Eight nations convened to promote sustainable actions in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, a powerful move amid political struggles.

In a recent talk, a visiting scholar argued that Earth’s energy balance is out of whack, and it’s up to humanity to fix it.

Elaine R. Angeles is pursuing an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy to bring science and policy-making together in developing countries.

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment’s conference of early November will consider, notably, how world production of oil and gas could be significantly reduced in manners protecting the interests of lower-income producing countries, given that staying on carbon budget will require leaving two thirds of our fossil fuel reserves unburnt.

The investment in environmental clean-up often stimulates other upgrades that enable businesses to more effectively compete in a global economy. Moreover, a clean environment reduces illness and that reduces the need for expensive health care.

Globally, individual nations have volunteered greenhouse gas reduction targets in anticipation of the Paris meetings. Unlike Copenhagen, where calls for mandatory reductions and transfer payments to the developing world caused the collapse of any potential agreements, the world community seems more realistic as it approaches the Paris meetings.

We need to focus our attention on the existing systems of management and influence now in place and attempt to turn them toward sustainability. This includes national, state and especially local governments, corporations and nonprofit organizations.

Increasingly, systems thinking is embraced as a critical framework for approaching sustainability and resilience. Such an approach helps us look beyond an analytical, cause-and-effect mode of doing business that often only yields short-term solutions and unintended consequences.

Today’s increasing emphasis on metrics in sustainability policy and management presents an interesting challenge for ethics. When ethics are discussed, probably one of the last things to come to mind is measuring them, particularly in numeric terms.

Join instructors from our Executive Education Certificate Program in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability including Dr. Shahid Naeem, Dr. Matt Palmer, and Dr. Eric Sanderson. for a FREE public seminar program addressing the intersection between Arts and Science with the goal of initiating discussions and debate around the common ground of creative practice and scientific discovery.