Stanford launches new Center for Just Environmental Futures

A new center at Stanford aims to ensure that the pursuit of sustainability strengthens human dignity and ecological resilience. Bridging scholarship, policy, and practice, the Stanford Center for Just Environmental Futures will focus on advancing research and education that integrate community-level needs into sustainability efforts.

Housed in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the center will serve as the intellectual and cultural hub for interdisciplinary communities across campus and beyond who are dedicated to addressing the interconnected challenges of environmental degradation, climate change, and inequity.

“Durable sustainability solutions demand collaboration across law, engineering, ecology, economics, and lived experience. That complexity is not a liability; it is the source of solutions that last,” said Maxine Burkett, the center’s founding faculty director and the Emerson Collective Professor of Climate, Environment, and Society. “The Futures Center is an initiative of collective imagination and transformation, fostering research across disciplines and communities to advance human and nature-centered, solution-oriented climate action.”

Burkett joined the Doerr School of Sustainability’s Department of Environmental Social Sciences in July 2025. In addition to her scholarly pursuits on environmental impacts on frontline communities, she brings extensive experience in law and diplomacy, including roles as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Fisheries, and Polar Affairs, and as an adviser on climate issues for former Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.

Bridging learnings and livelihoods

The center will provide entry points for scholars, community leaders, and practitioners to join a Stanford network shaping the theory and practice of sustainability and community needs. Initiatives include seed grants for research, doctoral fellowships to support emerging scholars, and conference and publication support to promote collaboration and elevate research.

“As a PhD student studying climate migration, I have seen firsthand how structural inequities shape who is forced to move, who is protected, and whose lives are rendered precarious in the face of environmental change,” said Rwaida Gharib, a doctoral student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at the Doerr School of Sustainability. “The Center for Just Environmental Futures doesn’t just affirm this work – it shapes what the next generation of environmental scholarship can look like, grounding research in community realities and preparing scholars to better understand the social and ecological challenges we’re facing.”

In its inaugural year, the center will co-host a conference this spring titled “Preferred Futures: Climate and Environmental Justice Across Borders” with the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The two-day gathering, part of the Stanford Initiative on Business and Environmental Sustainability Research Conference Series, will bring together scholars, frontline leaders, legal experts, scientists, policymakers, and cultural practitioners to explore how to shape futures grounded in human dignity and ecological integrity. In addition to advancing shared knowledge and understanding, the gathering aims to frame how the center can function as a long-term partner to communities, civil society, and decision-makers working in human-centered climate action.

“Environmental justice scholarship is imperative to develop the knowledge needed to create just, ethical, and resilient futures for the world’s most challenging social-environmental injustices. Since its founding in 2022, the Doerr School of Sustainability has prioritized the importance of equity in sustainability and aims to position Stanford as a champion for environmental justice scholarship,” said Rodolfo Dirzo, the Bing Professor in Environmental Science, who was appointed the school’s associate dean for environmental justice in its first year. “In keeping with this commitment, the newly approved Center for Just Environmental Futures is a seed of hope that we should celebrate today while we continue to nurture and grow it collectively to a vigorous, thriving tree for the benefit of all living beings.”

A vision realized

The center builds on years of collaboration among students, staff, faculty, and community partners who recognize the importance of fair access to a healthy environment, protection from environmental hazards, and the opportunity for impacted communities to participate in decision-making processes that affect their well-being. Over the last decade, the Environmental Justice Working Group, co-directed by Sibyl Diver and Emily Polk, has mobilized a cross-campus network of more than 900 participants and supported environmental justice-related courses, research, and social events. This momentum not only reflected growing demand but also paved the way for a dedicated center.

“This has been a real labor of love – so many students, staff, and faculty joined together with the Environmental Justice Working Group and our supporters to make this happen,” said Diver, a lecturer in the Earth Systems Program. “We launched the working group in 2016, and just two years later we were putting forward our ideas for a cluster hire and center in environmental justice as part of long-range planning at the university. After 10 years of imagining this moment, it’s amazing to see it come to life. I look forward to the many learning opportunities this center will offer to our environmental justice community from all corners of campus and beyond.”

“The Center for Just Environmental Futures will engage with communities locally and worldwide, understand their needs, and co-develop solutions to advance Stanford’s core mission of research, education, and impact, involving our faculty, students, staff, and external partners,” said Arun Majumdar, dean of the Doerr School of Sustainability. “We intend for these collaborations to have real and lasting impact.”

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