Client Project: Lenovo
Lenovo sought to develop water risk maps for the company’s global sites, and to use those maps to understand and identify water opportunities and risks worldwide.
Client Project: Heaven Hill Brands
When Heaven Hills Brands sought to expand its Austin, Texas, production facility, the company wanted to know how it could best contribute to Austin’s citywide sustainability culture.
Client Project: Darden Restaurants
Nicholas School student team assess the sustainability and business impacts of Darden’s organics recycling program in Massachusetts.
Impacts
Collaborations between the Nicholas School and private sector partners can have powerful impacts on discovery, innovation and leadership in the environmental realm, providing value for society as a whole and for your business’s bottom line.
Research
Through research partnerships with the Nicholas School’s world-class faculty, corporations leverage specialized expertise, leadership and innovative perspectives within a range of environmental fields, including:
- Environmental & Human Health: ecotoxicology, childhood exposures, fracking, coal ash, water safety
- Energy: innovative energy sources and production, clean energy, biofuels, fracking, climate change impacts, emissions
- Water: ecohydrology, biochemistry, geochemistry, water quality/quantity, climate change impacts of flooding and drought, fracking impacts
- Conservation & Biodiversity: environmental policy, conservation finance, forestry, species conservation, ecosystem protection, resource allocation, effects of climate change
- Ocean & Coastal Conservation: marine biology, oceanography, application of high-tech approaches like drones to research, fisheries and bycatch issues, sea level rise, coastal and marine policy and management
- Environmental Innovation & Entrepreneurship: the startup process, risk assessment, predictive modeling, supply chain management.
Corporate partners have access to several innovative research centers within the Nicholas School that bring together scholars and professionals with wide-ranging expertise to address timely natural resource and environmental issues. These include the Duke Center for Sustainability & Commerce, the Center on Global Change, and the Center for Geospatial Medicine.
Training tomorrow's business leaders
The Nicholas School’s highly regarded professional master’s, doctoral and undergraduate programs attract bright, passionate students. Through a combination of rigorous classroom academics, practical skills-based instruction, and internships and client-based projects where knowledge and skills are applied to real-world practice, Nicholas students graduate well prepared to contribute to employers from day one. The Nicholas School can help your company to build a professional workforce that is amply prepared to find creative, profitable solutions to your business’s greatest challenges.
- Management candidates who bring an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset to your business, particularly those trained through our Environmental Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program or our new Business & Environment Program.
- Skilled employees trained in specific areas of relevance and value to today’s business, including corporate sustainability, energy, ecotoxicology, geospatial analysis, sustainable systems analysis, and environmental communications.
- Innovative training programs for practicing professionals, including our new Venture Mentoring ProgramTM and other executive education programs taught by Nicholas faculty experts.
Ways to Engage
Corporations that engage with the Nicholas School of the Environment find tremendous benefits. Whether your company’s interest is in research, business development or building the capacity of your workforce, we encourage you to talk with us about ways to create value for all parties. Here are some ways to engage:
Research Partnerships
- Sponsor or collaborate on research with Nicholas faculty.
- Provide seed funding for early-stage research or entrepreneurial endeavors.
Consulting & New Perspectives
- Let a faculty-guided team of Nicholas students tackle one of your business’s key environment-related challenges through a client-based course or master’s project.
Student / Workforce Development
- Host internships and/or mentoring opportunities where exceptionally bright, motivated Nicholas students can gain real-world experience while advancing projects that benefit your company.
- Hire well-qualified Nicholas graduates to join your management team by participating in recruiting events, posting job and internship openings or browsing resumes.
- Bring in Nicholas faculty experts to provide executive education and training for your current workforce.
- Take a sabbatical from the corporate setting at the School, or host a Nicholas faculty member on sabbatical at your company.
Giving
- Provide a grant or philanthropic support for scholarships, professorships, internships, research or programs.
- Make an in-kind gift of equipment, technology or expertise.
- Sponsor a conference, workshop or another event.
Other Ways to Engage
- Become a guest speaker for one of our classes or student organizations.
- Provide a business case study or other educational content, so students and others can learn from your experience and success.
- Invite a group of Nicholas Students to your company for a visit through our Career Treks program.
Contact Us
To discuss giving options and find the best fit for you, please contact:
Associate Dean Kevin McCarthy
Office of Development & Alumni Relations
(919) 613-8003
kevin.p.mccarthy@duke.edu