Now presenting the winners of our 2026 photo contest 📸
The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s annual photo contest highlights beauty in nature, research in action, and important topics in sustainability.
Link in bio for the stories behind these photos and to see more submissions from across the university.
Images by: Joel Simon, Emily Cheng, Rahsaan McFarland II, Annie Cheng, Nikolai Gates Vetr, Sergio Sánchez, Anu Tsogtbaatar, Henry Kwok, Tom Levy
Our next decade of climate action has begun. From accelerating global solutions to enhancing infrastructure, Stanford’s new Climate Action Plan reduces emissions and builds a resilient future. Happy #EarthDay2026 🌎! sustainable.stanford.edu/climate
In honor of #EarthDay2026, here are a few ways Stanford scholars are working to support communities and ecosystems.
🎥 Video description: Scholars describe their community-engaged research and organizing efforts.
At a resource fair as part of Stanford’s first-ever Grad Student Appreciation Week, scholars learned about internships, research support, field opportunities, and more – with special guests from Furry Friends Rescue!
Visit the link in @stanfordvpge ’s bio for more about this week of events and appreciation.
📸: Students smile with dogs and at tables with resources, credit Serena Turner and Alex Gillaspy
Professor Kevin Boyce studies life on land through time. Learn more about his research at the link in bio.
🎥 Video description: Boyce discusses the importance of understanding our past.
These forests could do more to mitigate climate change than previously thought 🌲
Working in Sweden, researchers found that undisturbed woodlands, called “primary” or “old-growth” forests, store far more carbon than managed forests, which are regularly cut for timber harvesting.
What’s most surprising: The study showed that in old-growth forests, more carbon is stored in the soil than in the trees.
This means that a forest’s ability to store carbon can’t be easily recovered once it has been disturbed by industrial practices, highlighting the importance of preserving the primary forests that remain.
Researchers are now studying fungi and bacteria in the soil of primary forests, which could uncover strategies to strengthen carbon storage in managed forests.
🎥 Videos and photos in slides 1-2, 4-5 by @philipperoberge
Meet Emmanuel Codillo, new assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences.
🔗 Read his story at the link in bio.
🎥 Video description: Emmanuel Codillo describes his interest in what’s happening deep inside our planet and efforts to recreate high-pressure and high-temperature conditions in the lab.
Innovation and inspiration from the @globalsustainabilitychallenge ✨
As part of the competition that invites students from colleges and universities around the world to develop sustainability solutions, 21 teams from across North and South America presented their work at an event on campus at Stanford.
Projects included technology to transform marine pollution into sustainable fuels, a system to support shellfish growth and restore coastal ecosystems, a platform for hospitals to share resources during disasters, and more.
Six teams are advancing to the final event in Munich in April. Congratulations to all the participants!
📸: Scenes of students presenting their work, cheering for each other, and posing in group photos. Credit @williamcarnahan
Student-led climate solutions💡
Earlier this quarter, dozens of teams from across North and South America competed at Stanford to become finalists in the first-ever Global Sustainability Challenge (@globalsustainabilitychallenge ).
Led by @stanford.doerr , the competition invited students to develop solutions focused on energy and climate adaptation. More than 3,000 college and university students across 91 countries got involved, including 21 semifinalist teams from the Americas who presented their projects on campus.
“This is really the first step in their journey, and hopefully they’ll take this commitment and this passion to the rest of their lives,” said the competition’s organizer Parul Gupta.
New hobby unlocked: smashing geodes + learning about Earth science majors 🪨⛏️
Video description: Clips of students smashing geodes and an organizer describing the event’s goal to build community and share information about majors available in the school.
Program spotlight: Community building among first-year PhDs 💗
A cohort program at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability helps first-year PhD students build connections across disciplines.
Through dinners, hikes, art projects, and other gatherings throughout the year, students form friendships and spark new collaborations.
“The program has been helpful for meeting people and learning about the research that’s going on and potential collaborations, but also making friends and having a really strong, warm environment,” said energy science and engineering PhD student Emma Kerr.
📸: Students connect at a welcome dinner and on tours of Hoover Tower and Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (‘Ootchamin ‘Ooyakma). Credit Patty Germanow, Clare Maloney-McCrystle
Thousands of students across 91 countries are developing solutions for their communities as part of the @globalsustainabilitychallenge , a new initiative led by @stanford.doerr in collaboration with @tu.muenchen , IIT Bombay, @gesh.iitb , @hkust_sustainability , @zhejianguniversity , @imperialcollege , and several nonprofits.
Here are a few of their stories:
🪻 Primanita Nur Maulidah Setianingsih, a student at Airlangga University in Indonesia, collaborated with her team to turn an invasive plant, water hyacinth, into renewable biogas. The biogas can be used as cooking fuel, providing a sustainable and more affordable alternative to liquified petroleum gas.
“With this project, we want people to see water hyacinth as an opportunity, a valuable thing that can solve their problems,” she said.
💧 Stanford student Daniella Fenster and her team are designing a device called a fuel cell that can generate energy from seawater. The goal: to provide essential power in the aftermath of a flood, when other power sources such as solar and diesel may be unavailable.
“Every step of the way, we were asking ourselves, ‘Is the solution going to help people?’” she said.
☀️ Adeboye Oluwagbemiga, a student at Nigeria’s Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, is working with his team to develop a system powered by biomass and solar power to help small-scale farmers efficiently dry their crops, supporting their economic development while reducing food waste.
“This project is something I’ve been waiting for. I’m the type of person that has been putting effort into learning, and this is a time I can actually put what I’ve learned into action,” he said.
Stanford University will host the Americas finals for the Global Sustainability Challenge on Feb. 13, with 23 finalist teams from North and South America competing for spots at the Global Finale in Munich in April.
🔗 Link in bio for more about the challenge and participants.
