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Palm Oil in the Amazon: Threat or Opportunity?
Small migratory farming is responsible for 70% of the annual deforestation in Peru. Can palm oil address this problem and lead the change towards sustainable development in the Peruvian Amazon?
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Sara Kaddoura: Exploring Sustainability in Business
An alum explains how Columbia’s Environmental Science and Policy program prepared her for a job incorporating sustainability practices at Loreal.
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Alumna Shares Her Experience as a Fulbright Scholar
MJ Engel is an alumna of Columbia’s Undergraduate Sustainable Development Program and a U.S. Fulbright Scholar currently studying in China.
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Alumni Startup Brings Pay-as-you-Go Solar Energy to Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, only 1 percent of rural citizens have access to electricity. Easy Solar, founded by graduates of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, hopes to change that.
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With Fulbright Grant, Alum Will Study Arctic Ocean Protection
David Prieto, 2015 graduate of the Master of Science in Sustainability Management program, has been awarded a Fulbright-National Science Foundation Arctic Research Grant focused on interdisciplinary issues across the Arctic.
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Getting the Tools to Get Hired
Alan Burchell is the founder and principal of Urbanstrong, which he started shortly after graduating from Columbia’s Master of Science in Sustainability Management program in 2014. When choosing courses, Alan encourages MSSM students to fill up their tool belts. In his experience, “Knowledge is great, but tools get you hired.” Alan recommends to take classes…
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Redefining our Relationship to Energy
MSSM alum Diana McCarthy-Bercury (’16) commuted from New Haven, Conn., to attend the MSSM program from 2012 to 2015. Diana is currently an energy efficiency program manager at Eversource, an electric and natural gas utility in New England, which specializes in energy services. She is determined to leave a mark by not leaving a mark.
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Resiliency Strategies to Sustain Businesses and Livelihoods
Sustainability Management alum Krista Eichenbaum (’16) moved from Toronto to attend the MSSM program to better address resiliency challenges in cities. She is currently Project Analyst and Manager at a women-owned engineering consulting firm, specializing in civil engineering, urban planning, and sustainability.

AGU25, the premier Earth and space science conference, takes place December 15-19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s theme—Where Science Connects Us—puts in focus how science depends on connection, from the lab to the field to the ballot box. Once again, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School scientists, experts, students, and educators are playing an active role, sharing our research and helping shape the future of our planet. #AGU25 Learn More

