The MIT School of Science has launched a new center aimed at advancing knowledge and computational capabilities in the field of sustainability science. This initiative is designed to support policymakers in government, industry, and civil society in achieving sustainable development goals. Aligned with the MIT Climate Project, the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy will leverage the institute’s expertise to enhance understanding of sustainability challenges and provide actionable insights for strategies that improve human well-being for current and future generations.
Noelle Selin, a professor at MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, will serve as the center’s inaugural academic director. C. Adam Schlosser and Sergey Paltsev, senior researchers at MIT, will be the deputy directors, with Anne Slin as the executive director.
The center will integrate and build upon the Center for Global Change Science and the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, while adding new capabilities. Its mission is to produce cutting-edge research to guide societal transitions toward a more sustainable future. Drawing on MIT’s long history of addressing global change and its environmental and human dimensions, the center is well-positioned to lead global efforts in advancing sustainability science, which seeks to understand the complex interactions between natural and societal systems. This understanding aims to be relevant and actionable for policymakers in government, industry, and civil society as they develop viable pathways to improve quality of life for multiple stakeholders.
« As critical challenges like climate change, health, energy, and food security increasingly impact lives worldwide, policymakers need a better understanding of Earth in all its complexity – including people, technologies, and institutions as well as environmental processes, » says Selin. « Better knowledge of these systems and how they interact can lead to more effective strategies that avoid unintended consequences and ensure a better quality of life for all. »
Advancing Knowledge, Computational Capabilities, and Decision Support
To produce more precise and comprehensive knowledge of sustainability challenges and guide policymakers in formulating more effective strategies, the center has set the following goals:
- Advance fundamental understanding of interconnected physical and socio-economic systems that affect human well-being. As new policies and technologies are developed in the context of climate change and other global changes, they interact with environmental processes and institutions in ways that alter systems essential to life on Earth. The fundamental mechanisms that determine many behaviors of these systems, including those related to interactions between climate, water, food, and socio-economic systems, remain largely unknown and poorly quantified. Better understanding can help society mitigate risks of abrupt changes and « tipping points » in these systems.
- Develop, establish, and disseminate new computational tools for better understanding of Earth systems, including both environmental and human dimensions. The center’s work will integrate modeling and data analysis across disciplines in an era of increasing volumes of observational data. MIT’s multi-system models and data products will provide robust information to inform decision-making and shape the next generation of sustainability science and strategy.
- Produce actionable science that supports equity and justice within and across generations. The center’s research will be designed to inform actions associated with measurable outcomes aligned with supporting human well-being across generations. This requires engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including not only nations and businesses but also non-governmental organizations and communities acting to promote sustainable development – with particular attention to those who have historically borne the brunt of environmental injustice.
« The center’s work will advance fundamental understanding of sustainability science, harness cutting-edge computing and data, and foster engagement and impact, » says Selin. « Our researchers will assist leading scientists and strategists worldwide who share MIT’s commitment to mobilizing knowledge to inform action for a more sustainable world. »
Building a Better World at MIT
Building on MIT’s existing capabilities in sustainability, science, and strategy, the center aims to:
- Focus research, education, and outreach under a theme that reflects a comprehensive state of the field and international research directions, fostering a dynamic community of students, researchers, and faculty;
- Increase the visibility of sustainability science at MIT, emphasizing the links between science and action, in the context of the institute’s existing goals and other climate and sustainability efforts, and in a way that reflects the vital contributions of a range of natural and social science disciplines to understanding human-environment systems; and
- Re-emphasize MIT’s longstanding expertise in integrated systems modeling while leveraging the institute’s cutting-edge strengths in data and computing, establishing leadership that harnesses recent innovations, including those in machine learning and artificial intelligence, to address the scientific challenges of global change and sustainability.
« The Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy will provide the necessary synergy for our MIT researchers to develop, deploy, and scale serious solutions to climate change and other critical sustainability challenges, » says Nergis Mavalvala, Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics and Dean of the MIT School of Science. « Under Professor Selin’s leadership, the center will also ensure that these solutions are created in concert with the people directly affected, today and in the future. »
The center builds on more than three decades of achievements from the Center for Global Change Science and the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, both led or co-led by atmospheric science professor Ronald Prinn.
