University of California, Los Angeles
IN-1: Innovation 1

Leaders in Sustainability Graduate Certificate Program The UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the innovative and award-winning Leaders in Sustainability Graduate Certificate Program that aims, first, to provide a mechanism for graduate students in any discipline to pursue their interests in sustainability and collaborate with students from different fields, and second, to attract top-caliber students with these interests to UCLA’s graduate schools. Sustainability has become a key element in decision-making in many areas of business, public policy, public health and increasingly in the natural and social sciences as well. By definition, sustainability requires a multi-disciplinary perspective. The LiS program allows students to create a program tailored to their needs and background, by choosing among the sustainability related courses and opportunities at UCLA. Students take a core course in sustainability and relevant electives and participate in leadership training. Additionally, students have a positive impact on the community as they learn experientially by collaborating on client projects for local businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies. LiS students also give themselves a career edge by developing a broad knowledge of topics that are increasingly relevant to employers. The program is open to all graduate students at UCLA (masters and doctoral) and is offered with no additional fees. The program first started in the Anderson School of Management and has been administered by the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability since 2009. The program has been quite successful with 85+ graduates so far and more than 160 students currently enrolled representing more than 30 different programs as diverse as Anderson School of Management, School of Law, Luskin School of Public Affairs, School of Public Health, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Arts & Architecture, School of Nursing, and numerous departments in the College of Letters and Science including Asian Languages and Cultures, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Chemistry, Geography and others. Students are required to take four courses (16+ units of study) and complete a Leadership Project: • Leaders in Sustainability core course (4 units): Introduction to the concept of sustainability and the leadership skills students will need to make a positive impact on their chosen dimension of sustainability. This class combines environmental, social and economic perspectives in a wide range of contexts, using a mix of class formats to bring out the unique multidisciplinary nature of the audience. • 3 or more additional graduate-level courses: (at least 12 units, or equivalent in semester units): Students select courses from economics, engineering, environment, law, management, natural sciences, public health, public policy, social sciences, and urban planning, among others. At least one of these three courses must be outside a student’s home school. • Sustainability Leadership project: All students must complete a project related to sustainability (may be part of the students’ regular departmental graduation requirements). Examples of past projects include: o starting a nonprofit organization with UCLA alums, called the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, that funds graduate students to conduct research on issues of environmental sustainability; o co-organization of the annual California Clean Innovation conference; o serving as Editor in Chief of the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy; o helping initiate, plan, and implement the first Bicycle and Pedestrian Count for the City of Los Angeles to gauge how infrastructure is being used to measure changes over time. In addition to the formal requirements of the certificate program, all students are encouraged to participate actively in relevant events organized by the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and other units, including seminars, conferences, etc. The LiS program was recently awarded the 2010 Dr. Alfred and Lynn Manos Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business Curricula. The Page Prize encourages efforts to expose business students to state-of-the-art environmental sustainability knowledge.