Factsheets

Purpose 

Since 2001, the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS) has developed a collection of 34 sustainability factsheets. They address important challenges facing society including energy security and declining fossil resources, global climate change, freshwater scarcity, ecosystem degradation, and biodiversity loss. In addition to highlighting these impacts, factsheets are focused on the systems that provide basic services such as mobility, shelter, water, energy, and food. For each system, the patterns of use, life cycle impacts, and sustainable solutions and alternatives are presented.

Audience and Dissemination 

The factsheets are a resource for journalists, legislative aides in Congress and federal agencies, business and industry, educational institutions ranging from middle schools to universities, and anyone looking for concise information on sustainability challenges and solutions. CSS factsheets were viewed over 500,000 times in 2025.

Creation and Maintenance 

These factsheets synthesize data from government agencies, national laboratories, academia, industry sources, and NGO publications. Statistics are reported as concise facts, tables and figures in a two-page pdf document, and on pages with dynamic graphical content on the CSS website. Sources for all data are cited; any derived values are documented in a data repository maintained by CSS. The factsheets are developed by graduate student interns in collaboration with faculty advisors and research staff at CSS. Factsheets are reviewed externally by subject matter experts and the CSS External Advisory Board.