Sustainability & Climate Action
Sustainability & Climate Action
Climate change and environmental degradation are among the most devastating crises of our time, creating existential risks to the Earth’s life-support systems and our ability to thrive. These drastic impacts are no longer a distant menace, but an ongoing emergency happening at an accelerated rate. What’s more, these challenges affect under-resourced populations disproportionately.
Michigan is committed to being a major force in building sustainable climate resilience, halting further climate change, addressing its effects on human health, and educating the workforce that will lead in these efforts. Strong collaborations with our vast network of public- and private-sector partners will further accelerate our developing solutions that are needed today.
A greener future is a prosperous one, and we are providing researchers and entrepreneurs guidance to successfully commercialize their findings through efforts like the Erb Institute for Sustainable Global Enterprise. It’s the right thing to do for our planet and for our 21st-century economy.
Rebecca Tonietto, associate professor of biology at UM-Flint, and collaborators are studying the effects of replacing turfgrass lawns with native plants. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the project aims to bolster pollinator support, water filtration, and carbon sequestration in urban areas.
With Michigan’s vast resources and profound mission as a public university, we are committed to being a major force in building sustainable climate resilience, halting further climate change, addressing its effects on human health, and educating the workforce that will lead in these efforts. Strong collaborations with our vast network of major public- and private-sector partners will further facilitate and accelerate our developing solutions that are needed today.
Harnessing our capabilities as a leading research institution, we can take on the defining environmental challenges of our time, from rising temperatures to extreme weather, biodiversity loss to fragile food systems and water quality, outdated transportation and energy technologies, and more. And with our own commitments to carbon neutrality and campus sustainability, our campuses will be examples and proving grounds for many exciting sustainability practices for the future.
Together We Can
- Lead the effort to mitigate climate change through groundbreaking research, revolutionary education, model campus operations, and creative programming.
- Lay the educational groundwork for all students to become environmental stewards, regardless of their chosen profession, and educate our community to understand our impact on the environment and aspire to help protect it.
- Collaborate across disciplines to unlock new technologies and generate just and sustainable solutions in areas critical for preserving the planet.
- Partner with the state of Michigan in a significant way to protect the Great Lakes.
- Deepen our commitment to environmental justice, working with local, national, and global partners and communities to create action-oriented strategies that have real and sustained impact.
In 2024, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts launched the Year of Sustainability to center and support campus climate goals by evaluating actions to advance sustainability and carbon neutrality through teaching, college culture, research, operations, facilities, and more. We recognize the need to employ a holistic approach to cultural change, including altering practices of consumption, energy usage, and the pivotal role the arts and humanities play in this work.
For more than 100 years, the U-M Biological Station has hosted scientists and students to explore and examine the natural world while addressing issues related to organisms and the environment in Michigan’s Northern Lower Peninsula. Visiting students are challenged to develop their own research projects as they learn from the land, instructors, and each other.
The U-M Water Center addresses critical and emerging water resource challenges through user-driven research. The center’s work informs policy and management decisions at all levels, from mitigating the dangers of lead and other toxins in community water supplies to preserving estuaries along coastal waterways.
The Global Center for Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Transboundary Waters is an international effort to strengthen the climate change resilience of vulnerable communities spanning international boundaries and jurisdictions. The center is now focused on the Great Lakes region—with an emphasis on Indigenous communities—and will expand its work to other North American multinational watersheds and beyond.
Campus Plan 2050 lays the groundwork for how U-M will sustainably evolve the Ann Arbor campus to provide the living, learning, and working environments necessary to fulfill the university’s strategic vision. U-M began accounting for its greenhouse gas emissions in the 2000s and committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2040.
U-M is home to more than 100 sustainability-focused student organizations, covering everything from food security to electric cars to clean water. Students for Clean Energy promotes renewable energy on campus and, through the Planet Blue Student Innovation Fund, helped establish solar-powered charging stations at the Life Sciences Plaza.
Support Sustainability & Climate Action
Look to Michigan Sustainability & Climate Action Impact Fund
Each year, nearly 5,000 students gain invaluable insights through U-M study abroad programs in more than 100 countries. These international experiences increase intercultural understanding, broaden worldviews, help students become better contributors to diverse teams, and strengthen qualifications for future employment.
Moreover, our global partnerships yield significant benefits for all involved. The Center for Global Health Equity works alongside changemakers to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, as exemplified by HaEun Lee (PhD ’21), School of Nursing assistant professor, and Dr. Priscilla Busingye, an obstetrician and gynecologist committed to developing an OB/GYN health center of excellence in Rwibaale, Uganda.