Discoveries, solutions, and impact from 2024 Stanford environment and sustainability research
The Stanford Environmental Research Year in Review looks back at the most notable environment and sustainability research from Stanford scholars in 2024.
Each year, researchers at Stanford produce hundreds of studies that contribute to fundamental understanding of environmental systems and generate innovative solutions to some of the most pressing energy, ecology, and societal challenges.
The Stanford Environmental Research Year in Review, produced by the Woods Institute for the Environment, provides a snapshot of key studies from scholars across Stanford’s seven schools. These publications demonstrate how Stanford faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars, and research staff are building connections between knowledge generation and scalable impact. The report also details awards that will foster discovery and innovation and special reports with insights that are influencing change beyond academia.
As part of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and with many partners, we are advancing bold investment in both fundamental discovery and scalable solutions. By fostering a rich intellectual community across campus and equipping researchers with the tools to pursue novel opportunities, we are cultivating the seeds that grow into meaningful change. ”
This year’s review spans a wide range of topics that can inform environmental policies, technology, conservation, business, and decision-making, including:
- Equitable, just, and science-backed approaches to climate adaptation
- Novel technologies to protect buildings from wildfire and convert air into fertilizer
- Understanding links between human and planetary health
- Unveiling hidden threats to thriving ecosystems on land and in the ocean
- Accounting for biodiversity and nature in business
- Opportunities to grow tribal clean energy in the U.S.
“Right now is an all-hands-on-deck moment to restore our planet,” said Arun Majumdar, the Chester Naramore Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “The research featured in this report gives us the knowledge, hope, and blueprint to make it a reality.”
The examples highlighted in the Stanford Environmental Research Year in Review are far from exhaustive, but they illustrate the breadth and depth of expertise brought to collaborative partnerships at the university and beyond. In total, Stanford scholars produced more than 800 peer-reviewed publications related to the environment and sustainability in 2024.
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Los Angeles Times | Michael Wara is quoted on the importance of transitioning to electric vehicles quickly.
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The Record | Mark Z. Jacobson discusses the social and political barriers to 100% clean energy and notes that by diverting money away from renewables used to replace fossil fuels, governments are not only increasing air pollution and fossil fuel extraction but also CO2 and costs, compared with using the same money for renewables to replace fossil fuel plants.
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Stanford water experts discuss lessons learned from previous droughts, imperatives for infrastructure investment and pathways for the state to achieve dramatically better conservation and reuse of its most precious resource.
