University of Utah Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dan Reed announced Monday that Kerry Case has accepted an offer to serve as the U’s chief sustainability officer. Case is currently assistant provost for Integrative Learning at Westminster College and has led that institution’s sustainability initiatives for 13 years. Reed welcomes the vision Case brings […]

For low-income families, paying the energy bill every month can be challenging, as energy bills can account for up to twice the percentage of income as for families with median income. Further, converting to an energy-efficient lifestyle can come with a steep up-front cost, adding another financial barrier to saving energy. But a recent pilot […]

Public transit has long been an answer for people looking to leave their car at home and reduce their air pollution emissions. But now, with better rider tracking tools, the University of Utah and the Utah Transit Authority can better answer the question: How much does public transit reduce pollution emissions? In a paper published […]

Utah’s Jordan River, according to University of Utah professor Jennifer Follstad Shah, is a hard-working river, supporting a growing population of more than 1 million people. But underneath all of the irrigation canals and reclamation discharge, new research shows, are natural water sources that continue to shape the character of the Jordan River. The study […]

In a valley notorious for gunky air, how do you weave transit, biking, carpooling and other air-saving measures into residents’ everyday lives? One approach is a challenge like the Salt Lake Chamber’s Clear the Air Challenge, with some participating teams offering incentives and prizes to encourage trip-saving behavior. But how do you sustain people’s use […]

Worldwide, light pollution is growing twice as fast as Earth’s human population. In many places, artificial light at night has obliterated our view of the stars and impacted wildlife, public health, and air quality. Next week, members of two international organizations dealing with the issue of light pollution will convene in Snowbird, Utah. The state […]

Diversity is strength, even among forests. In a paper published in Nature, researchers led by University of Utah biologist William Anderegg report that forests with trees that employ a high diversity of traits related to water use suffer less of an impact from drought. The results, which expand on previous work that looked at individual […]

Following a three-year, five-way competitive process, the U.S. Department of Energy has selected the Energy and Geosciences Institute (EGI) at the University of Utah to develop a geothermal laboratory near Milford, Utah. The laboratory, called Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) will focus on developing enhanced geothermal systems which could greatly expand the […]

It’s not easy to catch an Egyptian vulture. Evan Buechley knows. He’s hunkered down near garbage dumps from Ethiopia to Armenia, waiting for the highly intelligent birds to trigger a harmless trap. But no matter how well he and other researchers hid the traps, he says, “somehow the birds could always sense that something was […]

The University of Utah and Utah Clean Energy are proud to announce the launch of U Bike Electric, an electric bicycle purchase program intended to help more people improve air quality by cutting personal transportation emissions. The program offers U community members the opportunity to purchase a variety of makes and models of e-bikes at […]