University of Wisconsin–Madison
Michelle Gullickson has always been curious about the role of sustainability in education, first as an educator, then as a graduate assistant at the UW–Stevens Point Office of Sustainability, and now as Green Fund coordinator at the UW–Madison Office of Sustainability. The UW–Madison Green Fund offers financial support for student-led environmental initiatives and, just as …
On warm days along Lake Monona, walkers and cyclists pass a steady stream of traffic on John Nolen Drive. Every so often, they also pass something unexpected: UW–Madison students carrying bright green Menards buckets and collecting water from the lake. The story behind these buckets starts in August of 2023, when the City of Madison …
Rising tides, solarpunk cities, ghosts that haunt us. This year’s winners of the Sustainability Writing Awards looked beyond the now to imagine what the places we love might look like in a world shaped by unchecked climate catastrophe. The winning essays, all written by students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, explore the tension between hope …
This story, by Devin Guthrie, is one of three winners of the 2025 Sustainability Writing Awards hosted by the Office of Sustainability. You can read more about Devin here. Octavia removed the last piece of Estelle from her hair, placing it into the bag upon her shoulders. Her overgrown braids finally laid bare after eight years of …
This story, by Ross O’Donnell, is one of three winners of the 2025 Sustainability Writing Awards hosted by the Office of Sustainability. You can read more about Ross here. The city barely looks like a city from overhead. The generations who first paved its overgrown streets and erected its shored-up high-rises would struggle to recognize their old …
This story, by Lily Smogor, is one of three winners of the 2025 Sustainability Writing Awards hosted by the Office of Sustainability. You can read more about Lily here. Josey knew it was over three weeks before the government did. She’d woken to birdsong, a cardinal perched on her windowsill opposite the fraying screen, its flat black-marble …
Dr. Mark Anderson and the thermal hydraulics laboratory leverage heat transfer and fluid dynamics to develop engineering solutions that make energy production systems more efficient. Systems of energy production primarily rely on first generating heat and subsequently harnessing this heat to drive processes that range from powering an electrical grid to driving a car. Heat generation necessarily consumes natural resources so minimizing waste generated during energy production is essential to making energy accessible, affordable, and enduring.
Dr. Erica Majumder broadly classifies her research as “waste management microbiology.” Her group aims to use microorganisms to develop new strategies capable of removing pollutants from the environment and repurposing industrial and agricultural waste. With 292.4 million tons of solid waste being produced each year, in the US alone, finding new ways to upcycling these resources is crucial for environmental sustainability.
If you were to bike by the Arboretum Visitor Center on Friday, October 3rd, you might have caught UW–Madison students and staff laughing together and ringing their bike bells in celebration as they rode BCycles around the small circle. It was a beautifully sunny fall day for the event, and attendees certainly took advantage. Until …
Dr. Emma Hauser focuses on how human activity and climate change influence root nutrient cycles and different ways to mitigate adverse effects on the ecosystem. Current research from the Hauser Lab examines how the soil and roots respond to human activities and how they recover when old-growth forest strategies are implemented on secondary forests. Since root depth affects carbon cycling, nutrient storage, and water table patterns within the soil this research can give insight into how forest management practices can be improved to promote long-term sustainability.