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.

A harmful algae bloom along the west shore of Cayuga Lake.

News

Toxic algae releases chemicals to suppress competitors

A new study examines how a cyanobacteria manipulates its environment to give itself advantages to take over the water column, leading to harmful algal blooms and mats in lakes during hot summers.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Water
Smallmouth bass swimming underwater

News

The bass rapidly evolved to grow faster and invest more in early reproduction in response to efforts to eradicate them.

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Environment
  • Natural Resources
Hands wearing gloves picks up a pile of wood debris off the ground

News

Researchers project that burying the wood debris from managed forests could reduce global warming up to 0.76 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Soil and Crop Sciences Section
  • Climate Change
A bobcat sniffs a trail camera mounted by Cornell researchers, in collaboration with New York state.

News

Snapshot NY aims to collect widespread data about animal populations throughout New York state - using thousands of trail cameras - and is engaging the public to aid the effort.

  • Natural Resources and the Environment
  • Animals
  • Nature
Solar panels floating on a pond

News

Researchers project significant energy gains from using floating solar on just 3.5% of waterbodies in the Northeastern U.S., even with approaches that preserve biodiversity and recreation.

  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Natural Resources and the Environment
  • Biodiversity