News and Events

Sustainability News

Chronogram Covers Bard Community Science Lab’s New Hudson Valley Community Air Network

“We didn’t want community data to be controlled by private people or entities.”

Chronogram Covers Bard Community Science Lab’s New Hudson Valley Community Air Network

<em>Chronogram</em> Covers Bard Community Science Lab’s New Hudson Valley Community Air Network

Desirée Lyle installing an air quality monitor. Photo by Julia Beeman

Hudson Valley Community Air Network, led by Bard College’s Community Sciences Lab at the Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities, was featured by Chronogram magazine in an article about the ongoing efforts to track and trace pollution in the air of the Hudson Valley region. The article notes that for decades, the area’s environmental consciousness has been organized around water, whereas air was not tracked closely until initiatives led by Bard’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities. The establishment of the Kingston Air Quality Initiative, and the Hudson Valley Air Quality Coalition in 2021, paved the way for this year’s efforts by Bard and Ulster County to install 17 new street-level sensors across the county. These newest sensors are strategically placed in public areas where people gather and learn, like libraries, town halls, and community centers, to collect data that can be accessed freely by the surrounding communities. “We didn’t want community data to be controlled by private people or entities,” says Desiree Lyle, program director of Bard College’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities.

The Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities puts Bard’s dedication to the environment, science, and social change into practice to support the fair management of our shared natural resources. The center conducts quantitative research in the natural and social sciences, crafts communication, participates in policy making, and bridges academic inquiry with community needs. The data and insights collected through CESH related projects are applied directly back to communities, with the end goal of addressing and solving environmental problems in real time.

Bard College MBA in Sustainability Receives Top Rankings

In recent weeks, Bard’s MBA in Sustainability has received recognition by several prominent ranking and ratings systems.

Bard College Partners with Ulster County on Ground‑Level Air Quality Monitoring Network

The sensors will provide the community with real‑time information about local air pollution and offer free alerts through JustAir, a platform that notifies users when air quality becomes unhealthy and again when conditions improve.

Bard College Partners with Ulster County on Ground‑Level Air Quality Monitoring Network

a woman installs a paneled device on top of a building

Desirée Lyle installs an air quality monitor for the Poughkeepsie Regional Air Quality Station at Adriance Memorial Library. Photo by Julia Beeman

Bard College’s Hudson Valley Community Air Network (HVCAN) is partnering with Ulster County to install 17 new ground‑level air quality sensors at libraries, town halls, and community centers across the county. The sensors will provide the community with real‑time information about local air pollution and offer free alerts through JustAir, a platform that notifies users when air quality becomes unhealthy and again when conditions improve. The sensors measure fine particulate matter, or tiny particles from sources like soot, smoke, and vehicle exhaust that are small enough to be inhaled and cause serious health impacts. Because the sensors are installed roughly six feet off the ground, they capture the air residents actually breathe, which can differ significantly from rooftop or elevated monitors. “HVCAN demonstrates that science does not belong only in laboratories or universities; it belongs in communities, where people can use knowledge to support healthier futures together,” said Desirée Lyle, program director at Bard’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities. “The data we create encourages curiosity, dialogue, and shared responsibility for environmental health, while offering a model for how science and community engagement can grow together.”

The Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities puts Bard’s dedication to the environment, science, and social change into practice to support the fair management of our shared natural resources. The center conducts quantitative research in the natural and social sciences, crafts communication, participates in policy making, and bridges academic inquiry with community needs. The data and insights collected through CESH related projects are applied directly back to communities, with the end goal of addressing and solving environmental problems in real time.

Learn More

Post Date: 06-18-2026

Current News

Results 1-4 of 4

July 2026

07-28-2026

Read More in Chronogram

Photo: Desirée Lyle installing an air quality monitor. Photo by Julia Beeman
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs,Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities (CESH),Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental/Sustainability,Faculty |

07-22-2026

Bard College MBA in Sustainability Receives Top Rankings

In recent weeks, Bard’s MBA in Sustainability has received recognition by several prominent ranking and ratings systems. The program has, for the sixth consecutive year, been named the #1 Green MBA by The Princeton Review in the publication’s 2027 business school rankings, and has also earned #1 MBA for Nonprofits ranking by the Review for the third consecutive year, placing Bard ahead of institutions including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Columbia, Berkeley, and Northwestern. Additionally, CEO awarded Bard an AAA rating in its Green MBA Index, which assesses how thoroughly sustainability is integrated into an MBA program’s curriculum, hands-on learning opportunities, research, institutional strategy, and graduate outcomes.

Unlike many business school rankings, The Princeton Review evaluations are based on student experience, and the top Green MBA ranking reflects how well students believe their MBA prepares them to address environmental, sustainability, and social responsibility issues throughout their careers. The top MBA for Nonprofits ranking recognizes programs that prepare graduates for mission-driven leadership.

“As sustainability becomes increasingly central to business success, organizations need leaders who can connect financial performance with environmental and social outcomes,” said Dr. Eban Goodstein, director of the Bard MBA in Sustainability. “That's exactly what our students learn to do.”

Rather than offering sustainability as an elective or concentration, Bard’s MBA in Sustainability weaves it throughout the curriculum. Every course—from finance and accounting to marketing, operations, leadership, and strategy—helps students understand how business decisions create both financial and environmental outcomes.

Learn More

Photo: Photo by Rachel L. Crittenden
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard Graduate Programs,Bard Graduate Programs in Sustainability,Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard MBA in Sustainability |

June 2026

06-18-2026

Learn More

Photo: Desirée Lyle installs an air quality monitor for the Poughkeepsie Regional Air Quality Station at Adriance Memorial Library. Photo by Julia Beeman
Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Staff | Subject(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental and Urban Studies Program,Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities |

February 2026

02-24-2026

Bard College Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities Celebrates Launch of Saw Kill Watershed Community Database

On Tuesday, February 24, at 7 pm the Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities at Bard College is presenting the first ever Saw Kill Watershed Community Database, a publicly accessible data tool housing datasets developed by community members, researchers, and Bard faculty and students since the late 1800s. Funded in part by the Hudson River Foundation, Bard Community Sciences Lab, and Hudson River Estuary Program of the DEC, the database is designed to expand in real time as the community surrounding the watershed continues to unearth historical information about the Saw Kill, and conducts community sciences in the watershed with efforts such as ongoing sampling.

The database will be launched at a celebration held at the Elmendorph Inn at 7562 N. Broadway, Red Hook, NY, at 7 pm on Tuesday, February 24. The event is free and open to the public, with refreshments provided.

“This project is like a love letter from Bard to the community we have been part of and served for over 100 years,” said Elias Dueker, associate professor of Environmental and Urban Studies at Bard. “Students, faculty, and staff are working side by side with community leaders to make the database as comprehensive as possible. We have found information in people’s closets, basements, paper files, art, photos, and stories. I don’t think there is anything like this project across the country, but I hope we can inspire other communities to rediscover how much they already know and study about their watersheds—just how much information is waiting there to help them step up to environmental challenges that seem at emergency-level today.”

The project—a collaboration between the Center for Experimental Humanities, Bard Biology and Environmental Studies, and community groups including the Saw Kill Watershed Community, Riverkeeper, and Hudson River Watershed Alliance—represents over 50 years of Bard's commitment in nurturing community efforts to provide meaningful stewardship of the Saw Kill Watershed, which provides drinking water and recreation for both Bard and the surrounding region. By compiling all available information and ongoing environmental research about the watershed in one accessible repository, the project is intended to serve as a versatile resource: as a teaching tool for local schools, for new residents wanting to learn about their surroundings, for community members who may have concerns about what they are observing in the watershed, and to provide meaningful data required to inform policy decisions that would affect the Saw Kill and its communities. For more information, please visit: cesh.bard.edu/csl/saw-kill-monitoring-program

Photo: Community members and Bard staff and students taking Saw Kill water samples at the Annandale Bridge, 2016. Photo by Laurie Husted
Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Staff | Subject(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs,Community Engagement,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental and Urban Studies Program,Environmental/Sustainability,Event,Faculty | Institutes(s): Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities |

Results 1-4 of 4