Dr. Benjamin Goldstein

Biography

Benjamin Goldstein is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, leading the Sustainable Urban-Rural Futures (SURF) Lab. His research emphasizes urban sustainability across multiple scales, focusing on how urban processes and forms drive consumption of materials and energy, which in turn produces environmental change within cities. Goldstein develops methods and tools to quantify changes in scale and locations using life cycle assessment, input-output analysis, and geospatial data, combined with data science approaches. He is particularly interested in integrating quantitative methods with social science theories to explore the various dimensions of sustainability and address issues of distributive justice. His topical foci include urban food systems, especially urban agriculture, agri-commodities, residual resource engineering, global supply chains, and sustainable production and consumption practices. Goldstein is also involved in several ongoing projects aimed at assessing the sustainability of urban farming practices and understanding the carbon emissions linked to household energy use. He holds a PhD in Management Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, an MSc in Environmental Engineering from the same institution, and a BASc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Research Interests