Indiana University Indianapolis
IN-25: Innovation B

In 2017, IU launched an initiative, Prepared for Environmental Change, as part of the Grand Challenges program. This initiative would help Indiana develop actionable solutions that prepare businesses, farmers, communities and individual Hoosiers for the effects of ongoing environmental change. The initiative created the Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI) to better predict the impact of threats driven by environmental change and facilitate collaboration between IU's world-class faculty and Indiana residents, businesses, nonprofits and the public sector. The institute conducts research and develops local forecasts, strategies and means of communication needed to enhance resilience to environmental change. In April 2018, ERI employed 11 researcher fellows whose expertise encompass the scientific, sociological, legal, historical and artistic challenges of climate change. Together, they're working to understand environmental changes' impact in Indiana from every angle and produce insights that can translate into actionable steps to help Hoosiers prepare for the challenges that environmental change will bring to the state. In Sept. 2018, the institute launched the Environmental Resilience Institute Toolkit, an interactive, digital toolkit that allows communities to better assess, prepare for and respond to environmental change. The summer of 2019, ERI partnered with the Indiana Sustainability Development Program (ISDP), a workforce development program. They placed 8 externs, known as the Resilience Cohort, with local governments across the state to conduct greenhouse gas emissions inventories. In August of 2019, it was announced that McKinney School of Law at IUPUI professor of practice and former EPA official, Janet McCabe, will be the director of the Prepared for Environmental Change Grand Challenge initiative.