The Climate Leadership Academy

Accelerating Local Action on Climate Disruption

The Climate Leadership Academy serves the urgent and rapidly growing need for more support to cities and communities that are working to increase energy efficiency, create green jobs, reduce climate pollution, and strengthen their resilience to the local impacts of climate disruption. The Academy helps local climate and energy practitioners do their jobs better by connecting them to their peers in other cities and to leading national experts, providing easier access to the best available information and approaches, and facilitating dialogue and collaboration with their regional, state and federal counterparts.

Building on nearly 20 years of experience, ISC is:

• Organizing intensive 2- to 3-day workshops on effective local climate action led by experienced practitioners from leading cities and national experts in community-based climate solutions;
• Developing resource guides and case studies that compile and synthesize the best available information—tools, studies, and practices—on topics ranging from building energy retrofitting to climate-friendly transportation to climate adaptation; and
• Coordinating a virtual peer-learning and networking program that connects workshop participants as they face new challenges and apply lessons learned.

The Academy builds the capacity of communities to use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) monies and other funding sources to take smarter, swifter, more effective action to increase energy efficiency, reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, and strengthen their communities and economies.

Climate Leadership Academy Topic Areas

• Building Energy Retrofits: Together with Living Cities, a consortium of 21 foundations and financial institutions, ISC organized a Green Boot Camp at Harvard’s Kennedy School for senior climate, energy and economic development leaders from 16 US cities. The camp focused on best practices for improving, accelerating and scaling up integrated building energy retrofitting and green job creation initiatives in US cities. Download the Green Boot Camp Resource Guide here.

• Transporation Efficiency: In September 2009, ISC hosted its second Climate Leadership Academy in Chicago, partnering with the newly forming Urban Sustainability Directors’ Network.  In attendance were teams of senior transportation, planning, energy and sustainability officials from 16 North American cities. This Academy focused on best practices in climate-friendly transportation, smart growth and urban development. Download the Transportation Efficiency Resource Guide here.

• Green Job Creation: In May 2010, ISC held a third academy in Washington, DC focused on promising practices in green job creation. Teams of senior officials and key stakeholders from 15 U.S. cities and metropolitan regions attended, includings representatives from the business, labor, workforce development, economic development, education/training, and sustainability sectors. To learn more about the event, please download the summary report, or click here to watch the Keynote Address from Van Jones. The Green Job Creation Resource Guide can be found here.

• China: Low Carbon City Development: ISC held its first two international Climate Leadership Academy workshops in July 2010. Focused on low carbon city planning and development, the workshops hosted teams from 17 cities in Jiangsu and Guangdong, two of China’s most industrialized provinces. They provided the opportunity for officials and experts from China and the U.S. to engage one another on low carbon city strategies, tools, and case studies. These initial workshops were well-received, and ISC looks forward to expanding the international CLA model. Read more about the Chinese academies here.

• Adaptation and Resilience: In September 2010, ISC will hold a fourth U.S. academy to help cities assess, prioritize, and address the local impacts of global climate disruption, ranging from strained water supply systems and overtaxed drainage systems to increased air pollution and degraded ecosystems. To learn more about this upcoming academy, please click here.

For more information, download our fact sheet or contact Steve Nicholas, ISC’s VP of Climate & Environmental Programs at snicholas@iscvt.org or 802-229-2907.

Participating U.S. Cities and Regions (to date)