Duke, Cambridge, Climate Group Launch 'Climate Academy' for Business Executives
The academy is designed to provide participants with a vision for how to succeed in a world moving toward a low-carbon economy
Thursday, December 7, 2006
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Durham, NC -- Duke University in the U.S., the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and the international non-profit organization The Climate Group are launching the “Climate Academy” to educate business executives on how to seize the business advantage inherent in addressing global climate change, officials announced Thursday.
The academy will feature a Climate Leadership Program that will combine the universities’ knowledge of climate science and policy with The Climate Group’s insight into business leadership to provide participants with a vision for how to succeed in a world moving toward a low-carbon economy.
“Climate change is no longer a topic limited to the scientific community,” said Ray Smith, associate dean of executive education at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. “We at Fuqua are excited to be part of the Climate Academy, which is taking the lead in helping businesses and the public sector find solutions to this global problem.”
The academy’s founders say there is a growing interest among business leaders to proactively address a global need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“With changes of the magnitude required by climate change, there will be economic winners and losers,” said Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke. “We want our enrollees to be the winners.”
Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and Nicholas Institute will co-host a three-day pilot course on Duke’s campus beginning May 15, 2007. The course is designed to provide participants with:
-- A deeper understanding of the scientific, political and business challenges and opportunities associated with addressing climate change;
-- An appreciation of the technologies and practices that will be used to minimize greenhouse gas emissions;
-- An evaluation of the initiatives that attendees could implement within their organizations to evoke the needed changes.
After three days, each enrollee should have an early plan for how to positively bring about change in his or her organization.
“The Climate Group sees the Climate Leadership Program as a pivotal tool to help take high-level business executives from thinking about climate strategy to knowing what their climate strategy should be, and implementing it,” said Climate Group CEO Steve Howard.
The academy partners plan to offer the Climate Leadership Program twice annually, once on each of the two university campuses. A third campus is planned in China in the near future, organizers say.
“Climate change represents a profound risk to social and environmental stability and to economic prosperity,” said Polly Courtice, director of the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, which will deliver the program in Europe. “Our ambition is to help leaders to prepare for this new reality and help contribute positively to addressing the challenge.”
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For more information about the Climate Academy, including registration, visit http://www.ee.fuqua.duke.edu.
For more information about The Climate Group, visit http://www.theclimategroup.org/ or contact Chris Walker, U.S. Director East Coast, The Climate Group, (212) 545-5421 or CWalker@theclimategroup.org.
