Environmental Resilience Institute

WHO WE ARE

Confronting environmental change through research, education, and community collaboration
Heavier spring flooding. Hotter, drier summers. Shifting growing seasons. These are just a few of the consequences of a warming climate.

This century, Indiana and the world will experience unparalleled environmental change that will threaten public health, species diversity, natural systems, and Hoosier communities.

Working with partners throughout the state, the Environmental Resilience Institute is fostering Indiana’s ability to withstand the wide-ranging impacts of climate change, including changes that affect the state’s economy and health.

Goals

Accurate Predictions
Generating accurate projections of coming risks related to climate, water, ecosystems, and disease.

Feasible Solutions
Developing innovative strategies for conserving wildlife and natural resources and for designing greener, more disaster-resilient communities.

Effective Communication
Measuring public perception of risk and to communicate implications of environmental change.

Practical Tools
Preparing today's and tomorrow's leaders to reduce carbon pollution and plan more resilient communities.

Our vision: An environmental resilience revolution

What do we mean by revolution?
At ERI, we envision a future deeply and broadly transformed through co-produced knowledge and action that spurs systemic change. By moving away from the rigid and unsustainable strategies of the past, we can create a resilient and sustainable tomorrow—together.

Our mission: To co-create environmental resilience and climate solutions by integrating research, education, and community.

What is environmental resilience?
It’s the ability of our interconnected human-natural systems to curb the causes of environmental change while adapting sustainably and equitably to unstoppable change.

• For many, “environment” means only the natural world. At ERI, “environment” is an interlinked human and natural system.
• Often, “resilience” is defined as the ability of a system to maintain function amidst change. At ERI, it’s more than that—it’s a commitment to eliminating the root causes of environmental disturbance and slowing the rate and intensity of change while building adaptive systems that thrive, now and in the future, for all.

How do we co-create environmental resilience at ERI?

• It starts with a commitment to understanding. We strive to discover and understand the weaknesses and threats to the existing system as well as our strengths and opportunities to respond. We accomplish this through research in the lab, in the field, and with our communities, and through real-world educational experiences.
• Next, we take action. Applying our collective understanding and the best science, we leverage our network of resilience partners and our education, policy, and implementation programs to mitigate the forces of environmental change and build adaptive capacity centered on equity and sustainability.
• And we do it all together. Everything we do is co-created. Whether we are conducting collaborative scholarship with interdisciplinary faculty and student teams or embedding our students and staff within communities to co-produce climate action plans, we are in this together.