Environmental and Sustainable Development Workshops and Studios

Columbia University students develop their environmental interests and put them to practical use through a variety of workshop courses. These workshops offer students the opportunity to work with government clients, community organizations and international groups to analyze and craft solutions to real environmental problems and issues of sustainable development.

Students examine data, investigate existing programs and develop workable solutions that can then be put to use by clients. They learn to think creatively, interact with the world around them and turn theoretical concepts into practical solutions.

SIPA MPA Workshop

A critical part of the MPA experience is an integrative capstone experience. This hands-on course draws on every part of the MPA curriculum, and assures that students are ready for the career path they've chosen. In the MPA Workshop, a small group of students and a faculty advisor serve as management consultants to a real-world government or non-profit client.  After analyzing relevant issues, students make policy recommendations and identify avenues for further research for clients. 

SIPA's MPA in Environmental Science and Policy Workshop in Applied Earth Systems Management

The Workshop in Applied Earth Systems Management and Workshop in Applied Earth Systems Policy Analysis teach students to solve environmental policy problems. Students enroll in the workshop while completing the program's Core Curriculum, and they are expected to integrate and apply the knowledge they have acquired of natural science, social science, policy studies, and management to policy problem-solving. In the summer and fall semester workshops, students explore a piece of proposed, but not yet enacted, state, federal, or local environmental law (or a treaty or U.N. resolution), and develop a plan to implement and manage the new program.

In the summer, the workshop focuses on the science aspects of the management problem, while in the fall students work to complete the operational plan for implementing the program. In the spring semester, new groups are formed and students work on projects for real world governmental or nonprofit clients. The students complete the workshop with a report analyzing an actual environmental policy or managerial problem faced by their client.

In Summer 2008, students completed the following projects:

Read more about Summer 2008 workshop projects
View past workshop reports

SIPA Economic and Political Development Concentration Workshop in Applied Development

In the Workshop in Applied Development, students participate in on-going cutting-edge development efforts. Working in teams with a faculty supervisor, students assist a variety of clients on a wide array of assignments in international development. Students also explore the intersection of development concerns with humanitarian affairs, public health and human rights. Examples of solutions workshop participants have developed in the past include: recommendations for microfinance institutions to assess, analyze and respond to client feedback effectively and efficiently; a toolkit for planning water and sanitation delivery in refugee camps; a poverty assessment tool to measure their client's outreach to poorest of poor; and a benchmarking workshop for localizing the Millennium Development Goals. Past clients have included the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and NGOs such as the Trickle Up Program and World Neighbors. Students often travel abroad to conduct field work in this workshop course.

 

Last year’s EPD reports include MCI’s Investment Opportunities in Kisumu, Kenya and Louga, Senegal. 

SIPA Environmental Policy Concentration (EPS)

The SIPA Environmental Policy Workshop consists of a group of eight to ten graduate students under faculty direction who work closely with a client (e.g., governmental agency, public interest group, international organization, corporation, or research institution) on a significant issue in environmental policy. The workshop enables students to gain valuable experience by applying theories and skills acquired in the classroom to an existing problem while at the same time providing policymakers assistance in exploring fully a complex issue. 

In the 2006-2007 academic year, student worked under the direction of adjunct assistant professor Blaine D. Pope on New York City’s Adaptations to Sea Level Rise.  Click here to view the group’s final presentation.   

SIPA International Energy Management and Policy Concentration

In the capstone experience of this SIPA concentration, students apply the thorough understanding of energy industry fundamentals that they have gained. The Workshop in International Energy Management and Policy provides second-year IEMP students with the opportunity to apply what they have learned from their coursework, internships and prior work experience to real-world consulting engagements.  Students work in teams with a faculty supervisor to assist clients on energy-focused assignments.  The IEMP Workshop clients in spring 2006 were the United Nations Development Program, GE Commercial Finance - Energy Financial Services and the New York City Economic Development Corporation.  

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) Urban Ecology Studio

The Urban Ecology Studio is a research and training venture on the design of sustainable cities. It was initiated in 2004 under the auspices of Columbia’s Academic Quality Fund jointly by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). The Studio brings together faculty and students in the disciplines of architecture, urban design, and engineering in the investigation of specific urban issues, such as waste management, water quality, and the rehabilitation of brownfield sites in an intensive studio environment. The goal is to develop imaginative, doable, and environmentally innovative solutions that could serve as prototypes for new collaborative solutions. The principal laboratory of the Studio is New York City but sustainability can be addressed relative to other global cities, through the activities of the Earth Institute. For more information, please contact Richard Plunz (GSAPP) at rap9@columbia.edu or Patricia Culligan at culligan@civil.columbia.edu.

Urban Design Lab

The goal of the Urban Design Lab (UDL) is to advance sustainable development in New York and other cities by proposing and implementing multidisciplinary, design-based solutions to urban problems.

The UDL brings together academics and professionals from disciplines involved in shaping and supporting the built environment – urban planning and design, architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation, engineering, and real estate – with those from other fields such as public health, environmental science, climatology, ecology, education, business, economics, social science, humanities, and law. It bridges academic and practical approaches and functions as a catalyst for action, assembling different stakeholders to work together to design and implement practical strategies.

With expert practitioners and access to cutting-edge academic research in each of these sectors, the UDL is uniquely positioned to provide solutions targeting New York communities’ most vexing development challenges and to preserve the city’s status as a global economic leader. The UDL’s model can also be applied to cities around the world that are faced with similar development pressures.

The UDL is distinguished from other urban research organizations by its:

  • Multidisciplinary problem-solving through design
  • Focus on practical implementation
  • Commitment to working with local communities in the context of their geographic and economic regions. 

The UDL offers a unique approach to helping communities identify their needs and choose the strategies that best address those needs. This approach is driven by applied design research. Multi-disciplinary teams, in collaboration with community stakeholders, define problems, propose practical solutions, and develop pilot projects that can act as catalysts for advancing sustainable development in the project area. Tools that graphically illustrate concepts and prototype alternatives can be useful for all stakeholders – from community-based organizations to developers and government agencies – to help them more easily understand different perspectives, decide on a strategy, and implement changes.

Environmental Law Clinic

The Environmental Law Clinic involves students with local, regional, and national environmental and community organizations. Students work with clients on issues including clean water, wetlands preservation, endangered species, environmental justice, "smart growth," and clean air. This clinic builds on students' litigation skills such as drafting pleadings, arguing motions, and negotiating settlements, and exposes them to mechanisms such as citizen suits, that are prevalent in both civil rights and environmental cases. Emphasizing client interaction, the clinic teaches students to counsel community groups to grapple with and settle their cases in ways that best achieve their goals. The clinic also addresses the interplay of economic development and environmental protection and the impact of contamination and regulation on communities of color and other economically disadvantaged groups.