A Better Planet By Design

Enabling the sustainable and equitable use Earth's resources is the dominant challenge of our time. Global population growth, urbanization and industrialization led to an improved human development index. But this ad hoc growth has rapidly consumed natural resources and resulted in extensive waste and environmental degradation. Despite the successes of the modern era, increased productivity and growth now threaten human health and catalyze climate change. Needed are better engineering solutions for a planet with sustained and equitable human development that treat classic "externalities" as first-class design goals.

The Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering (EEE) is a small, diverse, and outwardly facing team actively researching and developing solutions to these complex and multidisciplinary problems. EEE reconciles a deep concern for the environment with the needs of a global industrialized society. Through conscientious stewardship of our finite natural resources: minerals, energy, water, air and land, EEE pioneers crucial new environmental initiatives.