For Educational Insitutions
Universities, school districts, and cultural institutions join ICLEI as Education Affiliates to access our services to advance campus sustainability, collaborate with home cities, and bring ICLEI expertise and internship opportunities to their students.
Campus sustainability planning
Use our ClearPath tool to develop a facilities-level greenhouse gas inventory, forecast future emissions, and apply planning strategies in a campus climate action plan. Affiliates participate in training cohorts, such as our annual Sustainability Planning session, to build a green team and prioritize actions.
City-university collaborations
In some cases, a higher education institution supports their home community to create a greenhouse gas inventory or to develop a sustainability plan. ICLEI supports the university to achieve these goals as we do with the cities in our network.
Classroom
ICLE staff experts provide guest lectures to our Affiliate’s students on global climate policy, sustainability frameworks, climate planning and more. We also work with universities to seek funding and deliver semester- and year-long climate and sustainability training cohorts, often in collaboration with municipalities that can benefit from student planning support. In some cases, ICLEI can connect students to internship opportunities.
Build your custom journey
To help cities, towns, and counties create more sustainable communities, we provide:
- The Network
- The frameworks
- The Tools
- The Technical Assistance
Contact us to map a affiliate member journey and become part of the largest and longest-running network of governments advancing sustainability and climate action.
How We Work with Educational and Cultural Institutions
Education Affiliates have access to ICLEI’s tools, technical assistance, templates and resources in ways similar to city members but with several benefits of particular value for education.
Access Tools
Make your data do the work
ICLEI’s industry-leading tools, including ClearPath, have been used by more than 600 governments — and the school districts, colleges, and universities that support them — to measure and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, prepare for climate impacts, prioritize sustainability actions and collaborate in real time.
Receive Technical Assistance
Work with the people that wrote the protocols
Each Education Affiliate is assigned a dedicated ICLEI technical advisor, who serves as your go-to resource for climate and sustainability support. Through regular check-ins and annual facilitated group-training cohorts, we ensure you’re advancing on your affiliate journey.
Follow Proven Frameworks
Build holistic, systemic change
Hundreds of communities have followed the ICLEI Five Pathways approach to sustainability, and continue to apply our enhanced ANALYZE-ACT-ACCELERATE methodology for tackling integrated challenges.
Build Your Staff, Faculty and Student Capacity
Match your workflow to the support options of your choice
Education and cultural affiliates receive one-on-one technical support and enrollment in facilitated group training cohorts. ICLEI experts can coach facilities staff or faculty, check sustainability data, review your plans, and serve as allies to launch a green team or support your planning process. We provide guest lectures to support your curriculum.
Connect to the Global City Research Community
Contribute to our global climate conversation
Through ICLEI’s role as focal organization to the UNFCCC and UN Convention on Biological Diversity, we collaborate with researchers to deliver on international climate negotiations. Past projects convened the academic community at the climate COP events and conducted a research study to qualify COVID impacts on city delivery systems. Regular convenings, including international collaboration cohorts, Daring Cities and ICLEI World Congress, bring our members together to accelerate their impact.
Educational Affiliate Story
Indiana University’s Community Climate Resilience Cohorts
Since 2019, IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute has hosted an annual Resilience Cohort in partnership with ICLEI to provide more than 30 Indiana cities, towns, and counties with training, technical tools, a peer network, and a sequenced capacity-building program to get started with climate and resilience planning. Through the partnership, local governments received access to ClearPath, Indiana-specific training, one-on-one technical assistance, and recognition through ICLEI’s Milestones Awards. The partnership connects undergraduate and graduate student externs with local governments, training a future workforce of climate analysts.
Education-Based Testimonials
Pennsylvania Local Climate Action Planning Cohort
"Working with the PADEP and ICLEI to create the greenhouse gas inventory for the City of York was very rewarding. Getting to collaborate with people who are passionate about combating climate change was inspiring and I felt the work I was doing was important. While it was sometimes a difficult task getting the necessary data, my persistence paid off. I would recommend this program to anyone who wants to complete meaningful work while having the flexibility of an online/work-from-home setting!"
Indiana University Resilience Cohort
“[Without the Indiana University Resilience Cohort], we would not have had the internal capacity to complete GHG Inventory based on current staffing levels”
Indiana University Resilience Cohort
“I am so thankful for having ICLEI as a partner in the Resilience Cohort program. Their technical expertise and the platform they have for providing support exponentially increased our ability to guide Indiana communities on their path towards climate resilience and greenhouse gas mitigation.”
