Centers and Programs
Centers and Programs
The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment creates strategic research programs designed to tackle major sustainability challenges facing the planet. Woods brings together top scholars from Stanford and other academic institutions and connects them with prominent leaders from government, non-governmental organizations and business to develop practical solutions to real-world problems.
Centers & Programs
Center for Ocean Solutions
The Center for Ocean Solutions (COS) is a collaboration among Stanford University (through the Stanford Woods Institute and the Hopkins Marine Station), The Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. COS develops knowledge to solve ocean challenges, translates marine science and policy research for decision-makers, educates leaders through graduate-level training and research and sponsors programs to inform and empower action by leaders within the public and private sectors.
Center on Food Security and the Environment
A joint effort with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE) addresses the challenges of feeding the world's growing population without depleting the planet’s natural resources. FSE experts design new solutions to help alleviate global hunger, poverty and environmental degradation, train scholars and policy leaders and provide sound policy advice on issues related to agricultural development, food and nutrition security, and climate change.
Disease Ecology, Health and the Environment
Scientists are discovering new links between human health and the health of the natural environment. At Stanford, researchers are studying these connections and pioneering ecological solutions to disease.
Global Freshwater Initiative
Building on water supply research conducted in India and Mexico, Global Freshwater Initiative researchers are developing strategies to promote the long-term viability of freshwater supplies for people and ecosystems threatened by climate change, shifts in land use, increasing population and decaying infrastructure. Stanford researchers and local collaborators are working to generate policy evaluation models, provide targeted analyses of viable policy interventions and train the next generation of water resource experts.
Natural Capital Project
A joint venture with The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund and the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, the Natural Capital Project melds world-class research on environmental economics with influential conservation programs. The center’s Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) software suite enables decision-makers to quantify nature’s values, assess tradeoffs associated with alternative land-use choices and integrate conservation and human development into land- and water-use and investment decisions.
Osa & Golfito Initiative (INOGO)
The Osa & Golfito Initiative (INOGO) is facilitating the development of a strategy for sustainable human development and environmental stewardship in Costa Rica’s Osa and Golfito region. INOGO works hand in hand with Costa Ricans in local communities, government, the private sector and NGOs. The goal is to generate a living process for sustainable development led by Costa Ricans, especially the people of Osa and Golfito.
La Iniciativa Osa y Golfito (INOGO)
La Iniciativa Osa y Golfito (INOGO) es una colaboración internacional enfocada en diseñar una estrategia para un desarrollo humano sostenible y gestión ambiental en la región de Osa y Golfito de Costa Rica. INOGO se diseñó para construir sobre los esfuerzos previos en la región, trabajando de la mano con costarricenses en comunidades locales, gobierno, el sector privado y ONGs.
Stanford Environment Assessment Facility
The Stanford Environment Assessment Facility (SEAF) is investigating how to make the process of assessment more effective, unleashing intellectual power towards pressing environmental challenges and opportunities.
Water in the West
The western United States needs water systems that are sustainable from economic, ecological, political, institutional, equitable, scientific and legal points of view. The Water in the West program addresses multiple dimensions of realistic, integrated solutions to the region’s water challenges. The program’s current projects include improving groundwater management, expanding water reuse and sustainability and developing performance measurements for water systems.
Water, Health & Development
Working with partners in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, Stanford researchers with the Program on Water, Health & Development are identifying ways to improve and increase the sustainability of water supply and sanitation service delivery, while also enhancing capacity for sustainable water and wastewater management in developing countries. Researchers address issues such as water quality and quantity, sanitation and hygiene, health and resource recovery for energy and food production.
Washington, D.C. Office
Through a new office in Washington, D.C., our faculty, scholars and students will play a greater role in informing national policymakers and advising businesses, government agencies, NGOs and science boards. This office will provide an important presence in the nation’s capital and a venue for delivering research and programs to decision-makers.