Environmental Solutions

The process of biomanufacturing requires engineering microbes to produce useful chemicals and materials from carbon-neutral processes. But current biomanufacturing cannot get beyond small-production scale unless it can outcompete big oil.

Elizabeth Swords’ final year as a Pathfinder Fellow involved consulting on a sustainability project for the City of Ferguson as part of the “Sustainability Exchange” course.

In Rebuilding the American Town, the Sam Fox School’s Patty Heyda helps redefine our understanding of the smaller cities that make up the urban landscape.

WashU connections abound at a restorative retreat in Playa El Coco, Nicaragua.

Working in partnership with communities, WashU launches a new initiative to improve nutrition and health locally, nationally and globally.

As the western U.S. faces decreasing water supplies, WashU alumni are helping negotiate how this precious resource will be managed and shared in years to come.

The face masks worn and discarded during the COVID-19 pandemic have an uncertain fate.

Cultivated plants provide people with food, fuel and medicine. But crops also face many types of stresses that threaten their growth and yields.

Lu Xu, an assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has won the 2025 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environmental Division Early Career Award.

Society has long struggled with petroleum-derived plastic pollution, and awareness of microplastics’ detrimental effects on food and water supplies adds further pressure.