Collaborative Programs

Leading Edge of Marine Science

Environmental Markets Lab (emLab)

A think-and-do tank for market-based approaches to environmental challenges

Indigenous kids on a fish boat in Indonesia

The Environmental Markets Lab (emLab) is an interdisciplinary team of scientists based at the University of California Santa Barbara that conducts cutting-edge, data-driven research on the power, limitations, and design of market-based approaches to tackle the world's most pressing environmental problems. In collaboration with implementing partners, emLab aims to better align environmental objectives and economic incentives in support of sustainable livelihoods and a resilient planet.

Previously known as the Sustainable Fisheries Group (SFG), emLab builds upon SFG’s robust research portfolio of market solutions for oceans and fisheries by expanding to tackle a wider array of pressing challenges in land and freshwater, climate and energy, and people and poverty. emLab is a collaboration between the University of California Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute, Department of Economics, and Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.

emlab.ucsb.edu