Sustainability News

News stories

Our sustainability research is helping to tackle some of the pressing environmental and social challenges facing the planet.
A white block of flats

Cooling buildings by nearly 5ºC possible thanks to new whiter-than-white paint

From icy tundras to billowing clouds, the colour white crops up repeatedly in our planet’s palette. This colour provides a natural way for light from the sun to reflect back from the Earth’s surface and into space.

| Published by The Conversation
Sunset over a maize field

Sheffield researchers awarded £4.7m for major new greenhouse gas removal demonstration project

A team of scientists have been awarded £4.7m to develop a large multi-partner research project looking at the scientific, economic and social acceptability of using rock dust in agriculture to capture greenhouse gases.

Nuclear power cooling station

University of Sheffield researchers to help bring Green Industrial Revolution

Researchers from the University of Sheffield Energy Institute are set to work with the Drax power station to generate hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels from biomass gasification and carbon capture as part of a £20m UKRI-funded project.

A picture of trees in a park

How the trees in your local park help protect you from disease

Many of the life forms floating in the air actually originate in the soil beneath our feet. Soil is arguably the most biodiverse habitat on Earth, and a single gram of it can contain more microbes than there are humans on the planet.

| Published by The Conversation
news - beans

Sheffield scientists develop climate-resilient beans that reduce water usage

Scientists from the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food have engineered beans that could use up to 40 per cent less water, taking a huge step forward in finding ways to help agriculture to thrive in a rapidly changing climate.