Falk School & Campus-based Research

The Falk School of Sustainability & Environment is dedicated to creating professional sustainability leaders that can apply principles of the field across a variety of areas today and tomorrow. All of our students, faculty, and staff engage in interdisciplinary work that gives students experiences that drive real-world progress.

“Our world is changing so fast.  Problems we face—climate change, social injustice, biodiversity loss—are wickedly complex. But learning to understand them is a powerful way to understand the world. At Eden Hall Campus you’ll get your hands dirty and come away with experience to face the future. “

— Lou Leonard, JD, Dean, Falk School of Sustainability & Environment

Centers

Center for Regional Agriculture, Food & Transformation

The Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) at Chatham University’s Eden Hall Campus provides resources, learning opportunities, and technical assistance on food systems, regional food cultures, and sustainable economies to individuals, organizations, and businesses. CRAFT serves as a home for food systems information and data at the regional level, creating a network for research, education, and outreach on sustainable food.

Center for Sustainable Leadership

The Center for Sustainable Leadership at Chatham University’s Eden Hall Campus (CSL) is a joint initiative of the Falk School and Chatham’s Business Department. The CSL helps organizations enhance and maintain employee engagement with sustainability at work to boost organizational performance, including work in a research pilot with Highmark Health over the past few years to enhance employee engagement with sustainability and sustainable practices.

Faculty (and student) research

Food & Agriculture

• Heirloom cacao preservation

• Start-up food (chocolate & confection) business viability

• Pesticide-safety in fruit tree orchards

• Small-scale aquaponics systems

• Alternative protein & lipids for fish feedstocks

• Strengthening local farms and businesses (USDA)

Ecology & Biology

• Cumulative ecological effects of an invasive forest understory shrub, Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)

• Biodiversity monitoring of western Pennsylvanian nocturnal Lepidoptera

• Long-term changes in Biodiversity, Species Richness and Metabolic Diversity in Pennsylvanian Forests: The Permanent Forest Plot Project

• Long-term changes in Lichen Diversity and Coverage in forest edges, intact interiors, and wind-thrown interiors

• Variation in evolutionary and ecological traits in populations of Lobelia cardinalis and Lobelia siphilitica in western Pennsylvania

Community Engagement

• Exploring Pittsburgh’s biophilic strategy and neighborhood development in Homewood

• The intersection of public health and the alternative food system

Water & Soil

• Aquatic environmental toxicity of common urban pollutants

• Long-term, intensive monitoring of a network stream ecosystem along a watershed urbanization gradient

Energy & Climate

• Modeling and policy analysis of large-scale solar electricity production and distribution

• Climate adaptation and the water-energy-food nexus