Sustainability News

  • A person with dark hair in a wool coat looks at a piece of wood in a wood shop.

    Business Alum Branches Out to a New Career

    Business alum Sean Harrington ’97, an All-American wrestler at UMass Lowell, has started Wolf Tree Wood, which sells one-of-a-kind wood slabs that can be used for custom furniture.
    Featured Story
  • A person hands a certificate to another person in a room.

    Entrepreneurs Earn Green at Clean Green Challenge

    Six sustainability-focused entrepreneurs and startups from across the region competed in the third annual Clean Green Challenge at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub.
    Featured Story
  • Bottles of Mill City Red, UMass Lowell branded Craic sauce

    From Seed to Sauce

    Craic Sauce has created a UMass Lowell-branded hot sauce made with peppers grown on campus.
    Featured Story
  • Rist fellow Caralyn Conrad

    Sustainability Projects Take Shape on Campus

    The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy granted fellowships to mechanical engineering major Caralyn Conrad, industrial engineering Ph.D. student Mahsa Ghandi and Art and Design Assoc. Prof. Kirsten Swenson.
    Featured Story
  • Dillan Patel

    Rist Institute Welcomes Environmental Defense Fund Fellow

    Environmental Defense Fund fellow Dillan Patel has worked with UML’s Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy over the summer to help create a community outreach plan for a geothermal pilot project.
    Department News
  • Arbor Day tree planting

    UMass Lowell Blooms into Certified Arboretum

    A ceremonial planting on South Campus signified UMass Lowell’s new role as a certified arboretum – a place where trees and other plants are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes.
    Featured Story
  • Ross lab gold and tin

    Chemistry Lab Group Makes Scientific Discovery

    Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross’ lab group found that nanoparticles combining post-transition and noble metals absorb higher energies of light. Their discovery is highlighted in Matter, a scientific journal published by Cell Press.
    Featured Story
  • Meg with student in the lab

    Engineering Professors’ Research on Plastics Recycling and Sustainability Gets $1M

    Prof. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline and Asst. Teaching Prof. Akshay Kokil were awarded funding totaling $1 million by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology for projects that aim to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills and the environment each year.
    Featured Story
  • COP27 JRV, Tyler and Arie

    COP27 Empowers Students to Address Climate Change

    Three students and three faculty members traveled to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27, the United Nations climate summit, where they were the only delegation from a public university in Massachusetts.
    Featured Story
  • Cool Science Alice Lobel

    Local K-12 Students Use Art to Teach Public About Extreme Weather

    The National Science Foundation-funded project Cool Science hosted its 10th annual Extreme Weather Art Competition for students in grades kindergarten through 12th. The winning posters are now displayed on transit buses in the Merrimack Valley and Worcester areas.
    Featured Story
  • A man speaks to a crowd while holding a certificate in a wood-paneled room with an American flag

    S.E.E.D. Fund Recipients All About the Green

    Seven projects led by students, faculty and staff received a share of the university’s annual $50,000 Sustainability Encouragement & Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) Fund. 
    Featured Story
  • The first poster in a Blue Mountain Alphabet by Ingrid Hess, with illustrations and information about the Blue Mountain area national parks in Australia

    Professor Educates Children About Environment Through Art

    Art Assoc. Prof. Ingrid Hess is traveling to some of the world’s most beautiful places to make artwork that educates children about the natural world and environmental sustainability. She’s won grants, fellowships and artist residencies to visit national parks in Costa Rica, Australia, the U.S. and more.
    Featured Story
  • A room full of students talk to each other while sitting at round tables

    Students Take the Lead at Sustainability Symposium

    Hosted for the first time by UMass Lowell, the Student Sustainability Leaders Symposium brought together more than 100 students from 18 colleges and universities across the Northeast to share their work and explore opportunities for collaboration and partnerships.
    Featured Story
  • Three bees pollinate pink and yellow flowers

    UML Climbs to New Heights for Sustainability

    UMass Lowell remains the highest-rated campus in Massachusetts for sustainability with a STARS Gold score of 83.37 from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
    Department News
  • A gas station sign showing the price of $4.51 per gallon

    Four Ways River Hawks Can Beat Sky-high Gas Prices

    If you’re spending more on gas to get to campus, the university has several ways to save money on your commute — while decreasing carbon emissions.
    Featured Story
  • a sign of encouragement to students hangs on a tree outside on campus

    UML Recognized for Wellness Initiatives

    UMass Lowell, which ranks No. 1 among colleges and universities for well-being and work according to the Sustainable Campus Index, has created an Office of Student Life and Well-being to better integrate wellness across campus.
    Featured Story
  • A student carries an air conditioner on his shoulder in a parking lot while another student collects recycled items from a car in the background

    ‘Fall Into Recycling’ Returns, Diverting Over 6 Tons from Landfills

    More than 6 tons of appliances, electronics, batteries and more were collected at Fall into Recycling, a popular waste diversion program that contributed to UMass Lowell being named a Top 10 Zero Waste Campus by the Post-Landfill Action Network.
    Featured Story
  • A Cool Science bus poster

    Professor: Science Education Can Help Slow Climate Change

    Science education can help slow the pace of global warming, because people who understand climate science can make informed decisions, says Education Assoc. Prof. Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier. Lohmeier does research on using artwork in informal settings to educate the public about climate science.
    Featured Story
  • A shape sails past wind turbines in the ocean

    UMass Lowell Wins Grant to Diversify Offshore Wind Workforce

    UMass Lowell, in partnership with the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, has received a $241,300 grant from the Commonwealth to develop academic pathways that increase the participation of underrepresented populations in the offshore wind industry.
    Featured Story
  • Two students help containers at the rooftop garden

    O’Leary’s New Rooftop Garden More Than a Pretty View

    A new rooftop garden of 500 herb, flower and vegetable plants has taken root at O’Leary Learning Commons on South Campus, the latest piece of UMass Lowell’s Urban Agriculture Program — a collaboration between the Office of Sustainability and Mill City Grows.
    Featured Story
  • students play cornhole outside the Campus Rec Center

    Hammocks and Patio Heaters: UML Enhancing Outdoor Spaces

    Hammock gardens, Adirondack chairs and patio heaters are just some of the amenities the university is adding to improve outdoor spaces for when students return to campus in the fall.
    Featured Story
  • Engineering students look at a refrigerator while doing an energy audit

    Urban Sustainability Projects Get $50K Boost

    The Lowell Green Community Partnership, an alliance between UMass Lowell and the city, awarded its first $50,000 in grants to five joint university-community projects that advance urban sustainability initiatives.
    Featured Story
  • The UML men's soccer team plays a game on North Campus

    America East Schools Team Up to Champion Sustainability

    With the collaboration between UMass Lowell’s Office of Sustainability and its Athletic Department serving as a model, the America East Conference has created a sustainability network that gives its 10 member institutions an opportunity to share best practices and advance green initiatives.
    Featured Story
  • UML staff members plant flowers using compost generated from dining halls

    UML Named ‘Innovator of the Year’ for Waste Management

    UMass Lowell was named “Innovator of the Year” at the first-ever Casella Sustainability Leadership Awards for the new and creative ways that the university sustains resources and diverts waste destined for landfills.
    Featured Story
  • Meg Sobkowicz-Kline talks to a student about recycled plastics in the lab

    New Seminar Series Explores Climate Anxiety, Plastics Sustainability and More

    UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, in partnership with the Environmental, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department and the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy, is hosting a virtual spring seminar series featuring experts from across the country.
    Department News
  • Asst. Prof. of Economics Kelly Hellman, plastics engineering major Kerry Candlen and chemical engineering major Maria Fonseca-Guzman

    Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy Awards First Fellowships

    The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy has awarded its inaugural fellowships to Asst. Prof. of Economics Kelly Hellman, plastics engineering major Kerry Candlen and chemical engineering major Maria Fonseca-Guzman.
    Featured Story
  • Mill City Grows' Nikki Tolani waters crops inside the greenhouse

    UML’s Greenhouse Helps Ease Growing Food Insecurity

    As food insecurity grows because of the coronavirus pandemic, the university’s Urban Agriculture Program is helping to provide fresh, healthy produce to the community through its partnership with Mill City Grows.
    Featured Story
  • Student Lily Green talks about her Carbon Consumers project

    How to Lose 10,000 Pounds (of CO2) in Just 10 Weeks

    Three student projects proposing ways to reduce the university community’s carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks received the first-ever Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy (RISE) Student Innovation Awards and a share of $1,000 in prize money.
    Featured Story
  • A student and his family dispose of cardboard during move-in

    Sustainable Move-In Unpacks a Punch

    The Office of Sustainability held its first Sustainable Move-In event on campus, collecting 62 large trash bags of plastic foam and enough cardboard to fill four large dumpsters.
    Featured Story
  • The floating trash collector in water

    Students Engineering Better Way to Clean City’s Canals

    Rover the River Hawk, an Industrial Capstone Senior Design project that Engineering students are building to clean debris from the city’s canals, received a Green Design award from the Lowell Sustainability Council and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan.
    Featured Story
  • U.S. Rep Lori Trahan visits the Urban Agriculture Greenhouse

    UML Recognized for Waste Reduction Efforts

    The university’s waste reduction efforts ranked fifth in the 2019 Sustainable Campus Index, up five spots from the previous year. The university’s Urban Agriculture Program was also highlighted in the index, which is published by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
    Featured Story
  • Lori Weeden speaks during the workshop

    It’s Never Too Early to Learn About Climate Change

    The UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative, in conjunction with the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and the College of Education, hosted a professional development workshop for two dozen area K-12 teachers on incorporating climate change education into the classroom.
    Featured Story
  • A student volunteer sorts donations on South Campus

    Student Donations Go Back into the Community

    Students donated more than 14,000 pounds of clothing, bedding, food and personal items during this spring’s Sustainable Move Out Donation Drive, which benefitted a half-dozen nonprofit organizations across the community.
    Featured Story
  • A student takes a picture of the sheep

    Mow Town: Sheep Do the Job at ‘EweML’

    From grazing sheep to battery-powered lawn mowers, Grounds Operations Manager Erik Shaw is coming up with innovative ways to maintain the campus grounds – and help boost the university’s sustainability efforts.
    Featured Story
  • Pig farm manure

    Researchers Produce Renewable Engine Fuel from Wet Biowaste

    A team of researchers from UMass Lowell, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and China Agricultural University in Beijing has developed a new, sustainable way of converting wet biological waste into diesel-compatible fuel, using heat and water.
    Featured Story
  • Students unload electronics from a car

    ‘Spring Into Recycling’ Helps River Hawks Declutter

    Faculty, staff and students dropped off more than 6 tons of personal electronics, appliances and more during April’s two-day Spring Into Recycling event, run by the Office of Sustainability and Information Security.
    Department News
  • CCI members pose with state legislators

    Faculty Experts Brief Legislators on Climate Change

    The university’s Climate Change Initiative hosted members of the state’s House Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change for a roundtable discussion on climate science and policy at which faculty members shared scientific research and expertise to help inform policy decisions.
    Featured Story
  • A student walks past the rooftop garden at University Crossing

    Rooftop Garden Takes Urban Agriculture to Another Level

    Rows of kale, Swiss chard and collard greens are growing on the new Green Roof vegetable garden at University Crossing, a collaboration between Mill City Grows and UML’s Urban Agriculture Program, Student Government Association and Office of Sustainability.
    Featured Story
  • Administrators and guests look at the new Green Roof garden

    UML Celebrates Energy Savings, Sustainability on Earth Day

    The university marked two major milestones at its Earth Day celebration: the completion of its $23.1 million Accelerated Energy Program and its latest STARS Gold rating, which moves UML into the top 10 nationally.
    Featured Story
  • UML staff members standing in front of rooftop garden

    UML Celebrates Sustainability Program

    UMass Lowell and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) celebrated the completion of the university's $23.1 million Accelerated Energy Program (AEP) at a ceremony Monday.
    Lowell Sun In The News
  • Cashier Danielle DePalma hands a student a paper bag at the bookstore

    Bookstore Switches from Plastic to Paper Bags

    The River Hawk Shop now gives customers recyclable paper bags instead of single-use plastic bags, a move that will eliminate around 10,000 plastic bags from the waste stream each year.