Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is practically everywhere. Inexpensive to produce and highly versatile, it has been employed in a host of everyday goods. Its utility, unfortunately, is matched by its toxicity.
The University of Michigan is developing new technologies, research, educational programs, and partnerships to better understand and effectively address the world’s most critical issues pertaining to infrastructure, from land use to housing and transportation disparities to the impacts of building materials.
From pioneering autonomous technologies to reimagining community engagement approaches, U-M’s research environment fosters creativity, collaboration, and effective problem-solving across a variety of disciplines and partnerships, including: the Center for Low Carbon Built Environment , the Center for Smart Infrastructure Finance, the Center for Sustainable Systems , Mcity and the Urban Collaboratory. Find U-M experts in sustainability and environmental science, across fields and academic units.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is practically everywhere. Inexpensive to produce and highly versatile, it has been employed in a host of everyday goods. Its utility, unfortunately, is matched by its toxicity.
Engaging researchers from nine units across U-M and several other academic institutions, along with multisectoral partners, the projects will explore community solar, agrivoltaics, carbon-neutral building materials, aviation fuel waste reduction, and sustainable archeology.
On the heels of the global chip shortage, U-M is part of a new public-private partnership that will establish a global semiconductor center of excellence in Michigan that focuses on the auto industry.
U-M has launched a report on the use of $300 million in “green bonds,” updated sustainability dashboards and building guidelines, and announced that it is the first university to join the First Movers Coalition, which aims to advance sustainable industrial technologies.
In an effort to cultivate a robust EV ecosystem in the place where the modern auto industry was born, the U-M Electric Vehicle Center is launching with these three focus areas: accelerating collaborative R&D, developing a highly skilled workforce, and establishing advanced campus infrastructure and facilities to support both research and education.
An expanded renewable energy zoning database from U-M brings together more than 1,600 local ordinances from six Great Lakes states. The database is designed to simplify matchmaking between renewable energy developers and interested host communities in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.