Climate Leadership Across Disciplines
Penn’s climate leadership is not limited to a single school or center, it’s woven across the university. Penn possesses many climate-related centers, institutes, and programs that advance sustainable energy, support regenerative food systems, promote health equity and community resilience, drive climate-resilient design, transform business, and translate research into actionable solutions. Together, they drive real-world impact at every scale.
Center for Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CCAR)
The Center for Climate Adaptation and Resilience advances the science of climate adaptation and serves as a knowledge hub for decision-makers navigating the impacts of climate change. Led by environmental and labor economist Jisung R. Park, CCAR develops rigorous, actionable research on how communities can build resilience in a changing climate.
Center for Environmental Building & Design (CEBD)
The Center for Environmental Building & Design is a faculty research unit and consultancy at the Weitzman School of Design, dedicated to improving the environmental future of buildings and cities. Looking beyond building efficiency standards and net-zero formulations, CEBD designs resilient buildings and cities by working in interdisciplinary teams on projects at multiple scales, from climate action planning to urban and regional assessment.
Center for Health Justice
The Penn Medicine Center for Health Justice works to enable health through racial, economic, and environmental justice for people and neighborhoods harmed by structural inequality. The Center for Health Justice’s work spans three portfolios: research, community action, and health system transformation, leveraging research and action to dismantle structural racism and catalyze healthier, safer, and greener neighborhoods.
Center for Integrative Global Oral Health
The Center for Integrative Global Oral Health advances oral and planetary health through research, education, and policy work. The center recognizes the interconnection between oral health, environmental health, and sustainable practices in dental education and clinical care. Their work ensures that dental professionals understand and address the broader environmental health equity dimensions of their practice.
Center for Stewardship Agriculture and Food Security (CSAFS)
The Center for Stewardship Agriculture and Food Security works to ensure global food security while protecting natural resources and supporting farmer livelihoods. Through research and education, CSAFS advances sustainable agriculture practices that enhance soil health, conserve water, and build resilience in food systems. The center partners with communities and practitioners to translate research into scalable solutions for equitable, sustainable food production.
Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET)
The Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology investigates how environmental exposures cause disease and translates findings into action to improve health in vulnerable communities. As the only designated Environmental Health Science Core Center in Pennsylvania, CEET works with targeted communities across the Philadelphia region to identify health concerns and mobilize research expertise to address them.
Climate Action and Resilience for Extreme Urban Heat (CLIMATE-CARE)
The Climate Action and Resilience for Extreme Urban Heat National Research Traineeship prepares the next generation of researchers and practitioners to address the interconnections between climate change, extreme heat, and human health. The program trains interdisciplinary doctoral students in the science, policy, and community dimensions of urban heat resilience.
FAIR Farms
FAIR Farms is a social enterprise demonstration farm in The Gambia that investigates food security, food sovereignty, women and youth empowerment, and environmental stewardship. Through integrated circular farming methods that blend traditional ecological knowledge with research evidence, Fair Farms provides affordable, nutritious animal-protein foods to local communities while serving as a teaching and outreach hub.
Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag)
IoT4Ag is an NSF Engineering Research Center uniting faculty from Penn, Purdue, UC Merced, and the University of Florida to transform agriculture through technology. The center works to create and translate to practice Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for precision agriculture and train a workforce that will address the societal grand challenge of food, energy, and water security for decades to come.
Kleinman Center for Energy Policy
The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy’s mission is to create the conditions for policy innovation that support a just and efficient transition to sustainable energy. The center creates impactful research and develops the next generation of energy leaders while convening stakeholders across the energy sector. Through economic analysis and policy frameworks, Kleinman drives practical solutions for decarbonization.
McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology
The McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology empowers landscape architects and planners to meet current and future challenges to life on Earth. Through transdisciplinary research and public dialogue with scholars, students, communities, and practitioners, the Center provides a global platform for ecological thinking and innovative design across multiple scales of the landscape.
Morris Arboretum & Gardens
Morris Arboretum & Gardens advances plant science, conservation, and ecological stewardship through research, education, and community engagement. As a living laboratory and public resource, the arboretum promotes biodiversity, conducts research on plant resilience and adaptation, and provides opportunities for the community to learn about sustainable horticulture and ecological health.
Netter Center for Community Partnerships
The Netter Center for Community Partnerships is the University’s primary vehicle for advancing civic and community engagement at Penn through transformative, place-based partnerships between Penn, West Philadelphia, and Philadelphia at large. The center brings together resources of both Penn and the wider community to help solve universal problems such as poverty, health inequities, environmental sustainability, and inadequate, unequal education.
Penn Center for Public Health
The Penn Center for Public Health educates and trains new and emerging public health leaders, fosters multidisciplinary collaborations, and promotes excellence in public health research and community partnerships. Through evidence-based approaches and community partnerships, the center translates science into sustainable health improvements in communities.
Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM)
The Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media focuses on the challenges and opportunities in communicating climate and environmental sustainability to the public and policymakers. The center brings together scientists, policy experts, communication experts, and outside voices from journalism, academia, and governance to improve public discourse on environmental sustainability and climate.
Penn Development Research Initiative
The Penn Development Research Initiative responds to global challenges including forced displacement, climate-driven poverty, and risks from digital technologies and artificial intelligence by generating rigorous, interdisciplinary, and policy-relevant research. PDRI integrates field-based research, advanced data science, and applied policy engagement in collaboration with international partners to inform decision-making in development practice.
Penn Farm
The Penn Farm is a campus farm and educational program that uses regenerative practices to grow produce in support of food access initiatives throughout the Penn Community. Each year, the farm grows thousands of pounds of organic produce to address food insecurity among students while hosting volunteer opportunities, tours, workshops, and academic engagement. As a living laboratory, Penn Farm fosters interdisciplinary understanding of food systems and empowers students to effect positive change in their local environments.
Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR)
The Penn Institute for Urban Research informs urban decision-making and public policy on issues of sustainable urban growth and development based on multidisciplinary research, instruction, and outreach. Penn IUR serves as a convener and forum for collaborative scholarship, stimulating research and engaging urban practitioners and policymakers to inform policy.
Penn Plant Adaptability and Resilience Center (Plant ARC)
The Penn Plant Adaptability and Resilience Center (Plant ARC)leverages research to advance plant adaptability and resilience as climate change reshapes ecosystems and threatens food security. The center addresses three major challenges: understanding how climate change alters plant physiology and development, leveraging natural pathways to engineer and increase plant resilience climate, and modeling crucial interactions between plants and other species.
PennPraxis
PennPraxis is the applied research, engagement, and practice arm at the Weitzman School of Design that collaborates with students, clients, and community organizers to develop tools, strategies, and design interventions that imagine new futures for urban and rural landscapes. The center’s goal is to share power with historically marginalized peoples, create equity, and generate new resources to address the most pressing social and environmental problems of the 21st century.
Penn Sustainability Office
Penn Sustainability fosters innovation for social, environmental, and economic change as a university-wide, collaborative initiative involving campus operations at all 12 schools. Through the Climate & Sustainability Action Plan, Penn Sustainability provides the logistical and technical framework guiding Penn’s sustainability and decarbonization actions.
Penn Washington
Central to Penn Washington’s mission is to create trust, collaboration, and effective partnership between the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. federal, state, and local governments. Partnership is key to identifying solutions to the national and global challenges facing the United States and the world. Penn Washington’s mission also encompasses the policy ecosystem that includes global partners, media, business, non-profit organizations, and other universities.
Perry World House
Perry World House is a center for scholarly inquiry, teaching, research, international exchange, policy engagement, and public outreach on pressing global issues. Drawing on Penn’s expertise, Perry World House brings academic knowledge to bear on the world’s most pressing global policy challenges and facilitates critical conversations about global challenges and advances innovative policy proposals informed by interdisciplinary research.
Philadelphia Regional Center for Children’s Environmental Health
The Philadelphia Regional Center for Children’s Environmental Health strives to improve health and wellness of children by addressing environmental threats including asthma, lead poisoning, air pollution, and toxic chemical exposures. Working with targeted communities across the Philadelphia region, the center mobilizes research expertise to implement real-world solutions and interventions.
Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology (VIEST)
The Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology aims to make Penn a world leader in energy research by promoting integrative basic research to meet the world’s present and future energy needs. Through cross-disciplinary collaborations, training the next generation of energy scientists, and integrating with industry, VIEST advances fundamental research that enables a range of solutions balancing short-term and long-term economic and environmental needs while supporting a deliberate transition to a sustainable energy future.
The Water Center
The Water Center supports communities in meeting their critical water challenges by identifying resilient and sustainable solutions that combine natural and built systems based on equitable principles reflecting community voices. Founded on the principle that clean, accessible, affordable water is a human right, the center supports the development of future water leaders in communities and the larger water sector so that water decision-makers reflect the communities they serve.
Wharton Impact
The Impact, Value, and Sustainable Business Initiative (Wharton Impact) brings together faculty and students to conduct research analyzing how business activities affect natural, human, and social capital. The Wharton Climate Center, housed within Wharton Impact, conducts research on climate change, energy, and the environment at the intersection of business, markets, and finance. Through courses, co-curricular experiences, and industry convenings, Wharton equips leaders with tools to navigate a world where climate risks and opportunities are increasingly material to business.
Wildlife Futures Program
The Wildlife Futures Program, a partnership with Penn Vet and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, conducts wildlife health surveillance, research, and outreach to inform and improve wildlife management in Pennsylvania and beyond. The program investigates the impact of diseases and toxins on wildlife populations, analyzes disease transmission pathways, informs management strategies and conducts nationally recognized research to improve the resilience of Pennsylvania’s 480 species of birds and mammals.