Centering Sustainability

The USC Sustainability Hub moves into a collaborative space on campus.

Assignment: Earth is about to land in the heart of USC’s University Park Campus.

This spring, the university will open the USC Sustainability Hub — a coworking and collaboration space in the Gwynn Wilson Student Union building where students, researchers and sustainability staff can gather.

“Establishing the new Sustainability Hub at the center of campus means ensuring USC’s Assignment: Earth is at the heart of all we do at USC,” says USC President Carol L. Folt. “This new space will provide a dynamic home for Trojans to come together, share ideas and collaborate on solutions that will have lasting impact on our campuses and this beautiful planet we love.”

CHINYERE AMOBI

Throughout his distinguished career, Mann founded the Alfred E. Mann Foundation and 17 other companies that fueled the creation of products that have revolutionized the health care field, including cochlear implants, mind-controlled prosthetic limbs, rechargeable pacemakers and other inventions meant to improve quality of life for millions. His biopharmaceutical company, MannKind Corporation, develops and sells products such as rapid-acting inhalable insulin for people living with endocrine and orphan lung diseases. Mann’s innovative and humanitarian legacy lives on in the companies he founded, the inventions he’s fueled and in the educational entities that now bear his name.

Given the undeniable impact of climate change — powerful storms, extreme drought, rising sea levels — sustainability is on many people’s minds. A survey conducted earlier this year revealed that nearly half of the university’s students, faculty and staff shared moderate to strong interest in getting involved with university sustainability efforts.

Many significant sustainability initiatives — from eliminating the use of single-use plastic beverage bottles to incorporating sustainability into the business curriculum and decarbonizing the health care industry — are already underway across the university.

“We expect this new location at the heart of campus will provide a platform to create positive change and grow our community of sustainability-conscious students, faculty and staff,” says USC Chief Sustainability Officer Mick Dalrymple. It will also become a workspace for the university’s first group of postdoctoral fellows who will focus on developing solutions to climate-related issues, ranging from the economic impact to the effects on human health.

LEIGH HOPPER