Environmental Defense Fund forges alliances with diverse partners — businesses, communities, government and other NGOs – to find solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems. Guided by strong science and economics, we harness the power of the marketplace to ensure that human prosperity and environmental progress go hand in hand.
EDF created Climate Corps as an innovative solution to help businesses overcome the barriers to sustainability. Since 2008, we’ve recruited hundreds of highly-skilled, top graduate students and placed them within organizations as hands-on sustainability help. The program is a win-win-win, with the students gaining unparalleled professional experience, the organizations profiting from sustainability initiatives and EDF furthering our mission of solving the world’s greatest environmental problems.
1990s
EDF begins its innovative work establishing corporate partnerships to help companies profit and gain strategic advantage from sustainability.2000s
EDF wonders why more organizations are not pursuing similar sustainability initiatives. The barriers are not technology issues or environmental issues, but due to organizational silos and misaligned incentives. EDF begins to think that some bright young business students could solve the problem.2008
EDF places its first seven Climate Corps fellows in companies in California, including Cisco Systems, Intuit and Salesforce.com. The students find a total of $35 million in potential energy savings and 57,000 metric tons of annual greenhouse gas reductions.2009
EDF Climate Corps expands nationally and places 27 fellows within leading organizations.2012
EDF publishes two white papers on lessons learned from over 100 fellowships: "Breaking Down the Barriers to Energy Efficiency" and "The Virtuous Cycle of Strategic Energy Management."2013
To accommodate the evolving needs of sustainability programs, EDF Climate Corps expands its project offerings.2013
In collaboration with the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Boston Green Ribbon Commission, EDF Climate Corps launches the Boston Peer Learning Network.2013
For the first time, EDF successfully places over 100 fellows in a single summer.2013
EDF Climate Corps launches the Chicago Building Energy Initiative.2014
EDF Climate Corps expands internationally by placing six fellows at organizations in China.