Welcome to the Environmental Research and Sustainability Lab!

Our lab investigates the environmental and societal impacts of pollution within both natural and built environments, with anemphasis on promoting sustainable communities and enhancing long-term quality of life. The mission of the research lab is two-fold: a) to deepen our understanding on how physicochemical processes affect the fate and transport of pollutants in the environment, and b) to to inform sustainable policy solutions that address environmental justice and promote equitable development. We study socio-environmental systems using a holistic and sustainability-focused approach that integrates fundamental science with technical assistance and community-based participatory research.

Through fundamental science, we investigate the interactions between contaminants and the environment to gain insights into the processes that govern their behavior in the environment. Our laboratory is equipped with advanced wet chemistry apparatuses and instrumentation to qualitative and quantitatively analyze these interactions. A key focus of our research is enhancing reactive transport models by integrating molecular based-information. Our research approach combines experimental approaches with state-of-the-art geochemical modeling.

Through environmental policy and advocacy, we work with communities that experience environmental racism, and specifically we study the aspects of procedural, distributional, and structural justice. Our goal is to advance environmental justice for communities across the nation while addressing challenges posed by environmental and energy burdens, and climate change. Our research approach employs mixed methods, integrating quantitative techniques such as statistical and geospatial analyses with qualitative insights gathered through community-based participatory research. Technical assistance is central to our mission, as we work closely with communities to solve environmental problems. Currently, our efforts focus on minimizing displacement from brownfields redevelopment, enhancing preparedness and management of environmental programs, and facilitating authentic community engagement that values the lived experiences of communities.

The lab is led by Professor Nefeli Bompoti and her team of students, and it is based in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.