University of Michigan center celebrates 35 years of Sustainability research

The University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS) is celebrating 35 years of work on major sustainability problems. CSS started in 1991 as a small project focused on stopping pollution. Greg Keoleian and Jonathan Bulkley helped start the center with support from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The project later grew into a larger research center. In 1997, the group began using the term sustainable systems. It officially became the Center for Sustainable Systems in 1999.

CSS became a permanent part of the University of Michigan in 2004. Since then it has continued to grow. It now has nine core faculty members along with research staff, postdocs and student researchers.

The center studies many parts of daily life. These include energy, transportation, homes, food, water and climate change. Its researchers also study electric vehicles, solar power, green hydrogen and ways to reduce pollution.

CSS has worked with governments, companies, nonprofits and communities. Its projects have included work with the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan. The center has also helped study greenhouse gas emissions and carbon reduction plans.

The center also shares its research with the public. It has 34 factsheets about topics such as energy, food, water and transportation. These factsheets receive more than 500,000 views regularly.

CSS has also hosted the Wege Lecture since 2001. The event has welcomed well known speakers in climate and sustainability.

As CSS marks 35 years, its leaders say there is still much work to do. They plan to keep developing simple and useful solutions for problems linked to energy, transportation, water, food and other parts of modern life.