As the world continues to urbanize, we’re investigating and analyzing how communities of all sizes can be vibrant, just and sustainable communities for the health of residents and our planet.
Magazine
As extreme heat becomes California’s deadliest climate threat, UCLA and Los Angeles County are training community health workers to serve as “heat ambassadors,” bringing life-saving information and resources directly to vulnerable residents. The LARC-HEAT program aims to build neighborhood resilience through trusted, person-to-person outreach.
Story
The award highlights faculty whose research has demonstrably improved lives locally, nationally and globally
Story
Alex Hall, new director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, explains how the response to LA’s recent fires are part of a larger push to change our world
Video
Why does wildfire recovery lag behind other disasters? UC Merced’s Crystal Kolden outlines the compounding barriers — and the urgent need for community-centered solutions.
Projects
Practicum Project
Practicum Project
Research Project
In the News
Much of our climate future is already set in stone. Our ability to transition infrastructure to reduce the impacts of that future, however, remains possible. From residential housing and municipal…
So, rather than putting too much emphasis on hardening homes, should we focus on spacing them farther apart? UCLA professor Stephanie Pincetl, founding director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities, says it’s the wrong question. The real problem is where we build.
California’s climate ambitions have long been defined by sweeping targets: achieving statewide carbon neutrality by 2045, installing six million electric heat pumps in homes, and mandating a total phaseout of…
As cities face growing climate challenges, designing effective infrastructure requires more than technical expertise; it also means understanding how people experience environmental change in their daily lives. Madeleine Siegel examines how these community perspectives can help shape climate solutions.
Videos
UCLA has a long history of sustainability leadership — from early energy efficiency efforts and the formation of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in the 1990s, to the establishment of…
Getting Beyond Tropes: Cities for the 21st Century Dr. Pincetl spoke to the Environmental Science without Borders (ESWB), a subsidiary of UCLA's Center for Diverse Leadership in Science (CDLS), which connects students and early-career scientists from around the globe, regarding her research on urban metabolism water and energy policy, habitat conservation efforts, and the impact of land use in conjunction with climate change and climate policies.
Interview on The Young Turks ScIQ with UCLA environmental economist Alan Barreca by Jayde Lovell about climate change effects on public health, vulnerable communities, and the state of California. They also…
Magali Delmas, Director, Center for Corporate Environmental Performance; Professor, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Centers
A student-led survey has uncovered stark disparities in public health outcomes for L.A. neighborhoods with oil and gas drilling.