School of Natural Resources and Environment

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In an interview with The Financial Times, SNRE Professor Andy Hoffman discusses the role that waste conservation is playing within companies as they pursue broader sustainability agendas.

“In an age of plentiful and cheap resources you can afford to throw them out,” Hoffman is quoted in the story. “But as the price and the scarcity starts to go up, capturing them and bringing them back will be critical.”

The article, by Sarah Murray, is titled "The sustainable path to profit: don’t throw out the rubbish."

Three University of Michigan researchers were lead convening authors of chapters in the 1,100-plus-page National Climate Assessment, which was written by a team of more than 240 scientists.

In the coming decades, climate change will lead to more frequent and more intense Midwest heat waves while degrading air and water quality and threatening public health. Intense rainstorms and floods will become more common, and existing risks to the Great Lakes will be exacerbated. Those are some of the conclusions contained in the Midwest chapter of a draft report released last week by the federal government that assesses the key impacts of climate change on every region in the country and analyzes its likely effects on human health, water, energy, transportation, agriculture, forests, ecosystems and biodiversity. Three University of Michigan researchers were lead convening authors of chapters in the 1,100-plus-page National Climate Assessment, which was written by a team of more than 240 scientists.

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.

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

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

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.

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