O’Neill School Sustainability faculty research focuses on the interactions between human societies and the natural environment. Their research aims to develop policies and strategies that promote the sustainable use of natural resources, reduce environmental degradation, and mitigate climate change. They also engage natural sciences to address complex environmental issues and create sustainable solutions for the benefit of current and future generations.
Greening the world, one policy at a time
Faculty spotlight
Understanding and influencing policies that impact quality of life
Professor Doug Noonan analyzes environmental, urban, and cultural policies and the impact they have on people, whether it’s how clean places are, where parks are located, how cities approach infrastructure, or even what influences an area’s cultural scene.
Featured research
Private sector provides examples of how to LEED on climate change
In his new book, "Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation," Professor Doug Noonan explores the ways in which the private sector can help find complementary approaches to sound environmental policy.
Read more about Private sector provides examples of how to LEED on climate change
Crop disruption from war in Ukraine could increase global carbon emissions, food prices
New research from Associate Professor Jerome Dumortier shows how the disruption of crop production after the Russian invasion of Ukraine is expected to increase carbon emissions and food prices across the globe.
Read more about Crop disruption from war in Ukraine could increase global carbon emissions, food pricesRecent Environmental Policy & Sustainability publications
- Rethinking adaptation interventions in agricultural systems for sustainability (2025) in Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability with Nathan Cook.
- Why Nepal’s Community-based Forestry Program is Losing Participants (2025) in Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene with Nathan Cook.
- Remittance Income Weakens Participation in Community-based Natural Resource Management (2025) in Ecology & Society with Nathan Cook.
- Ostromian Institutions and Violence: Community Forestry and Nepal’s Civil War (2025) in World Development with Nathan Cook.
- Collective PES Contracts Can Motivate Institutional Creation to Conserve Forests: Experimental Evidence (2024) in Conservation Letters with Nathan Cook.
- Social Inequalities Shape Climate Change Adaptation Among Indian Farmers (2024) in Environmental Research Letters with Nathan Cook.
- Experimental Evidence on Minority Participation and the Design of Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programs (2024) in Ecological Economics with Nathan Cook.
- Promoting women’s leadership under environmental decentralization: The roles of domestic policy, foreign aid, and population change (2023) in Environmental Science and Policy with Nathan Cook.
- Interactions Between U.S. Vehicle Electrification, Climate Change, and Global Agricultural Markets (2022) in Environmental and Resource Economics with Jerome Dumortier.
- Floodplain managers’ perceptions of community flood concern, mitigation, preparedness, and response in the United States (2022) in Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management with Douglas Noonan.
- Is flood mitigation funding distributed equitably? Evidence from coastal states in the southeastern United States (2023) in Journal of Flood Risk Management with Douglas Noonan.
In the news
Emissions red flag as Ukraine war crop disruption bites, Air Quality News
Former uses of Diamond Chain site could pose ‘bit of a sticky situation’ for developers, Indianapolis Business Journal
Bill boosting “distressed” wastewater infrastructure draws mixed testimony, Indiana Capital Chronicle