Affiliations
The Environmental Collaboratory maintains a robust network of affiliates that include community-based organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations, research networks and more.
The Environmental Collaboratory is committed to supporting the adoption of best practices with regards to corporate environmental, social and governance practices. It is envisioned that this will be done through a combination of pre-competitive, multi-company engagements designed to authenticate ESG commitments and engage directors and others in professional training programs.
The Environmental Collaboratory is already participating in these efforts as a partner to the World Bank, World Economic Forum and the Responsible Battery Coalition.
Coalitions
The Clean Energy Coalition encourages and recognizes groups that are addressing environmental inequities and energy challenges among disadvantaged communities. The Environmental Collaboratory at Drexel University is part of Team Philly, the Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize Phase One winner. Growing and expanding the next generation of Neighborhood Energy Centers in Philadelphia is a key goal of Team Philly, and they will leverage these neighborhood-based services to help inform, assess, and integrate clean energy into the communities where it’s needed most.
The Green Living Plan is a coalition of local environmental and neighborhood-based organizations, with the support of academia, that will produce a city-wide, community-driven agenda to share with the city’s candidates for Mayor in 2023. The agenda will outline environmentally focused and neighborhood-based policy, programmatic, and investment solutions to Philadelphia’s most pressing quality of life challenges. The Environmental Collaboratory is a member of the Green Living Plan’s Executive Committee, serving as its technical advisor.
A Mayoral Candidate Forum was held at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University on March 29, 2023, where mayoral candidates discussed issues of environmental equity for all Philadelphians. The forum examined how candidates will take on the priorities of the Green Living Plan, including addressing air pollution and urban heat, growing green jobs, improving basic city services and enhancing water quality and infrastructure.
Earth Decides is a diverse community of world-class experts and influencers who cultivate informed optimism amongst decision-makers in support of credible Earth-centered action.
The key to confronting existential threat, is understanding our current realities. Not doing so, leads decision makers to a misguided perception of the problem and so poorly crafted, short-term and linear solutions. However, maintaining a fixed focus on the threat leaves the human psyche with a trauma response of fight, flight, freeze and fold – inducing inaction and propelling rather than mitigating risk. We need both the hard truths paired with a sense of possibility and opportunity - hope - to effectively respond.
Observer: United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change
Drexel University is a Research and Independent Non-governmental Organization (RINGO) permanent observer to United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s annual Conference of Parties (COP). Since obtaining permanent observer status, Drexel has sent a co-funded delegation of faculty, professional staff and students to the annual international event since 2015. As part of our attendance, delegates have participated in media interviews, posted essays to online forums, and held on-campus debriefs for the larger Drexel community. This past year at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Drexel hosted its first official side-event Scaling Up: Case Studies in Collaborations between Cities and Higher Education Institutions. Executive Director and Vice Provost Stanislaus, in his previous role at the World Economic Forum, moderated the side-event.
As part of COP 26, Executive Director and Vice Provost Stanislaus led a discussion with leading representatives from industry, G20 governments, academia and civil society, which resulted in the report linked below (published September 2022). This report from the Climate Conference of the Parties sets forth the recommendations for establishing global data governance rules to verify greenhouse gas (GHG) claims based on the insights by some of the world’s experts. Unfortunately, the critical importance of data governance to drive authentic climate solutions is not widely recognized.
Without a trusted data governance systems that aligns government’s public policy goals for climate and social requirements; civil society’s goals for independently verifying claims and data; and private sector confidence in access and disclosure of data balanced with proprietary concerns, the implementation of the Paris Agreement’s National Determined Commitments and focus on hot spots of GHG will not occur.
Report from Climate Conference of the Parties Roundtable [PDF]