Three students attended COP29 in Azerbaijan, thanks to funding from the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy.

The inaugural Department of Chemistry Research Symposium featured talks from green chemistry co-founder John Warner, faculty researchers and industry professionals.

As an intern with Facilities Management, computer science graduate student Neha Miryala has built new energy dashboards to raise student awareness of their carbon footprint and developed a data warehouse to help improve the university’s operational efficiency.

Funded by a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Asst. Prof. Christopher Skinner and Prof. Mathew Barlow are studying how changes in vegetation affect climate.

The Massachusetts Gateway Cities Climate Resilience Center seeks to develop a community-driven climate resilience model in Lowell that can be replicated in other cities.

The UMass Lowell Weather Station is officially online, providing data on air temperature, precipitation and other weather observations.

The June heat wave triggered warnings of a flash drought and caused a surge in ER visits. Many other countries have been facing extreme heat at the same time.

Chemical Engineering Asst. Prof. Stephen T. Lam and researchers from MIT and Stony Brook University recently won a three-year, $1 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to improve our understanding of molten salt reactor systems.

Climate scientist Juliette Rooney-Varga and environmental studies master’s student Lucia Cheney recently presented to local lawmakers at the Massachusetts State House.

The food forest on South Campus is being used for research, in academic courses and as a place for the community to gather.

Students competing in the Climate Mitigation Challenge came up with innovative ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks.

UMass Lowell researchers are gearing up to expand their efforts targeting offshore wind energy as part of ARROW, a collaborative project with UMass Amherst, UMass Dartmouth and other partners that will accelerate research and the deployment and scale-up of domestic offshore wind energy. 

Chemistry Asst. Prof. James Reuther and his research team created a gel that removes PFAS from water.

Join host Bernice Butler as she explores and unpacks the intersection of Energy Production and Consumption with our Health with David Turcotte with Lowell Healthy Homes Program and Maria Chavez with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross received two Scialog: Negative Emissions Science awards for his greenhouse gas research proposals.

Students represented UMass Lowell in Dubai at COP28, the annual United Nations climate summit.

UMass Lowell students Victoria Wisniewski, Aya Oulal, Maddie Fuedo and William Lefebvre speak about their experiences at the United Nations' COP28 global conference in Dubai.

UMass Lowell students, William Lefebvre and Victoria Wisniewski, investigate how the consequences of industrial expansion and a lack of environmental regulations from past generations has consequences for Gen Z. As both students are part of the Gen Z cohort, they seek to express their concerns about climate change at this year's COP28.

The Student Society for Sustainability hosted a Thrift Day event with clothes collected from the UMass Lowell community.

Gov. Maura Healey recently signed an executive order to prohibit state agencies from buying single-use plastic bottles effective immediately, a step that she says makes Massachusetts a leader on our plastics problem. But is reducing single-use bottle use enough? The Climate Change Initiative’s Prof. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline explains to NBC Boston that we also need to find safe and effective ways to recycle the plastics that have already been produced.

A trio of professors from the Climate Change Initiative will research how communities of various socioeconomic statuses are able to respond to severe weather events.

The devastating floods in Leominster and other regions serve as a sobering reminder of the link between climate change and extreme weather events. This Boston Globe article, written by Climate Change Initiative professors Mathew Barlow and Juliette Rooney-Varga, emphasizes that these events are not an anomaly but a consequence of human-induced climate change, fueled by the emission of greenhouse gases.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy granted fellowships to mechanical engineering major Caralyn Conrad, industrial engineering Ph.D. student Mahsa Ghandi and Art and Design Assoc. Prof. Kirsten Swenson.

Environmental Defense Fund fellow Dillan Patel has worked with UML’s Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy over the summer to help create a community outreach plan for a geothermal pilot project.

Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Asst. Prof. Joy Winbourne is researching how trees respond to urban environments and climate change by deploying sap flow sensors throughout Lowell.

The New England Consortium at UMass Lowell partnered with the Lowell Community Health Center for the first time to provide disaster preparedness training sessions to the public.

Five projects created by members of the UML community received Sustainability Engagement and Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) funding from the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy.

UMass Lowell was the first site selected for National Grid’s geothermal pilot project, which will heat and cool buildings in the area with utility-scale networked geothermal energy.

Tasked with reducing greenhouse gas emissions, students created energy-saving projects for the Rist Institute Climate Mitigation Challenge.

Letting forests grow would support the full range of native biodiversity while removing carbon from the atmosphere.

Three students and three faculty members traveled to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27, the United Nations climate summit, where they were the only delegation from a public university in Massachusetts.

Do net-zero pledges mean the world is on track to protect the climate? So far, the answer is no, because if, when, and how net zero is reached matters.

UMass Lowell researchers have teamed up with local organizations in search of effective strategies that will encourage underserved communities to participate in energy efficiency programs.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy awarded fellowships to plastics engineering major Abby Mastromonaco, entrepreneurship Ph.D. student William Zhou and Chemistry Asst. Prof. Juan Artes Vivancos.

The IRA includes a wealth of home improvement rebates and tax credits to help Americans cut their energy use, and Prof. Burek helps highlight which improvements homeowners and renters can make to have the greatest effect with significant savings.

Governments and organizations around the world claim that wood bioenergy is carbon neutral. New research by UMass Lowell's Climate Change Initiative, the MIT Sustainability Initiative, Climate Interactive, and Tufts University uses a dynamic model to determine the carbon - and climate - impact of wood bioenergy.

A new study published in Simulation and Gaming describes the Climate Action Simulation: a game to give people the know-how and a sense of empowerment needed for effective climate action.

UMass Lowell remains the highest-rated campus in Massachusetts for sustainability with a STARS Gold score of 83.37 from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

A competition-based initiative to get students thinking about their residence hall energy usage won the third annual Rist Institute for Sustainability & Energy Climate Mitigation Challenge, which asks students to find ways to reduce CO2 emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks.

An interdisciplinary group of faculty members from UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative attended the recent United Nations global climate summit, aka COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, where they observed progress being made — but also missed opportunities.

An interdisciplinary team of UML faculty, led by Assoc. Profs. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline and Chris Hansen, have received a nearly $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship award for a new graduate student program focused on developing sustainable materials and chemicals that won’t harm water resources.

Science education can help slow the pace of global warming, because people who understand climate science can make informed decisions, says Education Assoc. Prof. Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier. Lohmeier does research on using artwork in informal settings to educate the public about climate science.

A plan to boost ridership on Lowell’s city buses won the second annual Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy Climate Mitigation Challenge, which asks students to find ways to reduce CO2 emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks.

UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, in partnership with the Environmental, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department and the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy, is hosting a virtual spring seminar series featuring experts from across the country.

Funded by a $1.5M grant from the Department of Energy, Professor Meg Sobkowicz-Kline, along with colleagues Dongming Xie and Hsi-Wu Wong, is working to optimize this enzymatic recycling process for low quality contaminated PET sources and large-scale deployment.

For more than 20 years, the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production’s Chemicals Science and Policy Initiative has been a leading research and strategy effort focused on driving the transition to safer, more sustainable chemicals, materials, and products.

Climate Change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events and resulting disasters. The New England Consortium (TNEC-CSEA) in partnership with the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) and Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Health and Safety (MassCOSH) received another 5-year NIESH Hazmat Disaster Preparedness Training Program grant to train organizations and their workers who prepare for and respond to climate related disasters.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy has awarded its inaugural fellowships to Asst. Prof. of Economics Kelly Hellman, plastics engineering major Kerry Candlen and chemical engineering major Maria Fonseca-Guzman.

Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Asst. Prof. James Heiss and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution were awarded a three-year, $784,000 National Science Foundation grant to study how powerful coastal storms affect the fresh water flowing below the ground along the seashore.

UMass Lowell is No. 16 on Sierra magazine’s “Cool Schools” list for 2020, the university’s highest ranking ever in a survey that assesses colleges’ performances on everything from sustainability-focused courses, carbon-neutral energy and land policies, eco-friendly dining halls and student engagement.

Profs. Mathew Barlow and Christopher Skinner of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences will study the cause of heat waves and droughts in the Northeast and how they interact with each other under a three-year, $478,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Three student projects proposing ways to reduce the university community’s carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks received the first-ever Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy (RISE) Student Innovation Awards and a share of $1,000 in prize money.

The commonwealth of Massachusetts recognized UMass Lowell for its sustainability efforts across campus with a 2019 Leading by Example award, which Chancellor Jacquie Moloney accepted at a State House ceremony.

The National Science Foundation recently recognized Asst. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong of the Department of Chemical Engineering with a prestigious faculty early career development grant, called the “CAREER” award. This highly competitive annual program selects the nation’s best young university faculty-scholars “who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.”

Causing numerous deaths and billions of dollars in damages, recent wildfires in California have raised concerns about growing wildfire risk. As people become more vulnerable to wildfire risk, it is imperative that information regarding such risk is effectively communicated.

How do individuals with a variety of interests and wills form common cause to change society? Working at the interface of media and movements, Charlotte Ryan studies how individuals build learning communities that, in turn, form coalitions and movements for systems change.

The university marked two major milestones at its Earth Day celebration: the completion of its $23.1 million Accelerated Energy Program and its latest STARS Gold rating, which moves UML into the top 10 nationally.

Six of the 12 projects to receive a share of the $50,000 Sustainability Encouragement & Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) Fund this year were led by students, the most in the fund’s three-year history.

The River Hawk Shop now gives customers recyclable paper bags instead of single-use plastic bags, a move that will eliminate around 10,000 plastic bags from the waste stream each year.