September 24, 2014
Suggestions (very lightly edited if at all, and in no specific order) made by students, staff,
and faculty about possible themes of 5 leading centers, institutes, areas, etc. of excellence in
sustainability and environmental sciences (compiled by Huiting Mao and Don Leopold)
Sustainability Science
Applied Industrial Ecology
Water, Life, and Sustainable Future as three distinct themes
Important to address relationship between centers and how they work together?
Biodiversity and Natural History
Water - Many specialists across the departments, a $20 million center to go with it.
Climate Adaptation – biology, water, coastal, landscape ecology, design, etc.
Population Growth and Consumption (ultimate driver of all issues – demographic and economic
issue; Human Environment Interface – urban environmental quality – human health and
environmental science)
Hydrofracking and Energy Production: Local and Regional Effects
Reducing Consumption – alternative energy – urban landscape – green energy
Institutional Environmental Transformation (field-based, integrative, urban environments, urban
sustainability, resilience, equality)
Species Extinction, Decline, and Documentation
Species and Landscape Conservation
Center for Industrial Innovation & Green Products (Environment-Industry Relationship – New
environmentalism – give our research to industry and there’ll be instant paybacks. Get industry
to move to the right direction; conservation problem-solving? Work with people to solve their
environmental problems)
Center for Ecosystem Metrics - Center for Transdisciplinary Study? (Appropriate metrics to
bring all people together)
Professional Degree Programs
Sustainable Use of Natural Resources vs. Management of Resources
Edible and Sustainable Landscape
Center for Tree Restoration
Suggest not a pre-structured theme but one that aggregates around a topic such as restoring
American chestnut trees, to organically form a transdisciplinary institution
Global Environmental Leadership Training & Global Partnership (ESF has an international
reputation of dealing with environmental resource issues; we have potential working together on
a global basis)
Undergrad research needs to be enhanced (through REU?)
Science Policy and Public Interface (add: Communication, education, policy; decision-making)
Sustainable, Green products, Biomimicry, and Ecomimicry
Ecocultural Landscape Restoration
Sustainable Landscape Design
Sustainability and Resilience Assessment
Human adaptation within local to planetary boundaries
HELP – Human and Environmental Local to Planetary
Human and Environmental NYS to Planetary
Urban à Wild Continuum
HAEC – Human Accelerated Environmental Change