Converging Existing Efforts

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden and Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs Rob Dunn officially announced the launch of the Climate and Sustainability Academy on December 4, 2024. Dr. Erin Seekamp was appointed as executive director and Dr. Christopher Galik was appointed as deputy executive director.

This academy is the fourth academy at NC State, and represents a universitywide, interdisciplinary effort to build upon previous grassroots climate and sustainability efforts and initiatives. Connecting the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (CRSI), focused on the coast and its watersheds, and the Sustainable Futures Initiative (SFI), working to bring together students, staff, scholars, and practitioners to imagine and implement sustainable solutions for society.

Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative

In the Fall of 2019, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Arden charged a faculty leadership team to develop an interdisciplinary coastal resilience and sustainability effort at NC State that would lead to practical solutions to address the challenges of climate change, resilience, and sustainability in the coastal zone. The leadership team responded in a White Paper delivered in December 2020 that led to the creation of the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (CRSI).

Mission

The Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative at NC State seeks to catalyze transformations in energy, development, and transportation systems, as well as socio- ecological systems, through community-engaged interdisciplinary efforts focused on mitigation and adaptation solutions.

Linking resilience with sustainability:

• is the capacity of a socio-ecological system to handle disturbances and change by transforming to a more sustainable future state of environmental, social, and economic conditions.
• recognizes the technological, ecological, biogeochemical, socio-economic, and cultural opportunities for mitigation and adaptation innovations.
• increases quality of life for all beings by enabling continuity of ecosystem services for all present and future generations.

Programs

CRSI developed two key programs that are now flagship programs of the academy. The Coastal Community Resilience Immersive Training (C-CRIT) Program and the Blue Economy Innovation Program (BEIP) continue to provide high-impact experiences to NC State students.

Sustainable Futures Initiative

To work toward a more sustainable future, one must first reimagine that future. The Sustainable Futures Initiative (SFI) works to bring together students, staff, scholars, and practitioners to envision and realize the best of those futures. 

Through consultation with our outside partners and conversation with our best minds in-house, we will seek to foster transformative research and on-campus application to provide forward-oriented solutions to our most pressing problems. Throughout, we will seek to cement NC State as a national and global leader in sustainability research, education, and application.

Programs

The Sustainable Futures Initiative launched the Sustainable Futures Fellows Program in Spring 2025 that continues to be a flagship program of the academy.