NC State’s Climate and Sustainability Academy sought to build on grassroots climate and sustainability efforts and initiatives through a recent open house on March 3 and 6. The university’s fourth academy brought together faculty and staff to learn more about the academy and how to amplify current campus activity on climate and sustainability.
“Our goal for the open house was to foster engagement and collaboration as we introduce the academy and explore its future,” said Erin Seekamp, executive director of the Climate and Sustainability Academy. “This is a great step forward in fulfilling our mission to unite existing and emerging interdisciplinary research, teaching, engagement and operations efforts to promote sustainable and resilient solutions to climate change and other global challenges, connecting people and places to imagine and catalyze transformative change.”
The event featured World Cafe-style roundtable sessions, an interactive approach to discussion where participants moved between tables dedicated to specific topics, sharing ideas and building on one another’s insights. Table topics covered education, research, outreach/extension/engagement, operations/practice and events.
Strong Foundations, Futures-Focused
NC State maintains a strong legacy of supporting sustainability efforts on campus. The North Carolina State Climate Office was brought to NC State’s campus in 1980, and the University Sustainability Office opened in 2008. Over the past seven years, the university established the following units: the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative, Long View Project, Blue Economy Innovation Program, Climate Solutions Collaborative, Sustainable Futures Initiative and finally the Climate and Sustainability Academy in 2024.
The Climate and Sustainability Academy has four pillars: Education; Research and Innovation; Outreach, Engagement and Extension; and Operations and Facilities. These pillars were explored at the open house along with a fifth theme — Events — based on the desire of the academy to learn about the types of events that faculty and staff would like to interact with the academy at. For each table topic theme, academy leaders want to know how to build the academy to best leverage the university’s strengths, minimize barriers to participation, and activate the talents of faculty and staff members in meaningful ways.
“Through the open house, we hope to build on this initial network of interested faculty and staff, while also continuing a tradition that was started last year by the Climate Solutions Collaborative’s convening leadership team to create regular but informal social engagement opportunities for informal networking,” said Christopher Galik, deputy executive director of the Climate and Sustainability Academy. “We will also seek to build on the organic, grassroots energy created by the Sustainability Council, a long-standing advisory body that includes representation from just about every corner of the university.”
As the academy’s structure solidifies, Galik, Seekamp and others hope to create events that provide more formal and structured engagement to inspire and catalyze new educational, research, engagement and operational innovations, like the Envisioning Transformations in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain workshop hosted in 2024 by the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative.
The academy will have a formalized relationship with the University Sustainability Office (established in 2008), thanks to a partnership between Provost Arden and Executive Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Charles Maimone. The relationship will help further transform the campus into a living, learning, laboratory – a place where sustainable innovations can be infused into our facilities, operations, and practices.
“We look forward to collaborating on more applied learning and research opportunities that enhance campus operational efficiency and continuous improvement,” said Carla Davis, director of the University Sustainability Office. “By exploring and innovating sustainable solutions on campus, NC State advances environmentally responsible operations and resource stewardship while also creating real-world learning opportunities for students.”
Feedback and Food for Thought
Attendees at the Climate and Sustainability Open House included representatives from the North Carolina State Climate Office. The office will also have a formalized connection to the Climate and Sustainability Academy. The office has been connecting data with decision-makers in North Carolina for nearly 50 years.
“We bring a lot of experience and expertise. Our work with the academy will help us take that work to the next level by partnering with experts around campus to develop solutions,” said Kathie Dello, director of the North Carolina State Climate Office. “We’ve been in the climate services space for a long time, and we have a lot of lessons learned. We also know that weather and climate play a role in everyday decision-making. We at NC State are connected across all 100 counties. The academy is going to take what we’re already good at doing, not just in my office, and elevate those efforts. I’m always happy to meet more people on campus with a similar mission – to ensure that we’re helping all 11 million North Carolinians understand and navigate their climate risk with common-sense strategies.”
Julio Terán, a lecturer and academic advisor in the College of Engineering who also attended the open house, has been closely involved with the Climate and Sustainability Academy through his work with the Sustainable Futures Initiative, which is focused on integrating sustainability into the curriculum.“In the College of Engineering, I hope to connect students to the academy by providing case studies and class examples that foster a sense of ownership and agency related to the environment and sustainable practices,” Terán said. “It’s crucial that engineering students, who will be future leaders in product development, enterprise and manufacturing, develop a sustainability mindset. I believe the academy offers a valuable space for these students, as well as for faculty and staff.”
One thing we heard at the open house is that there is a lot happening to advance sustainability at NC State,” said Seekamp. “NC State was ranked #14 for Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions in the U.S. (2025 QS World University Rankings), but there is no “clearinghouse” of all of the amazing things we are doing. We hope to help uplift past, current and future successes.
What’s Next
Event organizers hope to harness the energy generated in the open house through an eventual newsletter and expanding the Climate and Sustainability Academy’s capacity to regularly engage in communications with key stakeholders. Academy leadership has been visiting with the leadership of each college, as well as those in the Climate Solutions Collaborative and members of the Sustainability Council to listen to their ideas about how to partner with the academy.
The academy will also work with the campus community to begin crafting a definition and outlining some preliminary approaches to move the Campus as a Living Lab idea into fruition. Growth opportunities will likely involve grassroots efforts — where stakeholders come to the Climate and Sustainability Academy for help connecting and catalyzing their work.
