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WORKING TOWARDS A JUST & LIVABLE FUTURE

 

 

At Oregon, we know that we are in the midst of unprecedented and transformative environmental change. All of us, and especially our students, are facing dramatic ecological shifts to all our natural systems because of climate change and other forces. This change highlights social justice dynamics and environmental inequities that shape our world. As a result, we see societal paradigm shifts in systems that govern our economy, the built environment, democracy, and fundamental relationships among people. This work requires the amplification of voices that have often gone unheard.

We face these challenges by generating new approaches, finding proactive problem-solving pathways, engaging in collaboration with multiple constituencies and social groups, participating in diverse ideas and forms of knowledge, and exerting the full measure of our creative energy.

About the Environment Initiative

 

 

EI Year in Review

Environment Initiative Annual Review

Read about the successes and solutions developed by experts, faculty members, fellows, and leaders within the initiative.

Read the Review

Events

Student Advocacy and Action for Environmental Justice (SAAEJ, pronounced "sage") and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center (ENR) present an environmental justice panel focused on the intersection of water law, policy, and science.
Elizabeth Kronk Warner (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians) will visit Oregon Law to deliver the 17th Annual Rennard Strickland Lecture on Tuesday, October 24th, 2023. Kronk Warner is the Jefferson B. & Rita Fordham Presidential Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Utah's S.J.
Sackett v. Environmental Protection Association
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Environment Experts in the media

For those media outlets looking to get a quote or hear from one of UO's environment experts, reach out to our media team.

Contact Media Relations

News

University of Oregon employees strive for excellence in teaching, research, artistic expression, and the generation and application of knowledge. They are frequently honored for their research, scholarship, teaching, leadership and service that exemplifies individual excellence and delivers on our institutional purpose.
Dhillon, the lab manager for the Hallett Lab in the Department of Biology and the Environmental Studies Program, is collecting samples to test a new, more sustainable way to farm hazelnuts. The lab is part of the UO’s College of Arts and Sciences.
This program focuses on science storytelling for Latine/x/a/o people and communities in the Willamette Valley. During summer 2023, El Sonido de la Ciencia (The Sound of Science) has aspired to reach audiences and communities frequently ignored and marginalized by mainstream news media and governmental actors who make decisions regarding public health and the application of scientific knowledge. El Sonido de la Ciencia features interviews with scientists, students, non-profit organizations, artists, and many others.
Patos Unidos, a one-stop resource webpage, launches in time for Latinx Heritage Month. 
Alexandra Rempel, associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Oregon, agreed heat pumps are more sustainable than traditional heating and cooling systems, but they are not highly efficient in extremely cold regions.
KLCC-FM (Eugene, OR): Led by the University of Oregon, the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center, or CRESCENT, includes researchers from 14 institutions. All are dedicated to the study of the 620-mile fault.
Now, the 23-year-old graduate of the University of Oregon has a front-row seat in reshaping how federal forests are managed in Oregon and throughout the Northwest.
One of the experts whom I consulted while I was researching this piece, Dr. Roo Vandegrift, did his post-doctoral research at the Biology of the Built Environment (BioBE) Center at the University of Oregon, studying Cross-Laminated Timber as a durable building material.

It is the first NSF-funded center to research quakes like the anticipated 'Big One'.

 

$100,000 to the University of Oregon's Resource Assistance for Rural Environments AmeriCorps Program to work with area partners to increase implementation of renewable energy generation by rural small businesses, farms, and agricultural producers throughout the state of Oregon.

 


Territorial Acknowledgement

The University of Oregon is located on Kalapuya ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapuya people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the U.S. government and forcibly removed to the Coast Reservation in Western Oregon. Today, Kalapuya descendants are primarily citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and they continue to make important contributions to their communities, to the UO, to Oregon, and to the world.
 
In following the Indigenous protocol of acknowledging the original people of the land we occupy, we also extend our respect to the nine federally recognized Indigenous nations of Oregon: the Burns Paiute Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Coquille Indian Tribe, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, and the Klamath Tribes. We express our respect to the many more tribes who have ancestral connections to this territory, as well as to all other displaced Indigenous peoples who call Oregon home.

MOU between UO and Oregon Tribes