Welcome
Create New Futures
STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES
ES/EI Promotional Video
2023 Summer Environmental Fellowship
NEW! ES Student Conference Travel Grants (Rolling applications)
Creative Inquiry + Mountaintop Initiative
Sustainable Initiative Grant
Lehigh Valley Social Impact Fellowship
Global Social Impact Fellowship
Be a PennEnvironment Intern
Projects That Matter
Summer Alliance for Sustainable Communities Lehigh Valley Internships
FACULTY OPPORTUNITIES
Welcome
For Students
If you have general questions about the Environmental Studies Program, please consider sending us an email at incasip@lehigh.edu
The Office of Interdisciplinary Programs normal business hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
For Fall 2022 class updates, restrictions and teaching times, please refer to Registration Class Search
The Environmental Initiative (EI) is an interdisciplinary program of academics, research, and outreach whose overall mission is to advance humanity's understanding and awareness of our role in and interaction with our natural environment through research, teaching, and outreach. The EI enables interdisciplinary efforts that transcend typical departmental and college boundaries in degree programs, problem-based research projects, and environmental education for school children, policy-makers, and the general public. The EI consists of faculty, staff and students from all four colleges of Lehigh, including two core departments, Earth & Environmental Sciences (EES), and Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE). For more information contact Director of Environmental Intitative, David Casagrande, dac511@lehigh.edu
News
Your View: Period products make up tons of trash, cost $9,000 over a lifetime. Bethlehem should provide free reusable products to residents
Bethlehem fails to act against landfill expansion, contradicts city’s Climate Action Plan
‘Decarbonize, decentralize, democratize’: Environmental attorney, advocate Ruth Santiago speaks at Lehigh
Environmental Activist Ruth Santiago ’80 Returning to Lehigh as 2023 Earth Month Speaker
Studying the Impact of Air Pollutants in the Lehigh Valley
Climate Change Policies in the Biden Administration-Roger Karapin lecture
Your View by Lehigh professor: How Bethlehem Council fails first test of climate action plan
Professor Breena Holland
Congratulations 2022 Graduates!
The Environmental Initiative is proud of ALL of our graduates and wish them the best of luck!
ES ALUMNI PANEL WEBINAR 3/31/21
EARTH DAY 2020 WEBINAR
Integrative Geopolitics: Climate Resilience in a Post-COVID World
Joseph Robertson, Global Strategy Director, Citizens Climate Education
Newest Noble Laureate Addresses Sustainable Development Class. October 23, 2019
Air Pollution Ranked as Biggest Environmental Threat to Human Health. June 17, 2019
Donald Morris (EI Director) and William Hunter (LU-UN Program Director) recently attended the UNEA-4 conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference brought together the world's environmental leaders from a variety of civil and non-governmental organizations. Morris and Hunter co-chaired a meeting of the Global Youth Environmental Engagement Committee, which was formed to help promote sustainable development education at all academic levels. Morris also participated in the Global Environmental Outlook Report (GEO-6), which was presented at the meeting.
The Environmental Initiative recently hosted as screening of the movie "The Human Element" with the Lehigh Valley chapter of the Citizens' Climate Lobby. The video was followed by a panel discussion on the topic of climate change. The panel consisted of (left to right) Steve Samuelson (PA State Representative), Dork Sahagian (Professor, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences), Kirsten Webb (student, Environmental Policy MA Program), and Martha Christine (Citizens' Climate Lobby). EI Director, Donald Morris (not shown) introduced the film and moderated the discussion.
Visit the Nurture Nature center website.
Nurture Nature Center, located in Easton, Pennsylvania, is a dynamic center for community learning about local environmental risks. NNC is housed in a beautifully renovated, historic facility, where the staff uses a blend of science, art and dialogue programs to get the community talking and thinking critically about the local environment.
Marcellus Shale
Because hydraulic fracturing or fracking of Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania is a major environmental controversy that gets a great deal of media coverage, it has been the ideal subject for a research and writing project in a Lehigh course called "Environment, the Public and the Mass Media." In the fall of 2012 and 2013, the students’ intense study culminated in a series of research papers, each on an aspect of the fracking controversy, written to serve as a Web guide for readers. In 2013, the students also produced short videos about their research findings.
View the results of these projects at “Drilling Down on Marcellus Shale: Insights into Fracking.”