Stanford’s first new school in more than 70 years, “Stanford Doerr school of sustainability”, launching in September 2022. The university was gifted $1.1 billion from John and Ann Doerr (American investor and venture capitalist) and totalling $1.69 billion from other donors to extend the university’s scholarship and strengthen the impact in tackling the urgent climate and sustainability challenges.
The school will be a new of a kind focusing on cultivating deep knowledge and high-impact solutions to the current global issues.
The school has been designed to power excellence in eight areas of scholarship that are vital for advancing the long-term solutions in climate change, Earth and planetary services, energy technology, sustainable cities, the natural environment, food and water security, human society and behavior, and human health and the environment – precisely a school in direct connection to the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).
The school focuses on a three-part structure:
- The academic departments: to launch with about 90 existing faculty from the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences and an additional 60 faculty over 10 years, and early hires will focus on energy, climate science, and sustainable development and environmental justice.
- The interdisciplinary institutes: a sustainable society to work on institutional and economic infrastructure issues and the politics of transitioning to more sustainable ways of life.
- The new sustainability accelerator to drive policies and technology solutions by providing laboratories, tools, and domain expertise.
One of the school’s priorities is to hire faculty, with plans to expand from 90 to 150 faculty members in 10 years. The school considers growing the faculty as critical as creating an entirely new department, developing areas of scholarship, and ensure diverse voices and experiences.
As recognized by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, education is an essential element in generating awareness and cultivating an understanding of climate change issues. All the sustainable development goals come down to education. Incorporating ESG into the schooling structure is a business priority, including the job market and commitment toward climate change. Sustainable schools are an example for corporates, and primarily a ranked high university will act as a living laboratory to teach and construct eco-friendly initiatives.
