How to participate in Earth Week
USC Earth Week How to Participate

Earth Week (April 18-22) has many opportunities for you to expand your knowledge, meet people, make connections, share ideas, and take action. Do you want to do something during Earth Week with your fellow Trojans but don’t know where to begin? We have created a guide for hosting an event. Are you looking for a…

Psychologists’ report counters doom-and-gloom attitudes on climate change
USC report aims to change on climate change attitudes

Climate change isn’t an inevitable death sentence, and the discipline of psychology must strengthen its ability to act on the issue, new report says. “Addressing the Climate Crisis: An Action Plan for Psychologists” is the result of 15 months of work by a task force led by Gale Sinatra, Stephen H. Crocker chair and professor of…

Composting in your USC dorm
USC composting bins

Currently, I am a student at the University of Southern California (USC) and consider myself lucky to live in a university apartment with a kitchen. At first, I was nervous to begin composting. With my intolerance for unpleasant smells in my small college apartment and temperatures in Southern California maintaining a warm 75 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, I was…

USC Alumna prioritizes sustainability as California’s State Architect
Ida Claire State Architect

Ida Clair, USC School of Architecture ’87, was appointed the first female state architect by Governor Gavin Newsom, after serving as acting state architect since January 2019. She joined the Division of State Architect in 2013, becoming the first technical administrator of the Certified Access Specialist Program, which ensures accessibility standards for buildings. Before joining the…

Can concrete heal itself?
Viterbi Self-healing concrete

USC Viterbi School of Engineering researchers created a new method for developing self-healing concrete that replaces the natural aggregates (pieces of rock) in concrete with engineered aggregates that contain healing agents within them. Unlike other methods pursued over the past two decades, their method prioritizes keeping costs low and maintaining other properties of concrete, particularly…

Wrigley Institute’s Randall Phelps wins Outstanding Achievement Award
Randall Phelps, Wrigley Institute

For the last 25 years, Randall Phelps has been a mainstay at Wrigley Institute on Catalina Island, ensuring the smooth operation of crucial facilities and equipment. USC’s Dornsife College recently recognized his skill and dedication with a 2022 Outstanding Staff Achievement Award. The award honors individuals whose work supports the college’s mission in extraordinary ways.…

Roski Talks: “Radical Retrofits” by Frances Anderton

In “Radical Retrofits” Frances Anderton will discuss the biggest challenge facing design and architecture today — its colossal carbon footprint…

A conversation on sustainability with Senator Lisa Murkowski
Senator Murkowski Webinar

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joins Bob Shrum, director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, for a Zoom webinar to discuss sustainability efforts in Congress. The webinar is in celebration of Women’s History Month and sponsored by the Center and the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies.  Date: Friday, March 25 at 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm.…

USC researcher applies environmental justice to scholarship
Southern California Environmental Health Study Center

Keck School of Medicine postdoctoral research scholar Dr. Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne developed a framework to systemically apply the principles of Environmental Justice to exposure science. The framework calls for moving away from the traditional “investigator-initiated” approach in exposure sciences towards one that uplifts the knowledge and leadership of communities. The paper, co-authored by Icahn…

Ershaghi Center to develop innovations for renewable energy tech and low-carbon future
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, the Ershaghi Center for Energy Transition (E-CET)

The new Ershaghi Center for Energy Transition (E-CET) will bring together thought leaders from academia and industry to collaborate on research and educational programs that will foster an energy transition towards a low-carbon future. The interdisciplinary center, supported by a gift from USC Viterbi and Marshall alumnus Gary Buntmann and his wife, Mary Buntmann, will…