Why It Matters
Communities worldwide are working to address climate change, pollution, health disparities, food access, natural disasters, and other interconnected environmental challenges. Yet information about the organizations, leaders, strategies, and histories behind this work is often fragmented, difficult to access, or at risk of being lost.
ETS works to help close these knowledge gaps. By preserving environmental histories and making research and information more accessible, we aim to strengthen understanding of how environmental change happens and support the people working toward more sustainable and equitable futures.
How We Advance Our Mission
Document and Preserve
Through the Legacy Data Hub and related initiatives, we document the people, organizations, events, movements, and places that have shaped environmental action. This work helps ensure that important contributions, particularly those that have been overlooked or underrepresented, are visible and accessible.
Research and Analyze
We conduct and support research examining environmental conditions, community vulnerabilities, resilience, institutional change, and public responses to environmental challenges. Our research spans climate, energy, health, food systems, environmental hazards, housing, open space, and community action.
Connect and Convene
ETS brings together students, scholars, practitioners, community leaders, and alums to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and develop new ideas. Through programs, dialogues, and convenings, we create opportunities for collaboration across disciplines, institutions, communities, and generations.
Share Knowledge
We translate and disseminate environmental research and histories through publications, databases, maps, digital resources, and public programming. We strive to make this information useful and accessible to academic researchers, government agencies, environmental organizations, grassroots leaders, and the broader public.
Our Commitment
ETS is committed to building a broader and more inclusive understanding of environmental transformation. We center the experiences and contributions of communities and leaders whose work has often been excluded from traditional environmental narratives.
By connecting the past with the present—and research with practice—we seek to inform collective action and contribute to healthier, more resilient, and more sustainable communities.
