After decades on the margins of public and private agendas, sustainability has moved to the center of global economic and political dialogue as a vital means of addressing pressing challenges. Organizations and governments—large and small—are increasingly recognizing the need to embed sustainability into their core operations, business models, and relationships with natural systems.
Despite this shift, sustainability policies and strategies often struggle to gain broad traction, largely due to differing interpretations of what sustainability means. Most existing frameworks rely on national-level data, which often fails to reflect the priorities of individual organizations or the needs of sub-national decision-makers. Meanwhile, participatory approaches to defining sustainability, though inclusive, frequently lack scientific rigor, conceptual clarity, and the ability to support diverse goals.
The Columbia Climate School’s Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management tackles these challenges by focusing on how sustainability can be institutionalized within organizational routines. The Program works to embed sustainability into everyday decision-making and operations, aiming to make it a core part of how organizations function.
To support this, the Program is building a rigorous analytical foundation—researching and developing tools, methods, and frameworks that help organizations innovate, measure physical impact, align with policy, access financing, and educate stakeholders. Through this work, the Program promotes more sustainable public policies, organizational practices, and investment behaviors by equipping decision-makers with the knowledge and tools they need to drive meaningful change.
