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 […]
Read MoreBy 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 […]
Read MoreThis 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 […]
Read MoreBy 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 […]
Read MoreBy 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, […]
Read MoreHello 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 […]
Read MoreBy 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 […]
Read MoreBy 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 […]
Read MoreBy 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 […]
Read MoreBy Maria Archibald, Sustainability Office When Dr. Taylor Sparks arrived at the University of Utah as an undergraduate, he wanted to study just about everything. “I wanted to do chemistry, and I wanted to do physics, and I wanted to do mechanics, and robotics,” Sparks says. “There was no one department that let you do all those things. At least […]
Read More