With a $500,000 gift in seed funding provided by Kingfull Ding, the Earth Institute is launching the Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management under the direction of Professor Steven Cohen, executive director of the Earth Institute. The program will draw upon the interdisciplinary expertise across the institute and university, including Satyajit Bose, Michael Gerrard, William Eimicke, Alison Miller and Courtney Small. With this gift, the program will make its first hire, Dong Guo, a post-doctoral scholar, who will work with faculty and researchers to develop the program’s initial research agenda.
The Earth Institute Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management will leverage the scientific base of the Earth Institute and Columbia University with insights on sustainability practices from partner non-profit, corporate, government and non-governmental organizations. The research program will provide a rigorous analytic base to better understand important sustainability issues and to develop more effective public policies and organizational practices. To date, more than 20 top companies have participated in helping to shape the direction of the new program.
“This innovative program will gather the best policy and management minds to examine the critical sustainability challenges facing organizations. It will lead research on the practical problems of sustainability management in the public and private sectors, with a focus on work that will inform how real organizations manage these issues of sustainability,” Cohen said. This program will support Cohen’s own scholarship and will enhance the research base available to support the two masters programs that he directs in Environmental Science and Policy (at the School of International and Public Affairs) and in Sustainability Management (at the School of Continuing Education). The goal is to create academic research in sustainability management that is peer reviewed, but that addresses the fundamental issues of professional practice in the real world.
