School of Natural Resources and Environment

News and Research Digest

17 SNRE students among 40 in inaugural class of Dow Sustainability Fellows

Forty master's and professional-degree students from eight schools and colleges at the University of Michigan, including 17 from the School of Natural Resources and Environment, are beginning the Dow Sustainability Fellows Program today, marking the first cohort of fellows in the $10 million program launched last spring.

Bierbaum article on energy, climate in current issue of American Academy journal

SNRE Professor Rosina M. Bierbaum has contributed an essay on energy in the context of sustainabilityas part of the current issue of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The issue presents thinking from leading scientists on the question of how limiting the effects of climate change requires a substantial transformation of the energy infrastructure.

Research being led by SNRE Professor Don Zak has received an additional five years of federal support. PHOTO BY DAVE BRENNER

Grant Funding Allows for Further Study of the Effects of Climate Change

Research being led by SNRE Professor Don Zak has received an additional five years of federal support, enabling researchers to continue an unprecedented study of how changes in climate are affecting the DNA of forests. The new round of National Science Foundation funding allows work to continue through 2018. The experiments are taking place in northern Michigan, and examine how climate change is influencing the activity of soil microbes, which decay dead leaves and roots in a process that controls the amount of carbon stored in soils.

Planet Blue volunteers staff information tables at an open house last year hosted inside the Dana Building. PHOTO BY DAVE BRENNER

Planet Blue Ambassador certification open to U-M community

The University of Michigan has launched an online certification program in an effort to promote sustainable behaviors and culture among its community. Open to all faculty, staff and students, the Planet Blue Ambassador program is part of President Mary Sue Coleman's sustainability initiative known as Planet Blue.

Secretary Chu (left) and SNRE Professor Greg Keoleian

Keoleian updates Energy Secretary Chu on clean energy projects

Officials from the U.S. Department of Energy and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology met in Washington last week to review joint energy research projects, including one on clean vehicles led by University of Michigan. SNRE Professor Greg Keoleian, who is part of the project and also directs the school's Center for Sustainable Systems, also gave a presentation to Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Erb @ 15: Rubin reflects on legacy of being program's first graduate

Laura Rubin (M.S. ’94, M.B.A. ’95,) was so enthused by the dual-degree idea, first proposed in the early 1990s, that she enrolled voluntarily even before the ink was dry on the plan. She knew instinctively then what so many incoming Erb students now take for granted: the paths of business success and environmental stewardship are intertwined and must therefore be studied in tandem.

Key dates in the history of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainble Enterprise

1991-92: Talks begin between deans of the schools of Business and Natural Resources and Environment about the creation of a joint degree involving business and environmental studies

1994: The Corporate Environmental Management Program (CEMP) debuts; first class enters fall 1994. Advisory board formed to shape program’s direction

1993: Stu Hart hired as CEMP’s first director

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