Sustainability News

News stories

Latest sustainability news and updates from the University of Sheffield - from research breakthroughs and student projects to campus improvements and practical ways to get involved.
rainforest bed with several trees and ferns growing

Legume trees support tropical forest growth by releasing nutrients from ancient soils

Researchers have found that nitrogen-fixing legume trees can support themselves and surrounding trees not only with increased access to nitrogen but with other key nutrients through enhanced mineral weathering.
An oil pump at sunset

How extractive industries manage to carry on harming the planet

Around the globe, concern is mounting about the unfolding climate and ecological catastrophe. Yet the extraction of natural resources through mining and energy projects continues on a large scale, with disastrous environmental consequences.

| Published by The Conversation
A team of engineers work to repair a plane.

Nanoscale materials hold cure for manufacturing and aviation greenhouse gas emissions

Composite researchers at the AMRC are at the heart of a European-wide project to develop self-responsive aerospace composites that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and production costs in the aviation sector.
Campus looking green

University of Sheffield joins the Race to Zero to achieve zero carbon emissions

The University of Sheffield has joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Race to Zero campaign to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and has set its own target to be carbon neutral by 2038.

Campus looking green

Sheffield sustainability expert contributes to carbon offsetting report

Reducing emissions must be the priority for UK universities but carbon offsetting can also support the transition to net-zero, according to a briefing by experts from the COP26 Universities Network.