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Sustainability

Small Changes, Big Results: Research-Backed Tips for Living a Good Life in 2025‌‌

We asked Yale SOM faculty for their best tips on living happily, healthily, and productively in the new year.‌

Ripples on water in the sun
  • Creating a Culture of Sustainability in Homebuilding

    Sustainably built homes cost more up front, but factor in resiliency, indoor air quality, and the costs to heat and cool, and the cost calculus looks quite different, says Aaron Smith ’16.

    A model net zero home
  • Green Investing Could Push Polluters to Emit More Greenhouse Gases

    One common approach to sustainable investing is to provide capital for companies with low carbon emissions and withhold it for high-emissions firms. Research co-authored by Yale SOM’s Kelly Shue shows this approach can backfire.

    An illustration of a person in a brown suit trying to move a lever toward green.
  • The Decades-Long Effort to Account for the Value of Natural Resources

    Yale School of the Environment economist Eli Fenichel helped develop a national strategy to integrate environmental and economic decision-making.

    An aerial photo of a forest with a house in the middle
  • How the Tools of Impact Investing Can Undermine Resilience in the Global South

    Impact investing advisor Clint Bartlett ’17 and Professor Todd Cort are working on innovative approaches in which businesses that create positive social outcomes get cheaper capital.

    A coffee farm in Uganda
  • How Satellites Can Help Win the Climate Fight 

    Satellites can track methane leaks and other greenhouse gas emissions back to the source. We asked Karen Jones ’89, senior technology strategist in the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation, what it will take to act on the insights offered by space technology.

    A NASA image showing methane plumes in Turkmenistan.
  • Will the Backlash from the Right Slow ESG Investing?

    A string of Republican-led states have pulled funds from firms that use environmental, social, and governance criteria in making investments. We asked Yale SOM’s Todd Cort what the political backlash means for the future of ESG investing.

    Texas State Senator Lois Kolkhorst questioning finance industry executives about ESG investing at a hearing in December 2022.
  • Your Packaging Is the Problem

    Caroline James ’22 , director of sustainability at Atlantic Packaging, says the current plastics recycling system is broken. She explains how new efforts by businesses and governments could move us toward a more sustainable and circular economy.

    Bundles of crushed plastic containers
  • Pakistan’s Long, Uncertain Recovery from Devastating Floods

    Unprecedented floods have devastated Pakistan’s agricultural economy. Wasif Khan ’86 describes a human toll that will last for years.

    People wading through water with livestock
  • Short-Term Earnings Goals Drive More Pollution, Especially for Green Companies

    Yale SOM’s Frank Zhang and Jacob Thomas found that firms might increase their pollution when they’re struggling to meet earnings targets—and that firms with a history of environmental responsibility are most likely to engage in this pattern.

    An illustration of an anxious executive dropping garbage out the window into a lake
  • We’ve Got Climate Solutions. Now We Need a Movement.

    Most Americans agree that the planet faces dire consequences if we don’t do more to address climate change. Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, outlines how businesses and individuals can push for action.

    Climate activists in New York City earlier this month.