafe to breathe, too. On Tuesday, […]

Hello to all our bicycle commuters, enthusiasts, recreationalists, and those interested in sustainable transportation! January may not be the time most of us are thinking about bicycling, but members of our community are proving that bicycling in the snow is as fun as building a snowman. Speaking of bicycling in the snow, Winter Bike Day […]

By Ayrel Clark-Proffitt, Sustainability Office The University of Utah is one of five finalists for the Racial Equity and Sustainability Collaboration award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The U’s project, “Integrating racial equity, social justice, and sustainability through general education learning outcome assessment,” uses learning outcomes for all undergraduates to […]

By the Sustainability Office It is easy to be cynical. It’s hard to escape any day without the weight of the world creeping into our thoughts, our conversations, or even our dreams. It can be overwhelming. And yet … We are not alone. We are thankful for the world leaders who committed to important steps […]

By Maria Archibald, Sustainability Office   Have you ever tried to change someone’s mind about climate change by inundating them in science and data? If you have, you’re not alone—but Dr. Lynne Zummo, assistant professor of Educational Psychology and curator of learning sciences at the Natural History Museum, says that “if somebody is opposed to […]