Year in review 2022-2023Stanford DoerrSchool ofSustainability

On September 1, 2022, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability formally launched as Stanford University's first new school in 75 years. It was built on five years of dedicated work across the whole campus, hearkening back to the university's founding in 1885 as an institution dedicated to improving lives and working on behalf of "humanity and civilization."

One year after launch, we have the opportunity to reflect and celebrate our many milestones and accomplishments. The enormous scale, complexity, and urgency regarding the sustainability challenges demands us to be ambitious and prioritize key actions.

From new educational opportunities in sustainability to transformative advances in knowledge to our first official graduating class, our inaugural year affirmed our foundational vision to create a future where humans and nature thrive in concert and in perpetuity through excellence in research, education, innovations, and service.

To help commemorate our anniversary, we've collected stories of impact and achievement from across the school for a Year in Review. We are pleased to share these accomplishments not only to document our progress but also to reaffirm our commitment to reimagining the capacity of higher education to deal with the immense challenges of climate and sustainability. All told, the institutional accomplishments and research advancements presented here illustrate our history and preview why we are optimistic about the future as we look to build on the efforts of our faculty, staff, students, friends, and supporters.

Sustainability is the defining challenge of our time. Indeed, climate change is truly an existential threat to us all. It will affect every economy around the world and every human being on Earth. What we do today will have consequences for generations to come in the future. Communities across the globe today and generations to come are counting on us.

Painted on my office wall is the Indigenous saying, "We do not inherit this Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." I hope that the committed work of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability inspires all to be part of this effort to create the solutions for a livable and sustainable planet now and for the future.