Environmental Solutions Initiative

A Nature editorial discusses the live music industry’s increasing commitment to sustainability, going beyond actions such as bottle recycling to addressing band travel, equipment shipping and set construction. Researchers from MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative have “undertaken a project co-funded by the Warner Music Group, Live Nation and Coldplay to analyze the carbon footprint of the live music industry, initially in the United Kingdom and United States, and suggest practical mitigating measures.”

Prof. John Fernández, director of the Environmental Solutions Initiative, speaks with Aynsley O’Neill and Jenni Doering of NPR’s Living on Earth about steps homeowners and renters can take to reduce the risk of wildfires impacting their homes. “The most important thing is to reduce the fuel that’s available between your house and the beginning of the forest, reducing the amount of objects that could ignite,” says Fernández. “That includes outdoor furniture [or] any plastic material.” 

Prof. John Fernandez speaks with New York Times reporter Somini Sengupta about how to reduce the climate footprints of homes and office buildings, recommending creating airtight structures, switching to cleaner heating sources, using more environmentally-friendly building materials, and retrofitting existing homes and offices. “It’s going to be a lot easier to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment than almost everything else,” explains Fernandez.

The Emerald Tutu, a climate resiliency project in Boston led by Gabriel Cira ’08, is developing a system of floating wetlands designed to reduce coastal flooding by knocking down waves, reports Hannah Chanatry for WBUR. The Emerald Tutu was the winning project at the 2018 MIT Climate Changed Ideas competition. “Fundamentally, it’s like a giant sponge that fits around urban coastlines like we have here in Boston,” said Cira. “It buffers those coastlines from the intense effects of coastal storms.”

MIT has announced a new climate action plan aimed at helping the Institute tackle climate change, reports Kristina Chen for The Tech. The plan offers increased opportunities for student involvement and a new organizational structure. Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research, explains that MIT feels “that it’s our responsibility and duty to try to make a genuine difference, and to do that, we’re going to need the help of everyone in the community.” 

Graduate student Caroline White-Nockleby discusses her new white paper that explores the regional impact of the decline in coal production. “Employment in the [coal] industry has decreased from around 3,800 jobs to around 2,800 direct jobs in the past five years,” says White-Nockleby .”They also have a big role in the tax base. Coal companies pay taxes on the value of the coal itself that’s underground, and they also pay property taxes.”