Current Projects
A project for the Tencent Foundation with the goal of understanding the optimal pedagogical experiences and/or training methods that can induce people to understand, adopt, and apply sustainability principles and change their behaviors in China. It is our belief that society’s fundamental long-term problems can only be solved by instilling deep motivation and purposeful thinking in the next generation of learners. We believe that through appropriate education, we can begin to understand and tackle the global challenge of attaining environmental sustainability. Overall, the research is aimed to understand 1) What are the existing models of environmental education, 2) what are the relevant contents within each model, and 2) what are the available delivery methods most appropriate and conducive to learning, for both the youth and adult population.
Learn more here.
Completed Projects
The Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management has conducted a review of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC)’s Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) training program. ISC has established training academies in China to prove high-quality and affordable EHS training to multi-national company suppliers and small and medium enterprises. This review primarily focuses on the training program’s existing approach of relying on leadership and advocacy of trainees to effect EHS changes on the factory floor. The review also aims to identify metrics and tools that could be used to assess the success of the program in terms of its effect on program participants and, in turn, on the factory floor.
This partnership between the Research Program and ISC ultimately serves to advance our collective state of understanding about sustainability training, specifically EHS training programs in the Chinese cultural context. As China continues to develop and contribute to the global economy, it also further contributes to global environmental issues such as environmental degradation and climate change. It therefore becomes increasingly important that this development is done in a sustainable manner, and an essential component to that is increasing the sustainability of factories and organizations.
Learn more here.
The Earth Institute, the School of Continuing Education and the School of International and Public Affairs sponsored a unique class on the Origins of Environmental Law: Regulation and Evolution. The class was taught by Leon G. Billings and Thomas C. Jorling, the two senior staff members who led the Senate environment subcommittee which originated and developed major environmental legislation in the 1970s, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Superfund Act.
Read more here.
Over the course of the Fall 2021 semester, sustainability masters students wrote case studies about an organization (public, private for-profit, private non-profit) that analyzed its efforts to incorporate environmental sustainability into its organizational structure and practices. With this assignment, our students addressed the fundamental challenges facing managers in operationalizing sustainability strategies within routine decision-making processes inside organizations. These case studies identify best and worst practices for organizational management and make reasonable recommendations for integrating sustainability management into the organization. Additionally, the case studies addressed the applicability of these recommendations to other organizations.