Standards of living have soared over the past few decades and our life expectancies are far greater than those of our ancestors. But at what cost to the wider environmental picture?

Worrying events paint a bleak prognosis. The climate has irreversibly changed, on a global scale, and the human population keeps growing, just as the world’s natural resources are being depleted at an alarming and unsustainable rate.

Yet, there’s reason to hope. We’re living in an age of unprecedented technological and scientific advances.

Israel remains at the global forefront of this innovation. Across the country, creative minds and dynamic teams of researchers are at work, addressing burning questions related to renewable energy, biotechnology, agriculture and more.

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Students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Photo by Yoav Alon.

And the nation’s higher-education institutions are flourishing, with exciting sustainability-related research and study programmes.

In the north, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology’s partnership with a venture firm will allow it widen the scope of its research into renewable energy and climate studies.

Nearby, the University of Haifa is equally committed to making a positive impact, investigating matters related to sustainable development and ensuring this knowledge is both integrated into the institution’s own operations and extended to meet the needs of the wider community.

Moving to the centre of the country, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot is committed to developing technologies to better manage our carbon footprint, through a multidisciplinary effort in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and other science subjects.

Turning to students, Tel Aviv University’s Porter School of Environmental Studies is Israel’s first graduate-level school to focus on fostering environmental knowledge, with the aim of training the next generation of green innovators.

At Herzliya’s Reichman University, the Raphael Recanati International School offers an English-language sustainability and government double major, focusing on key issues in economics, politics and the environment.

Keen young minds have the opportunity to take their environmental interests a step further at Ariel University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, too, which develops and supports student and faculty proposals on aspects of sustainability.

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An archaeology student at work at Bar-Ilan University. Photo by Yoav Alon.

Bar-Ilan University, in the city of Ramat Gan, is home to an outstanding group of scientists specialising in renewable energy conversion, working on – among other projects – new materials for electric vehicles and renewable battery applications.

At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s newly opened Centre for Sustainability, projects range from improving agricultural output in the world’s developing countries to increasing community engagement on climate change.

Down south, Ben-Gurion University is home to the Negev Centre for Sustainability. Part of the Department for Geography and Environmental Development and the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences, the hub promotes research related to sustainability, focusing in particular on interactions between society, culture and the economy.

And these are only a few examples of the initiatives, courses and centres being set up by higher education institutions across the country.

The Council for Higher Education of Israel ascribes great importance to internationalisation and international collaboration. The institutions welcome curious, creative and critical-thinking international students and researchers. Anyone who passes through the gates of these world-class institutions will benefit from the dynamic, entrepreneurial and innovative spirit that makes Israel unique.

Students with a drive to excel and tackle real-world problems should look no further. For more information on the country’s academic systems, its higher education institutions and the sustainability-related projects they’re implementing, visit israelacademia.che.org.il or read the Israeli Academia eZine.