Sustainability

From Soil to Climate Solutions: Berhe Leads Sierra Nevada Research Institute into its Next Chapter

September 11, 2025

When Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe arrived at UC Merced in 2009, she and her husband, Professor Teamrat Ghezzehei, were leaving major research institutions to join a brand-new campus in California’s Central Valley. It was a leap of faith — one made easier by the Sierra Nevada Research...

Future of Humanity Linked to Soil Health in New 'Science' Article

Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the dirt under their feet. But a new article co-authored by UC Merced Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and published this week in the prestigious...

Princeton Review Lists Campus Among Greenest Schools

For the first time, UC Merced made the Princeton Review’s list of the most environmentally responsible colleges. The education services company — known for its test prep and tutoring services, books...

Campus Celebrates Earth Day in a Big Way

With a carnival, movie and other events, this year’s Earth Day festivities are shaping up to be bigger, more fun and more educational than ever. UC Merced’s annual celebration of the 45-year-old day...

Three Students Chosen to Further Carbon Neutrality Efforts

Three UC Merced undergraduates are the recipients of a new fellowship under University of California President Janet Napolitano’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative. Through the President’s Sustainability...

Floodplain Management Can Increase Groundwater Supply

California’s groundwater is being rapidly depleted because cities and farms extract more than is replenished naturally, compacting local aquifers and decreasing supply in some places in the Central ...

Mobile Farmers Market Begins on Campus

UC Merced’s Dining Services is bringing Produce on the Go, a mobile farmers market, to campus from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Wednesday, beginning April 1. The truck will sell fresh, local and...

Community Garden Gets Facelift From Students

Warmer weather gave students the opportunity to spring to action to replant the community garden located next to Little Lake. The “Plant-A-Day” event, held March 18, was a collaboration between...

Campus Outlines Innovative Plan to Double Physical Capacity

The University of California, Merced, today will outline for the UC Board of Regents a new development strategy that will more than double the physical capacity of campus facilities by 2020 in an...

Campus Adds Two More LEED Certifications

UC Merced’s sustainable practices have earned the campus its 15th Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for new construction and its first LEED certification for building...