Planetary Solutions

This campus-wide initiative unites institutional leadership and academic experts across the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, professional schools, and the humanities to identify and advance solutions for an array of the most pressing environmental problems caused by human activities; it acts as the organizational umbrella for work occurring across campus in furtherance of this initiative.

This center facilitates research into interventions that harness Earth’s natural processes to reduce atmospheric carbon and mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions; it is co-led by investigators from the School of the Environment and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Grants fund interdisciplinary research projects that address greenhouse gas removal or reduction, protections for human health, improvements in environmental policy and justice, biodiversity loss, or environmental health.

This institute, which serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research centered on the physical sciences, with a collective focus on scientific approaches to energy, expanded to create a consolidated space that supports collaboration between faculty across departments.

This program was established to expand the corps of environmental leaders from the Global South who will support their home regions after study at the School of the Environment.

Under the new model, campus units contribute to a university fund that supports the conversion of the campus to clean energy sources and furthers Yale’s campus-wide efforts to meet its goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050. Contributions are based on each metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent produced by their buildings.

As part of Yale’s goal to become a zero-emissions campus by mid-century, all new construction and renovation projects must meet a “zero-carbon-ready” standard, meaning that they are highly energy-efficient, exceed energy code requirements, and are ready to meet all building energy demands without fossil fuel-based systems.

New hires include faculty who work across multiple disciplines and those affiliated with Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture.

A new set of ethical investment principles created new standards for the activities, behaviors, and characteristics of fossil-fuel companies that would warrant divestment, establishing a framework to encourage fossil fuel producers to adopt more sustainable practices and advance the shift to a decarbonized energy future.