two people standing in front of a large computer screen in a conference room. Credit: Mathew Burciaga, UC Berkeley

Building tangible, replicable, and inclusive environmental solutions

Our Mission

The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment (DSE) leverages the power of modern data and environmental science to create a healthy planet where people and nature can thrive.

 

One of our newest initiatives involves developing open source and local AI models, which are part of a more sustainable future for scientific computing. Read the latest.

 

DSE launched in 2022 and is a partnership between UC Berkeley's Rausser College of Natural Resources and the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, with the financial support of Eric and Wendy Schmidt.

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AI Can Move Beyond Data Centers

In a new commentary in Nature Schmidt DSE faculty & researchers posit that open source AI models, which tend to be far more energy efficient than their commercial counterparts and run for free, offer an outside-the-box approach to meeting demands for use.
August 11, 2026