Sustainable Societies Initiative

We bring together researchers from across the university to address a central global challenge: How do we accomplish the social, economic, cultural transformations needed to create societies that are truly sustainable? 

These complex, integrated, human-centered challenges require deep engagement with governments, business, civil society, and communities. This engagement will foster research that yields insights and pathways to enable and propel transformative change. Addressing political, institutional, behavioral, technological, historical, environmental, and ecological dimensions requires an integrative social-environmental systems approach for success.

• Research Priorities
• Events
• People 

Research priorities

Stanford Center for Just Environmental Futures: Serving as an intellectual and community hub for interdisciplinary and engaged scholarship to advance environmental and climate justice. Launching in January 2026, led by Maxine Burkett, Professor of Environmental Social Sciences.

Transformation science: Understanding interventions that have potential to be powerful forces for transformation. Led by Nicole Ardoin, Associate Professor of Environmental Social Sciences, and Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, Associate Professor of Earth System Science.

Enhancing societal resilience to extreme weather events: Generating insights and innovations that can help societies develop institutions, policies, and processes to reduce vulnerability, improve response and recovery, and increase community resilience to future events. 

Solution areas and integrative projects: Providing support for interdisciplinary teams of faculty collaborating with decisionmakers to tackle systems-level sustainability challenges. The Sustainable Societies Initiative currently supports work in three areas of the school’s Solution Area - Integrative Projects grant program: 

• Food: Led by David Lobell, Benjamin M. Page Professor and Professor of Earth System Science, and Jim Leape, William and Eva Price Senior Fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment;
• Sustainable Cities Program: Led by Sarah Billington, UPS Foundation Professor and Processor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Jenna Davis, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Environmental Social Sciences, and Rishee Jain, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering;
• Platforms and tools: Led by Jennifer Dionne, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Rosemary Knight, George L. Harrington Professor of Geophysics; Fio Micheli, David and Lucille Professor of Marine Science and Professor of Oceans, and Howard Zebker, Kwoh-Ting Li Professor and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Geophysics. 
  Learn more about Solution Area - Integrative Projects grants.

Events

Sustainability in Practice series: Stories of partnering for impact

The Sustainability in Practice series brings together scholars, students, and practitioners twice per quarter to share personal stories of authentic sustainability impact through research-action collaborations. Beginning in January 2026, these informal gatherings will foster candid conversations about innovations, challenges, missteps, and breakthroughs in cross-sector collaboration. 

Humanities and Sustainability Salon

The Stanford Humanities Center and the Sustainable Societies Initiative convenes Stanford humanists, social scientists, and natural scientists to explore sustainability readings through philosophical, historical, and other perspectives. The salon, held on campus with Stanford faculty twice per quarter starting in January 2026, aims to enrich understanding not only of sustainability, but also of each other’s disciplines as we confront the changing nature of life on this planet.

Faculty affiliate program (coming soon)

We are building a community of researchers committed to societal transformation.

People