California isn’t using existing tools to make community solar work, study finds
UCLA researchers find that if the state applies existing valuation tools consistently, residents could reap the savings already already enjoyed by other states.
News & Events
PhD Candidate Spotlight: Rachel Sheinberg and the Future of Equitable Energy
Rachel Sheinberg, a Ph.D. candidate at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) graduating this year, studies a critical challenge in the clean energy transition: who benefits, and who could be left behind.
The LA Residential Energy Transition (RESET) Tool—your next energy bill reimagined for electrified futures
Explore how renewable energy transitions and home electrification will shape household energy spending and burden across Los Angeles.
Stephanie Pincetl wins UCLA 2025 Public Impact Research Award
The award highlights faculty whose research has demonstrably improved lives locally, nationally and globally
Upcoming Events
Book Talk | The Myth of Sustainable Cities: Losing the Holocene
Professor Stephanie Pincetl discusses her new book with Professor of Anthropology Monica L. Smith
Join us for a conversation with IoES Professor and Founding Director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA Stephanie Pincetl about her new book, "The Myth of Sustainable Cities: Losing the Holocene"
News
Planting Trees While Rome Burns
There is an urgent need to address the unintended consequences of our pursuit of green and to return to mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the root problem.
Can Cities Be Ecosystems? In Conversation with Dr. Stephanie Pincetl
What would it mean to design cities that actually sustain us?
Introducing POWERLESS: Loudoun County as a Case Study for Data Centers as a Local Paradigm
"I don’t see the birds in the morning anymore." Gregory Pirio, a longtime Loudoun County resident, explained his experience living near a data center. Greg isn’t the only one reeling…
Mapping Faith, Flourishing, and the Environment in Los Angeles
Modern scientific research and its discourse fails to adequately embrace the emotional, spiritual and affective impacts of the existential issues of Earth’s future habitability.
Urban Metabolism: In Conversation with Dr. Stephanie Pincetl
Cities don’t just “grow.” They consume resources, transform them, and generate waste, much as living organisms do.
California Heat
The real elephant in the room is the historic poor construction of our built environment.
What cities can learn from Los Angeles’s effort to build a fairer energy system
A closer look at the decisions, data and trade-offs behind LA’s plan to reach 100% renewable energy by 2035 — without leaving vulnerable communities behind
Stephanie Pincetl for The Economist—How will calamity change Los Angeles?
UCLA IoES Professor Stephanie Pincetl discusses Los Angeles’ rebuilding efforts after the devastating wildfires for The Economist, asserting that the city should use this moment to address its housing crisis…
Transforming data into climate action: UCLA’s Stephanie Pincetl honored at LA County GIS Day
What if the key to solving climate change is hidden in the data we already have? Stephanie Pincetl believes the answer lies in connecting the dots.
CCSC hosts a workshop “Mapping the Conversation on Faith, Flourishing, and the Environment”
CCSC hosted a workshop "Mapping the Conversation on Faith, Flourishing, and the Environment," to discuss the conversation between faith and the environment and chart a direction for where the conversations need to go, including critical theoretical work (part historical, part synthetic), and also the empirical work needed for better understanding.
Opinion: A summer of extreme heat and wildfire shows the cost of human folly. CCSC’s Stephanie Pincetl in the LA Times.
As Greece attempts to recover from the recent destructive wildfires around Athens, Southern Californians facing our own heat wave should take note of the pattern that enabled them. It should be well-known by now: sprawl into the urban-wildland interface where development collides with nature, the corresponding replacement of grass, shrubs and other plants native to the area with many more trees for shade, then strain on the land thanks to drought, record high heat and wind, intensified by climate change. The conditions that led to the worst wildfires in Greece this year, burning 156 square miles, damaging more than 100 homes and causing at least one death, apply in Los Angeles too.
California Public Utilities Commission project on distributed energy resources led by UCLA’s CCSC and LARC
The California Public Utilities Commission has selected the California Center for Sustainable Communities and the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative at UCLA IoES to lead a Data Working Group on Distributed…