Climate and Sustainability Academy
NC State’s newest academy will build upon previous interdisciplinary grassroot, faculty and student-led climate and sustainability efforts and initiatives.
Creating Lasting Solutions
The Climate and Sustainability Academy is the fourth academy at NC State, and unites existing and emerging interdisciplinary research, teaching engagement and operations efforts to promote sustainable and resilient solutions to climate and other global challenges, connecting people and places to imagine and catalyze transformative change.
The academy will leverage strengths to elevate ideas that inspire and catalyze climate and sustainability scholarship. These existing strengths include imagining and implementing bold, actionable solutions in coastal, campus/urban and working lands.
Combining Forces
The Climate and Sustainability Academy will connect and oversee the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (CRSI), focused on the coast and its watersheds, and the Sustainable Futures Initiative (SFI), working to bring together students, staff, scholars and practitioners to imagine and implement sustainable solutions for society. This academy also aims to facilitate and amplify climate and sustainability work on campus, including the efforts of the State Climate Office, the Sustainability Office and the 20+ entities represented in the Climate Solutions Collaborative.
A Unique Approach
At the Climate and Sustainability Academy, we fulfill NC State’s mission through our unique approach to interdisciplinary scholarship and engagement. We will:
- Leverage what is already here and help new efforts gain momentum. We seek to elevate, not to displace.
- Maintain a dual focus on imagination and implementation. We aim to be bold and optimistic on what could be, while also catalyzing practical solutions here and now.
- Be inherently place- and people-based. As the state’s premier land-grant institution, this is a core part of our collective identity.
- Be futures-oriented. We will organize interdisciplinary efforts to support campus/urban, working landscape and coastal transformations.
The academy will leverage major strengths to further NC State’s reputation as a climate and sustainability solutions engine, with faculty, students and staff innovating with our corporate partners to make our physical campus a model for the cities of the world. It will also promote working landscapes as solution geographies, where innovations in food, biomaterials and clean energies are interconnected. Additionally, the academy will reimagine the coast of North Carolina in light of major changes and seek innovation within its Blue Economy, as an example of similar reimagining and innovation that will need to occur around the world.
Executive Director, Climate and Sustainability Academy
Deputy Executive Director, Climate and Sustainability Academy
