News and Events

BOS Menu

About Us
Academics + Research
Inits sub-menuSustainability Initiatives
Energy + Climate

Transportation

Responsible Consumption

Food, Water + Land Use

Planning + Administration

Engagement

Global Goals
Involve sub-menuGet Involved
Sustainability Council

BardE3's

BardEATS

Bard Farm

Socially Responsible Investment Committee
News + Events
Home

Sustainability News

A man in a blue checked shirt smiles at the viewer.

Research by Bard Professor Gidon Eshel Featured in the New York Times

The article explored whether grass-fed beef was better for climate than grain-fed.

Research by Bard Professor Gidon Eshel Featured in the New York Times

Gidon Eshel, research professor of environmental and urban studies at Bard.

A study led by Gidon Eshel, research professor of environmental and urban studies at Bard College, was featured in the New York Times in an article exploring whether grass-fed beef was better for climate. The study, published last March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that grass-fed beef did not hold a carbon emissions benefit compared to grain-fed beef. While grazing can store carbon in the soil, the study showed that this did not outweigh the methane that cows produce. “We wanted to see exactly how the numbers add up,” Eshel told the Times. “The bottom line answer is that they mostly don’t.”

Students in all divisions of Bard College can concentrate in Environmental Studies. The program is based on the conviction that our planet’s most urgent problems—including climate change, biodiversity loss, and the inequities of our built environments—call for holistic knowledge of both human and natural systems. The curriculum offers a grounding in core topics in environmental studies alongside cross-listed courses on topics from nature writing to urban geography, from food systems to contemporary Indigenous art, and from planetary thinking to local community engagement.

Bard Earns Two Awards in Sustainability

The College earned a STARS Gold rating and the MBA in sustainability was ranked the best green MBA by the Princeton Review.

Bard Earns Two Awards in Sustainability

A group of students sitting at tables on a wooden patio.

Bard College has recently been recognized for its commitment to sustainability by two organizations. This July, the College earned a Gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). This nationwide group ranks colleges based on all aspects of sustainability on their campuses, from academic buildings to dining and events planning. Bard’s report included its participation in the Race 2 Zero Waste food scrap conservation program, where it placed first in the food organics Small College category.

Bard’s MBA in sustainability was also ranked the best green MBA by the Princeton Review for the fifth year in a row. The list is based on student ratings of how well their MBA “prepares them to address environmental, sustainability, and responsibility issues in their careers.” Bard’s MBA is based in New York City and utilizes a hybrid curriculum to prepare students for critical social and environmental challenges. “At a time when clean energy and climate change action, organizational justice, reducing plastics and toxic pollution, and enhancing the planet’s biodiversity are all under political attack, Bard remains the leading MBA focused on embedding sustainability as simply good business,” said MBA Director Dr. Eban Goodstein.

Bard Ranked Best Green MBA for 2025

Post Date: 08-13-2025

A woman speaks in front of a tree surrounded by lush greenery

Burpee Trial Garden Project at Montgomery Place Featured in the Daily Catch

The summer garden students will continue their work through August tending the plots, recording observations on iPads, and sharing their findings in real time with Burpee’s plant breeders.

Burpee Trial Garden Project at Montgomery Place Featured in the Daily Catch

Bard student Violet DiBiasio ’27. Photo by Emily Sachar, Courtesy of the Daily Catch

The Burpee Trial Garden, a seed test garden and horticultural research site at Bard’s Montgomery Place campus, has been featured in the Daily Catch. The garden, in its first season, is currently being tended to by three Bard students, Violet DiBiasio ’27, Max Frackman ’27, and Mikhal Terentiev ’26, who are undertaking horticultural research and hands-on scientific investigations with real-world applications in the Hudson Valley and beyond. “This project is helping Bard restore and revive the historic formal gardens at Montgomery Place, and help gardeners in the process,” Amy Parrella, Bard Arboretum director, told the Daily Catch. “Gardening has been proven to alleviate stress and have therapeutic and healing results. And this opportunity will help students to cultivate their passion for plants and inspire their commitment to nurture their environment.” Trial gardens measure how well a specific cultivar or variety will perform in a specific area or growing condition, and the garden at Bard is supported by a $1 million grant that is being paid over four years from the Burpee Foundation. The summer garden students will continue their work through August tending the plots, recording observations on iPads, and sharing their findings in real time with Burpee’s plant breeders.

Further Reading:

https://www.bard.edu/news/bard-college-receives-1-million-grant-from-burpee-foundation-to-support-creation-of-trial-garden-at-montgomery-place-campus-2024-06-18

Read the Full Article in the Daily Catch

Post Date: 08-05-2025

Sustainability News by Date

View Current

View by Year/Month

Search: enter keyword to search news

Results 1-3 of 3

February 2013

02-27-2013

The Clif Bar Family Foundation has invested $100,000 in Bard’s new MBA in Sustainability. This innovative “program related investment” comes in the form of a low-interest loan that will support the program through its startup phase.

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Environmental/Sustainability,Wellness | Institutes(s): Bard MBA in Sustainability |

02-14-2013

Organic Beef Farmer and Former Wall Street Crusader Sandy B. Lewis to Speak at Bard<br />

On Tuesday, February 19, Bard College will host a talk and discussion with Salim B. “Sandy” Lewis, a Wall Street leader, founder of his firm, who now, with his wife, is the owner and operator of Lewis Family Farm in Essex, New York, a beef farm with a unique USDA certificate in grass. Lewis will explore “Why Fixing Wall Street and the Economy is Critical to the World” in a discussion with Matt Taibbi ’92, the renowned political and financial columnist for Rolling Stone.

Credit: Photo: Fred Conrad, The New York Times
Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Alumni/ae,Economics,Environmental/Sustainability,Politics and International Affairs,Wellness | Institutes(s): Bard Center for Environmental Policy,Bard MBA in Sustainability,Bard Undergraduate Programs,Center for Civic Engagement,Hannah Arendt Center,Levy Economics Institute |

02-06-2013

Bard College’s MBA in Sustainability Program Receives Innovative Investment from Clif Bar<br />

The Clif Bar Family Foundation has launched a new approach to philanthropy, making its first-ever $100,000 “Program Related Investment” (PRI) in Bard College’s new MBA in Sustainability, one of a handful of programs globally that fully integrates sustainability into a graduate business curriculum.

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Environmental/Sustainability,Wellness | Institutes(s): Bard MBA in Sustainability,Center for Civic Engagement |

Results 1-3 of 3