News & Announcements Blog / News

Babson Joins Presidential Summit On Climate Leadership

Babson is among the colleges participating in the 2014 Presidential Summit on Climate Leadership, October 1 – 3, 2014 in Boston.

Dallase Scott, Babson director of sustainability, is representing Babson at the Summit, which will bring together more than 250 college and university leaders from across the U. S. to focus on ways to strengthen campus climate action and sustainability initiatives, as well as higher education’s leadership role in developing strategic responses to climate and sustainability challenges in community, regional, and national contexts. Like Babson College, most Summit participants are signatories of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

Convened by Second Nature, Inc. the supporting organization for the ACUPCC, the Summit reflects the centrality of higher education’s role in preparing new generations to meet the challenges of climate change. The program focuses on ways to build on the success of climate action plans and sustainability initiatives on ACUPCC campuses and develop solutions to the most pressing environmental problems facing our communities.

More than 680 colleges and universities in the U. S. are current ACUPCC signatories, representing all 50 states, D. C., and every category of public and private higher education institution. These signatories are committed to achieving carbon neutrality and represent more than 6.5 million students – one third of all college students in the nation.

As a business school, Babson aims to educating tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and innovators. Babson is committed to integrating social and economic sustainability concepts into the business practices of this next generation of leaders and to create resilient, sustainable prosperity.

“The Summit is a key opportunity for ACUPCC presidents and their sustainability teams to work together to shape higher education’s critical role in advancing sustainability and addressing climate change at the national level,” said Portland State University President Wim Wiewel, Chair of the ACUPCC Steering Committee. “The launch of the National Climate Assessment this past spring has given us a clear mandate and an excellent springboard for climate action. It’s imperative for higher education to respond and help lead our society in defining and achieving a sustainable future.”

The Summit was designed by a group of 30 college and university presidents with the support of a committee of seven local institutions, and is organized into five tracks: Knowledge and Solutions for a Changing Climate, Higher Education’s Climate Leadership Imperative, Creating a Campus Culture of Sustainability, Investment Strategies and Institutional Risks, and Corporate Partnerships for Climate Leadership — along with a session on the Alliance for Resilient Campuses, Second Nature’s newest initiative focused on climate resilience.

Highlights include keynote addresses by Brian Swett, Chief of Environment and Energy for the City of Boston, and Kate Gordon, Executive Director of The Risky Business Project. Kathy Jacobs, Director of the Center for Climate Change Adaptation Science and Solutions and former Director of the U. S. National Climate Assessment, is speaking about and facilitating discussions about climate resilience throughout the event.

CO2 impact from attendee travel, meeting space, and guest accommodations is being offset through purchase by The Revere Hotel of carbon offsets from Native Energy, Inc. Summit sponsors include Xerox, Cenergistic, Altenex, and ecoAmerica.

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™. The College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society—while at the same time evolving our methods and advancing our programs. We shape the leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to create economic and social value. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value. ​​​​

Second Nature works to create a healthy, just, and sustainable society beginning with the transformation of higher education. It is the supporting organization of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), an intensive partnership among more than 680 higher education institutions committed to climate neutrality. ACUPCC institutions work to accelerate education, research, and community engagement to equip society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate while setting an example by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from their own operations.