Through a better understanding of the built environment – our cities, homes, and infrastructure – and its relationship to equity and justice, we can develop and implement better design choices and policies that can support a sustainable future and foster inclusive communities.

Sustainable Development

The United Nations projects that nearly 70% of the world’s populations will live in cities by 2050. Across the globe, the trend toward urbanization is driving resource needs and impacts with water, food, and energy while disparately impacting low income/minority populations.  

To that end, determining and implementing sustainable, healthy, and affordable solutions for urban areas is essential and urgent.

Moreover, it will require extensive interdisciplinary collaboration to adequately meet the needs of infrastructure, planning, finance, energy, engineering, transportation, utilities, and more.

Penn State has a strong history of innovative built environment solutions, and researchers continue to focus on creating equitable communities.


Working together and across disciplines, researchers from Penn State and beyond are are redefining the future of cities and the built environment through investigations of living materials, adaptive architecture, and dynamic infrastructure.

Equitable Communities and the Built Environment Research

 

Featured IEE Researchers

Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture, Landscape Architecture
Assistant Professor, Architectural Engineering

Equitable Communities and the Built Environment News

Featured Stories

Four faculty join the Institute of Energy and the Environment

Penn State's Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE) has welcomed four new faculty members whose research expands the breadth of expertise within its interdisciplinary community.

Penn State alumni turn hands-on learning into research expertise

For many Penn State students, research begins in a classroom, a laboratory or a volunteer opportunity. For three alumni now working at Penn State's Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE), those early experiences became the foundation for careers advancing environmental science and research.