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Joshua Newell
Professor of Environment and Sustainability
Environmental Justice
Geospatial Data Sciences
Sustainable Systems
Climate + Energy
Food Systems
Cities + Mobility + Built Environment
Cross-cutting
Office
Dana 1064
Lab website
Websites
About
Joshua Newell is a professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. A human–environment geographer, he leads interdisciplinary research at the nexus of urban sustainability and resilience, environmental justice, corporate supply-chain sustainability and governance, urban–rural resource flows and urban metabolism, and geospatial data science/GeoAI. His work integrates concepts and methods from geography, urban planning, industrial ecology, and spatial analytics, and he frequently collaborates across engineering, environmental science, public policy, business, and the social sciences. He is affiliated with multiple university institutes and centers spanning sustainability, data science, and interdisciplinary environmental research, and regularly convenes large cross-unit teams to address complex socio-environmental challenges. He has also held a range of administrative appointments and service roles focused on academic program building, strategic hiring, and cross-unit collaboration.
Newell has led multi-investigator research programs supported by major sponsors including NSF, NASA, ONR/DoD, NOAA/Sea Grant, USDA, and philanthropic and corporate partners, totaling $22.1M across 40+ awards, with $8.6M as PI/administrative lead. His research emphasizes stakeholder-engaged scholarship with government, industry, and community partners and has generated documented policy and media impact. Work on his research has appeared in major outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters, NPR, BBC News, National Geographic, TIME, CNN, Scientific American, and The Guardian.
In teaching and mentoring, Newell co-founded and co-authored the University of Michigan Sustainability Minor and has led curricular and program innovations at SEAS. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses spanning sustainability and society, urban sustainability, and sustainability and supply chains, and mentors students and trainees across doctoral, postdoctoral, master’s, and undergraduate levels. Prior to academia, Newell worked in the environmental NGO sector in Russia and Japan.
Publications
I. Urban Resilience, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice
Equity-centered urban sustainability, resilience and “just green enough” frameworks and strategies; empirical work on greening, food systems, and displacement.
- Wolch, J. R., Byrne, J., & Newell, J. P. (2014). Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities “just green enough.” Landscape and Urban Planning, 125, 234–244. (~5,900 citations)
- Meerow, S., Newell, J. P., & Stults, M. (2016). Defining urban resilience: A review. Landscape and Urban Planning, 147, 38–49. (~4,000 citations)
- Meerow, S., & Newell, J. P. (2019). Urban resilience for whom, what, when, where, and why? Urban Geography, 40(3), 309–329. (~1,250 citations)
II. Corporate Supply Chain Sustainability and Governance
How to trace firm supply chains across space/time and link commodity flows to environmental and social hotspots; evaluates governance mechanisms (certification, voluntary initiatives, policy).
- Goldstein, B., & Newell, J. P. (2019). Why academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 23(6), 1316–1327.
- Goldstein, B., & Newell, J. P. (2020). How to track corporations across space and time. Ecological Economics, 169, 106492.
- Chamanara, S., Goldstein, B., & Newell, J. P. (2021). Where is the beef? Costco’s supply chain and environmental justice in California. Journal of Cleaner Production, 278, 123744.
III. Urban–Rural Resource Flows and Urban Metabolism
Characterizes food–energy–water and commodity flows by fusing industrial ecology with social science; advances theory and measurement of distal drivers of urban sustainability.
- Goldstein, B. P., Pelton, R., Gounaridis, D., Schmitt, J., Springer, N., & Newell, J. P. (2025). The carbon hoofprint of cities is shaped by geography and production in the livestock supply chain. Nature Climate Change, 15, 1190–1197.
- Newell, J. P., & Cousins, J. J. (2015). The boundaries of urban metabolism: Towards a political–industrial ecology. Progress in Human Geography, 39(6), 702–728.
- Newell, J. P., Goldstein, B., & Foster, A. (2019). A 40-year review of food–energy–water nexus literature and its application to the urban scale. Environmental Research Letters, 14(7), 073003.
- Goldstein, B., Gounaridis, D., & Newell, J. P. (2020). The carbon footprint of household energy use in the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(32), 19122–19130.
IV. Geospatial Data Science and GeoAI
GeoAI and spatial analytics to map exposure, vulnerability, and coupled social–environmental dynamics across climate risk, food systems, and environmental health.
- Chamanara, S., Gounaridis, D., Goldstein, B., & Newell, J. P. (2025). Geography of animal feeding operations and their contribution to fine particulate matter pollution in vulnerable communities in the United States. Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), 620.
- Gounaridis, D., & Newell, J. P. (2024). The social anatomy of climate change denial in the United States. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 2097.
- Gounaridis, D., Waweru, W., & Newell, J. P. (2024). Triple exposure: The geographic correlation between flooding risk, climate skepticism, and social vulnerability in the United States. Environmental Research Letters, 19(1), 114084.
V. Transnational Resource Governance and the Russian Federation
Longitudinal analysis of post-Soviet resource frontiers (Russian Far East/forests), focusing on institutional change, environmental governance, and geopolitical dynamics.
- Newell, J. P. (2004). The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development. McKinleyville, CA: Daniel & Daniel.
- Newell, J. P., & Simeone, J. (2014). Russia’s forests in a global economy: How consumption drives environmental change. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 55(1), 37–70.
- Newell, J. P., & Henry, L. A. (2016). The state of environmental protection in the Russian Federation: A review of the post-Soviet era. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 57(6), 779–801.
Research
Sponsored funding: $22.1M total (extramural + intramural) across 40+ awards.
Direct budget authority (PI/admin lead): $8.6M.
Major sponsors: National Science Foundation (10 awards from SBE, Engineering, and Geosciences), NASA, Office of Naval Research (ONR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Agriculture, and philanthropic/corporate partners.
Portfolio leadership: Center-scale, multi-unit, and interdisciplinary teams from engineering, environmental science, business, planning, and social science.
Selected current awards
- PI, Geospatial Analytics to Enhance Water Security (ONR) — $400K (2024–2026).
- PI, Assessing Blue Gentrification in Michigan’s Coastal Communities (Michigan Sea Grant, NOAA) — $220K (2024–2026).
- PI, Global Supply Chain Intelligence Institute seed award (UM Office of the Vice President for Research) — $200K (2026–2028).
- Co-PI, Life Cycle Assessment of EV Batteries (Ford Motor Company) — $200K (2024–2026).
Selected completed awards
- Senior Personnel, NSF Sustainable Research Network — $12M network award (2015–2022); managed the University of Michigan budget within a multi-university consortium.
- U.S. Lead PI, FEW-Meter: Integrative Model for Urban Metabolism (NSF/Belmont Forum) — $2.0M (2018–2023).
- PI, Sustainability Hoofprint of Cities (NSF) — $313,049 (2018–2023).
- Co-PI, Forested Land-Cover Change in Northern Eurasia (NASA) — $997K (2012–2015)
Accolades
- Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2025) — top 1% of scientists globally by citation impact.
- Outstanding Paper Awards: Land (2024) and Landscape and Urban Planning (Weddle Prize, 2017).
- Fellowships: U.S. Fulbright Global Scholar Award (2017–2018), Regensburg Fellowship, Germany (2020), Invited Scholar Fellowship, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan (2016).
- Golden Apple Award Finalist (2013–2014) — Teaching excellence.
Education
PhD, University of Washington (geography)
MA, University of Washington (geography)
BA, Brown University (history)
Affiliations
- Founding Director, Global Supply Chain Intelligence Institute, University of Michigan (2026–present): Establishing a multi-unit institute integrating AI and supply chain science.
- Co-Director, Ideas Lab, University of Michigan (2024–2026): Co-led (with Peter Reich) a $3M university-wide initiative catalyzing interdisciplinary research through mentored junior-faculty teams.
- Director, Urban Sustainability Research Group, SEAS, University of Michigan (2010–present): Founded and grew a high-impact research group.
- Co-Director, Center for Sustainable Systems, SEAS, University of Michigan (2023–2024): Provided strategic and operational oversight, including internal operations and external engagement.
In the News
In the Media