Climate and Sustainability Seminar Series

Tuesday, Feb 04, 2025, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
HUCE 429, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
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Climate and Sustainability Scholars Seminars are dedicated to climate, sustainability, and environmental work done by Harvard students and fellows. Its goal is to embrace the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability research that can’t be confined to a single Harvard school and help like-minded people connect with each other. In Spring 2025, we will meet monthly at the Harvard University Center for the Environment located at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge. In each session, we will have a few brief talks from different disciplines and perspectives followed by a vegan dinner and discussion. 

Sakiko Isomichi, GSD, Master's student in Landscape Architecture
Landscape Design
Title: Challenges to Native Plants in Residential Landscapes
This study examines the challenges to planting native species in residential landscapes on Martha's Vineyard through interviews, observations, and online survey.
To address biodiversity crisis in a changing climate, a number of conservation organizations, from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources to non-profit Native Plant Trust, promote native plants in residential landscapes. Yet American residential landscapes continue to be predominated with the species from other countries. This study examines the reasons behind this trend through interviews, observations, and online survey conducted on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of the southeastern Massachusetts known for its unique ecologies. In conversations with residents, landscapers, and conservationists, the study investigates the tension between popular culture, biodiversity crisis, and climate change with the category of native plants in flux.

Oksana Makarova, SEAS/MIT, PhD Candidate in Engineering Sciences  
Sustainability/Circular Economy
Title: Assessing the Scalability of US Recycling: The Case of Flexible Plastic Packaging
Economic, technological, and material science reasons behind why you can't put plastic bags and wraps into recycling bin and what needs to happen to change it.
Used films, such as wraps, bags, and pouches, represent up to half of the US plastic packaging. However, scalable recycling systems are limited to rigid plastics, so most flexibles are destined for landfills and incinerators. In this work, we follow the circular economy framework to map the entire United States FPP value chain, including the end-use applications of potential recycled products. Then, we assess the economic and environmental costs of the country-wide scale-up of mechanical and chemical recycling for flexibles. We find that large-scale recycling of used FPP in the US in the business-as-usual system is impractical because the heterogeneous nature of post-consumer film precludes viable local end markets. We advocate that avoiding FPP material loss requires a major systematic change, starting with collecting detailed primary data on the current system and harmonizing product designs.

Bhuvan Ravindran, HKS, Graduate Student
Title: Transitioning to Nature Positive Economies: Developments, challenges, and opportunities
Moving beyond the net-zero energy transition, what does it mean and what will it take to transition into a nature surplus world?
Negotiations at COP 16 in Cali, Colombia last year emphasized the importance of policy coherence between climate and biodiversity heading into COP30 in Brazil. How will this emerging stream of 'nature positive' action interact with the 'net zero' energy transition? We will unpack this question using insights from recent environmental negotiations and policies adopted in the public and private sectors.
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