We provide opportunities for students.

Our students learn from and work with people and partners on campus and throughout the world. Together, we confront environment and sustainability challenges head-on and with confidence. We aim to be bold. We take heart in working together to sustain and restore healthy conditions that sustain people and the diverse wonders of our planet.

We span the resources of Cornell.

As a cross-college major, we are available to students in the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. Five Cornell colleges are represented by faculty and courses associated with the major. Cornell programs and facilities throughout the U.S. and other countries further extend our reach beyond the Ithaca campus.

We work across the globe.

Our network of faculty, staff and alumni support our undergraduate students throughout their time on campus and beyond. Faculty and alumni provide connections with a broad range of local, regional, national and international off-campus organizations and institutions working together with common purpose.

A single solar panel in the foreground and McGraw Tower in the background at dusk.
Campus partners
Three students working in a group near Beebe Lake
Learning goals

Making a positive impact

Student experiences, alumni pathways, news and other environment and sustainability stories.

River ecosystem

News

Global atlas will track human and climate impact on river systems

A new Cornell-led project will create a global record that shows how river systems around the world have changed under human influence over the last 75 years.

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Climate Change
  • Water
Caterpillar on a leaf

News

Milkweed has found a new strategy in its epic evolutionary battle with monarch butterflies: structurally upgrading its toxins to outmaneuver monarchs' resistance.

  • Cornell AgriTech
  • Entomology
  • Environment
Close up of a salamander being held in hand

News

Led by two Cornell graduate students, more than 300 volunteers are heading out into the rain on warm spring nights to help migrating salamanders and frogs.

  • Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment
  • Natural Resources and the Environment Section
Illustration of chromosomes

News

Research finds that chromosomal inversions – which occur when a chunk of chromosome containing tens to thousands of genes breaks off, flips and reattaches – help certain species maintain genetic differences adapted to various regions.

  • Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment
  • Natural Resources and the Environment Section
bobolink bird

News

In June 2023, smoke from Canadian wildfires dampened birds’ vocalizations in New York state, with a particularly negative effect on already imperiled grassland birds.

  • Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment
  • Natural Resources