Sustainability, tested daily: Inside UGA’s living laboratory

Kat Gilmore on May 17, 2026

A young woman (Deborah Madden) with long braids and glasses stands smiling with arms crossed in a UGA office space, surrounded by educational posters about sustainability and photos on the wall behind her.
Deborah Madden, an environmental engineering major and UGA Foundation Fellow, discovered in her work for the Circularity Informatics Lab that “food deserts” impose limitations on more than simply health diets. “It’s a lot harder to be sustainable when there are no sustainable options,” Madden said. (Photo by Lauren Corcino)

From green roof tops and sustainable food systems to laboratories focused on circularity, sustainability research at the University of Georgia is entwined with daily life throughout the Athens community—and beyond. 

In the UGA New Materials Institute, the Circularity Informatics Lab, led by Regents’ and UGA Athletic Association Professor Jenna Jambeck, works globally to help local communities shift their waste management practices toward “resource management.” 

But did you know the campus is also home to a roof top garden that serves as research space for research into urban heat islands? Or that within a few miles from campus there exists a community garden founded and maintained—since 2010—by student workers, interns and volunteers who grow food to feed food-insecure residents? 

Click here to learn more about the CIL and its Circularity Assessment Protocol, the UGArden, and other sustainability work at UGA.