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 …
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2025 Sustainability Writing Awards winners imagine climate futures full of hope, uncertainty, and migration
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 …
The Metal Grown in her Nursery
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 …
Adon
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 …
Songbirds and Other Farewells
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 …
Can energy storage and generation be made more efficient? Mark Anderson hopes to find out
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.
Do microorganisms hold the key to environmental sustainability? Erica Majumder Aims to Find Out
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.
New BCycle Station Expands Access to UW Arboretum
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 …
For Emma Hauser, soil might hold the secret new forest management practices
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.
Forest restoration one soundscape at a time, with Zuzana Burivalova
Dr. Zuzana Burivalova’s Sound Forest laboratory collects soundscapes, images, and videos from forests across the world to comprehensively identify the animal species that are present over time and location. As forest biodiversity is increasingly threatened by habitat loss and human encroachment, understanding the baseline levels of diversity in each environment is crucial for assessing forest declines over time and the impacts of new conservation efforts. Research in the Sound Forest lab helps scientists, government agencies, and local communities make more informed decisions about the study, protection, and restoration of their local forests.