Environment & Sustainability
Environment & Sustainability
At Wake Forest University, we believe that creating a sustainable future requires the full span of human knowledge and the strength of reciprocal partnership. When environmental science is brought into conversation with the humanities, social sciences, business, law, medicine, divinity, and the arts, we gain a fuller understanding of how people, places, and ecosystems flourish — and what it takes to protect them.
As communities around the world confront accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and widening inequities in access to clean air, clean water, nutritious food, and safe living conditions, Wake Forest is embracing a whole-university approach to sustainability. We are uniting discovery with practice, theory with application, and campus with community to generate solutions that strengthen both human and planetary well-being.
Guided by our Pro Humanitate ethos, Wake Forest is cultivating an integrated ecosystem — one that includes the globally recognized Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability, interdisciplinary academic programs, experiential learning opportunities, and deep community collaboration. This approach positions the university as a local-to-global nexus for environmental resilience, sustainable development, and planetary health.
We believe sustainable futures require not only scientific and technological insight, but also ethical reflection, cultural understanding, and a commitment to justice. A healthier planet is inseparable from human dignity, equitable partnership, and creative problem-solving.
This vision means:
- Bringing together the sciences, humanities, social sciences, business, law, medicine, divinity, and the arts to spark innovative collaborative solutions to the most pressing issues that humanity and the planet face.
- Connecting environmental science with policy, ethics, culture, and storytelling to promote stewardship, equity, and resilience.
- Working in authentic, reciprocal partnership with local, regional, and global communities to co-create solutions grounded in lived experience.
- Fostering understanding and cooperation across age groups and the full political spectrum.
- Transforming fundamental research into practical innovations that strengthen planetary health and support community well-being.
- Preparing students to lead with insight, courage and the ability to think across disciplines, engage diverse perspectives, and design sustainable solutions for a rapidly changing world.
Stories
Showing up & taking action
What’s Fueling Wildfires in the Southeast?
Wake Forest civil engineering professor Lauren Lowman explains how “weather whiplash” — rapid swings between drought and flooding — is fueling more frequent Southeast wildfires, and why fire is actually essential to native ecosystems.
WFU Environmental Justice Summit to Feature Civil Rights Activist Rev. Ben Chavis
Rev. Ben Chavis, who coined the term “environmental racism,” will keynote Wake Forest’s Environmental Justice Summit, joining scholars and frontline activists for a day of dialogue on equity, energy justice, and Indigenous rights.
Claudia Vega Named 2025 TED Fellow for Work on Mercury Pollution in the Amazon
Wake Forest-affiliated researcher Claudia Vega was named a 2025 TED Fellow for her groundbreaking science on mercury contamination from illegal gold mining in the Amazon and its devastating effects on food chains and Indigenous communities.
Tropical Forests Are Struggling to Keep Pace with Climate Change
A major study co-authored by Wake Forest researchers — analyzing 250,000+ trees across the Americas — finds that tropical forests are changing too slowly to stay in equilibrium with rapidly shifting temperatures and rainfall.
Can Amazon and Andean Trees Move to Survive Climate Change?
A Wake Forest-led study spanning 40+ years of forest monitoring finds that tree communities in the Amazon and Andes are accumulating a “climatic debt” — falling far behind the pace of warming with major implications for global biodiversity.
Heat Waves Are Here. Can Tomatoes Keep Up?
Wake Forest biology professor Gloria Muday studies how extreme heat causes tomato pollen to fail and is developing heat-tolerant varieties rich in protective antioxidants — research with major implications for the global food supply.
When Marine Algae Get Sick: How Viruses Shape Microbe Interactions
A new Wake Forest-involved study published in Nature Microbiology reveals that virus-infected ocean microbes release chemical signals that attract other bacteria before they die, reshaping our understanding of the marine food web.
WFU Researcher Ovidiu Csillik to Collaborate on NASA-Funded Project
Wake Forest remote sensing expert Ovidiu Csillik joins a $1 million NASA-funded team using lidar technology to produce the most accurate measurements yet of carbon storage changes in tropical forests over time.
How to Think About the Planet
Wake Forest Magazine profiles five faculty across engineering, communication, English, statistics, and environmental policy whose courses challenge students to examine their relationship with nature — from Winston-Salem floodplains to the Serengeti.
Into the Wild of Peru
Wake Forest biology professor Miles Silman and journalism professor Justin Catanoso take students deep into the Peruvian Amazon to experience its breathtaking biodiversity firsthand — and document the destruction threatening it.
Philanthropy: Sleeves Up for Saving At-Risk Ancestral Lands and Homes
A $300,000 Wells Fargo Foundation grant supports Wake Forest Law’s Heirs’ Property Project, which helps minority and low-income North Carolinians resolve inherited land ownership disputes and protect generational wealth.
Prescription for the Planet: ‘Net-Zero Carbon’ Medical Education
Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s new Charlotte campus is set to become the nation’s first net-zero medical school, embedding sustainability into both building design and the curriculum future physicians will learn.
On Campus
Compassionate Action
- Andrew Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability
- Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative
- Environment and Sustainability Studies (ENV) Program
- Environmental Law & Policy Clinic
- Heirs’ Property Project
- Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA)
- Magnolias Curriculum Project
- Campus Engaged Learning