School Notes: School of the Environment
November/December 2019

New book offers ‘big ideas’ for sustainable future

The Yale Environmental Dialogue, an F&ES-based initiative that aims to introduce fresh thinking into the national conversation on environmental issues, has published a new book, A Better Planet: 40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future. In a series of essays, leading thinkers from across a range of disciplines, perspectives, and political ideologies offer concrete ideas that address many of the most pressing environmental challenges. The authors—including many Yale faculty and alumni—cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change. Authors include Nobel Prize–winning economist William Nordhaus ’63; Jane Lubchenco, former NOAA administrator; Thomas Lovejoy ’64, ’71PhD, a conservation biologist and “father of biodiversity”; and Susan Biniaz ’80, the former lead climate lawyer for the US State Department who helped negotiate the Paris Agreement. The book, which was edited by Daniel C. Esty ’86JD, the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at F&ES and Yale Law School, was published October 22 by Yale University Press.

Carbon Offset Lab will be based at F&ES

Dean Takahashi ’80, ’83MPPM, the longtime senior director of the Yale Investments Office, will spearhead a new multidisciplinary Yale laboratory that will develop and support innovative solutions to the challenge of climate change. The Yale Carbon Offset Laboratory (COLab) will engage faculty and students from across campus—as well as innovators and scientists from outside the university—who are developing technologies that sequester and store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Its administrative home will be F&ES. The lab will aim to offset more than 1 billion tons of global carbon dioxide emissions over the long term, and it will target more than 10 million tons in emissions offsets by 2030—or about 50 times Yale’s current net emissions. “I know it is ambitious, but I think it is important to set aggressive goals for the COLab so that we do something significant and worthy of Yale,” said Takahashi. “To meet these targets, it is essential that we solicit and collect great ideas from the Yale community and externally.”