This Earth Month, the ESI is co-hosting a film screening and discussion about climate change, belief, and talking with people you don’t agree with.
The ESI’s Marcela Angel and Angelica Mayolo made meaningful contributions at COP28.
At a Climate Art Night, researchers of the ESI’s Climate Machine sought to examine people’s relationship with and attitudes towards the environment, and determine how those results could be used to inform design for pro-environmental behaviors.
At the Packaging Recycling Summit, MIT’s Alexis Hocken shared an innovative cyclone-like screening process that would allow for small-format plastics to be recycled.
By incorporating climate into the traditional Energy Night, researchers like the ESI’s Rob Fetell were able to present their environmentally-focused findings.
The ESI’s Rapid Response Group (RRG) students presented their summer research projects that tackled urgent environmental issues facing the world today.
From September 17-24, four members of the ESI — Marcela Angel, Angelica Mayolo, Jimena Muzio, and John E. Fernandez — attended Climate Week NYC.
The MIT Climate Machine and a research group of five undergraduate students deployed an innovative climate engagement program during Group Therapy Weekender, the electronic music festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington state.
An Afro InterAmerican Forum on Climate Change event in New York City focused on the pressing socio-ecological challenges faced by Afro-descendant communities that serve as historic environmental stewards across the Americas.
As ESI prepares for deeper engagement with the Indigenous-led non-profit Se’Si’Le, team members traveled to the San Juan Islands to the site of a planned immersive art experience.
ESI Research Program Director Marcela Angel has built an international program in natural climate solutions, with a focus on climate adaptation, urban planning and biodiversity in her home country of Colombia.
A variety of recent events, several hosted or co-hosted by ESI, highlighted efforts by MIT faculty, staff, and students to make a difference today.
Azania, a master’s student in the MIT Department of Architecture, reflects on her field experience in the ESI-created course Biodiversity and Cities: A Perspective in Colombian Cities.
Ziyuan “Zoey” Zhu ’22 worked with ESI’s MIT Climate Machine to design augmented reality experiences that encourage music festival fans to reflect on their environmental impact.
A series of drone test flights and community events in Mocoa, Colombia, have pushed to the next phase a project by ESI and partners to monitor the city and surrounding forest for climate change-related landslide risks.
In collaboration with ESI, PhD student Alexis Hocken is working with manufacturers to keep their products from literally falling through the cracks in the recycling process.
The Environmental Solutions Initiative launched the MIT-ESI Climate Justice Program at an afternoon workshop with MIT faculty and staff.
The event united MIT, Universidade Positivo, and scientists across Latin America around a framework for socially beneficial climate action and biodiversity conservation in carbon-rich ecosystems.
The Afro-Interamerican Forum on Climate Change (AIFCC), in collaboration with ESI, convened leaders from around the Americas and the world at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The MIT Conference on Mining, Environment, and Society convened academics, industry, government officials and NGOs to discuss the environmental and social challenges of supplying the materials for solar, batteries, the electric grid and more.
Introducing our two new team members who are working to create and deploy climate engagement experiences at music festivals.
The Environmental Solutions Initiative celebrated the first year of the Afro-Interamerican Forum on Climate Change (AIFCC) at the Colombian Embassy in Washington, DC, this October 12.
Marcela speaks to Kyanite Partners about her childhood in Bogotá and her projects at the intersections of computing, urban planning, natural climate solutions and environmental justice.
An introduction to our new Postdoctoral Associate in Environmental and Sustainability Education, and the projects he will undertake with the MIT undergraduate curriculum.
ESI’s ECO-LENS project will equip two cities in the Colombian rainforest with new AI tools for mapping their green spaces and undertaking sustainable urban planning.
An introduction to our newest postdoctoral associate exploring new partnerships for climate justice.
Jimena Muzio, MCP ’23, and Daniela Castillo, MCP ’23, will join the ESI as Biodiversity and Cities Summer Fellows.
ESI, in collaboration with the Vice-Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia, Nicolás Galarza Sánchez, and supported by MIT Latin American Office conducted a week-long fieldwork in Bogotá and Quibdó for the class “Biodiversity and Cities: a Perspective for Colombian Cities”.
Sylvia Scharf, ESI’s Climate Education Specialist, shares her experiences and thoughts on environmental education in our latest “Three Questions” feature.
An introduction to our post-doctoral associate in energy justice and transitions.
ESI hosted a discussion at MIT exploring ways the music industry can help in the battle to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
An introduction to our post-doctoral associate in cities and climate change.
The MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI) has released a new white paper detailing recent research on conflict over water in regions affected by both and climate change and mining.
La Iniciativa de Soluciones Ambientales del MIT anunció un libro blanco nuevo que detalla una investigación reciente sobre conflicto hídrico en regiones afectadas tanto por el cambio climático como la minería.
To connect climate science with local priorities, ESI launched the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative Journalism Fellowship in April 2021, supporting new reporting on climate change by local journalists across the U.S. Image credit: Cloganese via Flickr
A new ESI white paper examines Colombia’s groundbreaking Law 70, a measure for both racial justice and biodiversity conservation that offered collective title to Afro-Colombian lands.
An introduction to our post-doctoral associate in the Metals, Minerals & the Environment Program.
The collaboration with Colombia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation will center on sustainable economic activity within biodiverse regions.
As MIT reveals its new Plan for Action on Climate Change, the time is right for us to take stock of what we have accomplished on this greatest of all environmental and social challenges, and how we have positioned ourselves to do more.
ESI’s Here and Real program connects MIT climate research to communities.
There is an urgent need for investment, policy, and technological innovations in natural carbon sequestration and the local communities who can protect and enhance carbon-storing ecosystems.
Engagement with political, community leaders must be a key part of forthcoming climate action plan, MIT climate leaders say at Climate Engagement Forum.
A new white paper from ESI shows that the shuttering of coal mines in southwestern Pennsylvania is having an outsized impact on local tax revenues, and shale gas can’t make up the difference.
ESI’s Suzanne Greene has published two new papers tackling carbon footprints in sectors at the base of industrial supply chains.
A new online tool lets students track key metrics on employers’ carbon footprints and encourages more engagement on sustainability issues.
MIT and ESI announced a dramatic overhaul of the MIT Climate Portal, including new features that provide the public with the best information on climate change direct from scientists and experts.
This summer, the newly-formed ESI Rapid Response Group produced state of the art synopses, fact sheets, talking points, research agendas, Op-Eds, panel discussions, information pieces and more.
Members of Wyoming’s government and public university met with MIT researchers to discuss climate-friendly economic growth.
ESI collaborated with multinational mining company Vale to bring sustainability education to young engineering professionals in Brazil.
ESI partnered with Prof. Kerry Emanuel and the MIT Office of the Vice President for Research to create an online climate primer with a clear story and loads of interactive bonus material.
A November conference at MIT brought together world experts in theoretical and numerical modelling to consider the problem of microplastic pollution.
The student-moderated panel “Overcoming Challenges of Climate Policy” covered street protests, campus campaigns, voter mobilization, lobbying and more.
The ESI Plastics and the Environment Program convened a workshop of modellers and field researchers at MIT to discuss the behavior of plastic pollution in oceans and waterways.
ESI was part of a joint effort to distribute hundreds of reusable water bottles to new students at MIT orientation, while educating them about water issues.
Resident science writer Rachel Fritts sits down at SimPlanet to learn what mix of policies can keep climate change within livable limits – and what interests might stand in the way.
At ESI’s “SimPlanet” event, students test-drive a new computer simulation to reveal outcomes of different policy decisions on climate change.
ESI’s TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate) podcast demystifies the science, technology, and policy surrounding climate change in 10-minute episodes.
ESI hosted MIT’s first Climate Night, bringing VP for Research Maria Zuber to the stage to discuss how the Institute is reaching outside its walls on climate issues.
Climate Changed Symposium combines art and science to envision the global food system under climate change.
Six MIT student groups and the ESI team gathered on the McDermott Dot for the third annual Environmental Solutions Initiative Earth Day Celebration.
MIT Metro Lab and the MIT ESI hold a peer-learning course revolving around the creation of the “Metropolitan Discipline.”
A workshop organized by ESI and MIT Office of Corporate Relations dives into the topic of microfibers and microplastics.
The MIT Energy Initiative and ESI joined forces for a conference dedicated to reconstruction of the Caribbean.
The Senator spoke on Nov. 20 about the money behind climate denial and how misinformation can be combated.
Johan Rockström joined ESI for a People & the Planet lecture on “a framework for preserving Earth’s resilience.”
ESI hosted a two-day workshop on applications of artificial intelligence for novel conservation tools.
A lecture by Johan Rockström, Executive Director of the Stockholm Resilience Center and Professor of Environmental Science at Stockholm University.
Asana spoke to ESI’s Hannah Loomis about her planning process for the Initiative’s interconnected Earth Day events.
ESI and Conservation International joined forces at the Hackathon for Climate to create new digital solutions that reduce emissions or improve climate resilience.
MIT News covers ESI’s Spring 2017 People and the Planet lecture series talk by Bob Inglis and his tax plan to stop climate change.
ESI honors Earth Day with a week-long series of events.
MIT graduate students learn how to more effectively communicate their research and knowledge.
ESI and Conservation International joined up to host ESI’s second annual Hackathon for Climate Change.