Empowering Solutions for a Sustainable Future

The Institute of the Environment (IoE) at UConn brings together the expertise and passion of scientists and scholars across the University to address some of the most pressing challenges and grandest opportunities society faces in the 21st century.

The resources and expertise of the Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, the Office of Sustainability, the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, and the Natural Resources Conservation Academy support the IoE’s integrated mission of research, education, and engagement. The IoE works to advance foundational understanding and develop innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges, to prepare the next generation as adept and agile members of a 21st century workforce, and to inform and engage the public about what are arguably the existential issues of our time.

Solving environmental problems related to climate change, sustainability, food security, pollution, and species extinction requires an interdisciplinary approach that leverages expertise from diverse disciplines across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. It requires consideration of multiple angles, from biophysical to cultural, and from legal to health perspectives.

A Living Building

Join us on an exciting and innovative philanthropic opportunity as we raise funds to construct a distinctive “Living Building” to house the University of Connecticut’s Institute of the Environment, encompassing the Center for Environmental Science and Engineering, Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, Natural Resources Conservation Academy, and Office of Sustainability.

Securing a Sustainable Environmental Future Symposium

Video recordings from the October 2023 Cross College Symposium on Securing a Sustainable Environmental Future are now available here.

     

Environment in the News

Class tree of 1895 in full bloom on the Great Lawn
UConn Storrs Campus Awarded Prestigious Arboretum Accreditation

‘It is a special honor to be a steward of our campus landscapes’

Waves crashing against a sea wall and houses
CIRCA: Serving Connecticut’s Coastal Communities and Beyond

As seas and temperatures rise, the Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Climate Adaptation uses research and community engagement to protect communities across the state

Usama Sheikh in a laboratory.
Technology Entrepreneurship: Waste Not, Want Not

Innovative brothers create wastewater reprocessing system to help address their native country’s environmental crisis, conserving water and repurposing it for various applications