Seyeon Lee, an associate professor of environmental and interior design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Design
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) recently announced that Seyeon Lee, an associate professor of environmental and interior design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Design, received a 2022 AASHE Sustainability Award for outstanding research in higher education sustainability.
Lee won the award with Suyeon Lee of Seoul National University for the journal article “University leadership in climate mitigation: reducing emissions from waste through carbon pricing,” which was published on Aug. 13, 2021, in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. The paper aims to investigate the potential impact of internal carbon pricing on emission reduction in higher education institutions, which are major emitters of greenhouse gas emissions.
Lee conducted some of her research at Syracuse University, where she received two Campus as a Laboratory for Sustainability (CALS) grants in 2019 and 2020 to investigate waste generated and recycling efforts on campus. Her first study focused on the studio waste in the Nancy Cantor Warehouse, home of the School of Design. It expanded in the following year as she looked at the students’ waste/recycling behaviors in their residence hall rooms.
“Triggered by these research projects, my collaborator, who has expertise in international development and policy, and I used the data that universities across the U.S. submit—Syracuse included—to measure their sustainability performances and investigated how the HEIs could reduce greenhouse gas emission associated with campus waste by implementing carbon pricing,” says Lee.
AASHE bestows its prestigious awards on the institutions and individuals that help lead higher education to a sustainable future. This year, AASHE received 430+ entries that resulted in 12 winners announced across five categories. Entries were judged on overall impact, innovation, stakeholder involvement, clarity and other criteria specific to each category. AASHE held a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday, Dec. 8, to recognize and celebrate the 12 award recipients.
Lee joined the School of Design faculty in 2016. Her research interests engage community architecture with an emphasis on sustainable and affordable architectural design and planning with a special focus on housing affordability.
