Affiliations and Partnerships

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. In addition, The Environmental Collaboratory is working closely with the Raj and Kamla Gupta Governance Institute of Drexel University to begin planning an initial training for corporate directors on regulatory compliance and best practices related to ESG parameters.

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.

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]

UCCRN is a global consortium of over 1,200 individuals from over 150 cities dedicated to the analysis of climate change mitigation and adaptation from an urban perspective. UCCRN members are scholars and experts from universities and research organizations around the world. The UCCRN North American Hub was established in November 2016 at Drexel University in Philadelphia, under the leadership of Dr. Franco Montalto.

CCRUN is supported by NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program. CCRUN’s first award was granted in 2010 and received their third award in 2021 and it is envisioned to continue through 2026. CCRUN conducts stakeholder-driven research in the urban Northeast United States. Our team has a strong network of decision-makers, local and municipal officials, and research and subject matter experts along the corridor running from Philadelphia to New York City to Boston.

UC3 is a core program of Second Nature that connects 23 of the world's leading research universities and university systems committed to accelerating climate action on campus, in communities, and at a global scale. In launching UC3, distinguished universities from the United States, Canada and Mexico committed to mobilizing their resources and expertise to accelerate local and regional climate action in partnership with businesses, cities and states, foundations, and other organizations.