By Steven Cohen, Ph.D., Director of the M.S. in Sustainability Management program, School of Professional Studies
Last week, I found myself presiding over the final briefings of the Workshop in Applied Earth Systems Management of Columbia’s MPA in Environmental Science and Policy program. The Workshop is a three-semester sequence that requires students to integrate environmental science, policy, and management in a problem-solving set of courses. In the summer, we conduct a management simulation where we take an environmental statute that has been proposed but not yet enacted and assess and communicate the science of the problem the statute seeks to address, as well as the science of the bill’s proposed solution to the problem. Each week, students produce a written memo and a ten-minute oral briefing on one element of the program they are examining. In the fall semester, the same student groups simulate that the bill has been enacted and develop a plan to start up and manage the program starting in 2027.
This is the 25th year of the MPA in Environmental Science and Policy, a program initiated as a partnership between Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and the university’s Earth Institute. One unique idea behind the program was to include a sequence of environmental science courses designed for policy students rather than future scientists. These courses are designed and taught by world-class environmental scientists, but they have been organized to teach students to understand policy-relevant science rather than learn to research central scientific facts and theories. I learned during my time at the Environmental Protection Agency that a firm understanding of environmental science was a prerequisite for effective environmental policy. A team of top environmental scientists from Columbia’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory designed the science curriculum for this program, which included courses in environmental chemistry, hydrology, climate science, toxicology, and ecology. While the scientists worked on their part of the curriculum, I worked with a team of SIPA’s faculty to design the environmental policy and management curriculum, which features a three-semester integrative workshop sequence. After the two-semester management simulation, our students were well prepared to conduct pro bono projects for environmental nonprofits and government agency clients. They undertake these “real-world” projects in their final semester.
A few years after the Environmental Science and Policy program was launched, in 2009 and 2010, I worked with Earth Institute and School of Continuing Education colleagues to design a more private-sector master’s degree in Sustainability Management. We built on the lessons learned in the Environmental Science and Policy program. Instead of a rigorous and comprehensive science curriculum, we required a three-course sequence on the physical dimensions of sustainability. This included many of the same environmental science courses taught in the SIPA program, but was broadened to include courses on energy efficiency, green building, greenhouse gas measurement, life cycle assessment, and related topics. This design provided flexibility, but at the price of the scientific depth required of Environmental Science and Policy students. Interestingly, many of our Environmental Science and Policy students enroll in the Sustainability Management “physical dimension” courses to fulfill their four-course elective requirement. Many of our sustainability management students fulfill their “physical dimensions” requirements with courses in Columbia’s Sustainability Science program, and I expect many will also enroll in courses offered by our new Biodiversity Data Analytics program.
This summer, the Workshop course analyzed and communicated the science embedded in these five bills:
- US House of Representatives Bill 2160: Maintaining and Enhancing Hydroelectricity and River Restoration Act
- New York State Assembly Bill A7584A: The Agrivoltaics Viability Pilot Program
- US House of Representatives Bill 752: Methane Emissions Mitigation Research and Development Act
- The New York State Native Plant Program
- New York State Senate Bill S1464 /A1749: Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act
The group I worked with this summer learned and taught each other (and me) about the problems and opportunities created when the same land is used to farm crops and generate solar energy. Their bill, if enacted, would set up pilot projects around New York State to examine the financial and environmental costs and benefits of “agrivoltaics.” My students taught me about the impact of shade on crop growth and the effect of constructing solar arrays on soil health. In a preview of next semester’s economic analysis, we also learned that many of New York’s farmers hold second jobs due to the instability of farm revenues and expenses.
When we developed the science curriculum for this program at the start of the 21st century, a key issue we addressed was whether the program should start or end with the science semester. The scientists argued, correctly, I believe, that the program should start with environmental science. The goal was to increase the probability that the policy and management analyses our students engaged in during the rest of their studies would be influenced by environmental science. Economic, management, and political factors tend to dominate policy formulation and analyses, and one of the key goals of our program was to ensure that scientific and technological issues would be factored into the mix.
Another element of our workshop sequence is to teach students to communicate science to non-scientists and to boil down a semester’s worth of work by a team of 8 to 12 students into a 10-minute oral briefing. Students must make the painful choices involved in prioritizing and simplifying information for decision-makers who are not trained scientists. Given the complexity of environmental issues, they also learn how to work in groups like the teams they will work with as sustainability professionals. In those teams, they will work with engineers, scientists, economists, policy analysts, lawyers, and management experts. Learning how to be a productive and effective team member and leader is a key professional skill that will help carry them through the instability of the emerging world of artificial intelligence. The teams in our class are comprised of people from different places and with different educational and professional backgrounds, and our students learn to be productive and kind while working together under tight deadlines.
The soft skills of human relations and understanding broad concepts and deeply held values are critical to navigating the complexity of our global economy and culture. So too is the ability to listen to and learn from scientific and technical experts. We are living in a world where new technologies are being developed and monetized at a dizzying pace. Today’s professionals must not only be lifelong learners but also scientifically literate. This is true in environmental policy and sustainability management, but it is also true in virtually every business in our economy. The disinformation from ideologues is a threat to businesses built in the real world. Artificial intelligence requires data centers that utilize energy, water, and other resources, but those demands can be reduced and managed by human ingenuity and new technologies. Despite these uncertainties, the grassroots opposition to artificial intelligence and data center siting is well underway. The costs of this new technology are widely disseminated while the benefits are ignored. Another current example of scientific misinformation is the spectacle of a Presidential Executive Order on childhood vaccines that suggests that the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine be replaced by single vaccines that are not available in the United States.
Politicos and ideologues distort and fabricate facts, and the human and economic damage of decisions made without scientific understanding should not be underestimated. An important element of professional education in public policy analysis, business analysis, or public and private management is the ability to understand technology and science. At a minimum, professionals need to know what they don’t know. They must learn how to work with experts and tap into real expertise. The scientific and technological basis of communications, computing, energy, transportation, medicine, environment, agriculture, and many other areas of economic and public life is advancing rapidly. These new technologies are the engines of economic growth. Technological change is dynamic and endless. You may have once learned the technology of cable television but could easily be left behind if you never learned the science of streaming video. Internal combustion engines are gradually being replaced by electric vehicles. Management and analytic professional education should teach students the process of learning science and technology by teaching current scientific knowledge. We recognize that today’s scientific knowledge will soon be dated, and therefore it is the process of learning and integrating science into decision-making that sophisticated 21st-century professionals must master.
This is why we require environmental science in the MPA in Environmental Science and Policy program, and courses on the physical world in the Sustainability Management program. Last week’s School of International and Public Affairs Workshop final briefings provided five wonderful examples of groups who learned and communicated environmental science that was central to five pieces of proposed legislation. These students, like the 24 classes that preceded them, demonstrated the feasibility and usefulness of a focus on environmental science for environmental policy.
Views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Columbia School of Professional Studies or Columbia University.
About the Program
The Columbia University M.S. in Sustainability Management program offered by the School of Professional Studies in partnership with the Climate School provides students cutting-edge policy and management tools they can use to help public and private organizations and governments address environmental impacts and risks, pollution control, and remediation to achieve sustainability. The program is customized for working professionals and is offered as both a full- and part-time course of study.
