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Professional Development
Sustainability Skill-Building

Professional Development

The Earth Institute Professional Development Program helps students and alumni to achieve their sustainability-related career goals. The program offers skill-building seminars, networking opportunities, and tools that, together, better prepare students to pursue job opportunities in sustainability and related fields. The program complements existing services such as resume and cover letter review that are provided by Columbia University's career service offices.


Explore The Program Offerings:



Sustainability Skill-Building

The Sustainability Skills Seminars offer students and alumni practical skills that are specific to sustainability and environmental careers. The half-day, non-credit seminars are free. Past seminar topics have included Life Cycle Analysis, Geographic Information Systems, and Green Building Design.


Fall 2021

Nuts & Bolts of a Sustainability Career
October 2, 2021. 10am-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructor: Cathy Gibbons, Assistant Director of Career Development, School of Professional Studies

First impressions will make or break your chances of being considered for positions. Your marketing materials (resume, LinkedIn profile, pitch and cover letters) are the first professional connections that you make with an employer or others in your chosen profession. You want to ensure that you create a professional image for yourself. This workshop will cover how to create marketing materials that meet professional standards and help you to develop a compelling professional story of yourself. It will also look at the components of a larger career planning strategy and the importance of a self-assessment as a foundation for formulating the criteria that you will use to select your next employer and job. You must bring a paper copy of your resume and, if available, a paper copy of your LinkedIn profile and pitch.

Environmental Justice, Climate Justice, and Advocacy
October 23, 2021. 10am-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructor: Multiple, WE ACT

This workshop will go in-depth and highlight the importance of environmental justice issues and WE ACT’s prominent role in tackling environmental injustices throughout Northern Manhattan. Furthermore, participants who attend this module’s workshops will become knowledgeable about the indicators that make up a healthy community, WE ACT’s theory of change, Environmental Justice terminology, rules and regulations, and case studies of exposure in other communities of color facing similar issues.

Powerful Presence and Communication for Greater Impact
November 13. 10am-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructor: Julie Galdieri, Speech and Performance Coach

At the root of all successful business transformation is the power and integrity of the communication behind it. In this workshop, participants will learn to move beyond merely delivering information to become a compelling presence that effects change. At the intersection of brain science, classical acting techniques, vocal training, and physical self-awareness, students uncover and refine their innate charisma, grounded in their authentic center of strength. Students will learn the secrets for crafting a compelling narrative, tailored to their strengths and styles as communicators, to better convey their suite of knowledge. Presence and messaging need to resonate with key decision makers with clarity and persuasive energy—this training provides tools to dramatically enhance the speaker’s content and impact.

LEED Green Associate Exam Training
Dates: Friday, December 3 (3:00-5:30PM)
Saturday, December 4 (10:00am-12:30pm)
Sunday December 5 (10:00am-12:30pm)
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructors: Narada Golden, Vice President WSP

This seminar will introduce participants to green building design and help prepare them for the LEED Green Associate exam. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, a LEED Green Associate credential demonstrates a strong understanding of current green building principles and practices.

Specific learning objectives for the course include:

  • 1. Develop an understanding of sustainability issues and green building strategies
  • 2. Learn how LEED v4 is structured and functions
  • 3. Understand the environmental intent for each LEED v4 credit
  • 4. Discuss strategies to achieve specific goals within each LEED credit category
  • 5. Learn regulations, terminology, and reference standards related to LEED v4
  • 6. Learn tips and best practices for taking the LEED v4 Green Associate exam

Spring 2022

Advanced Sustainability Career Workshop
February 19, 2022. 10am-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructor: Cathy Gibbons, Assistant Director of Career Development, School of Professional Studies

This workshop is dedicated to helping you to research the sustainability industry, find employers, and develop your strategy for approaching, interviewing and negotiating with employers. We will look at strategies and sites that will help you to optimize your job search and begin your networking process - starting with preparing for the All Ivy Career Fair. Your resume and other marketing materials got you in the door; now let’s look at how you create a professional image through the interview and negotiating stage so that you will land the jobs that you want. Resources to help you to continue to build your career planning skills and search jobs will also be discussed.

Successful Opinion Writing for Newspapers, Magazines, Websites and Blogs
February 26, 2022. 10am-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructors: Claudia Dreifus, Interviewer & Reporter, New York Times & Science Times

Thanks to the internet, science and sustainability advocates can now address the public directly. They can do so through newspaper and magazine op-ed pages, through online opinion sites, such as Medium and the Atlantic, and through their own personal blogs. To help you write effective opinion essays or blog stories on your scientific concerns, Claudia Dreifus, who teaches “Writing About Global Science for the International Media,” in the M.S. Sustainability Management Program, will be conducting a one-day introductory workshop. Professor Dreifus writes the “Conversation with…” column in the Science Section of the New York Times and contributes to the New York Review of Books, Scientific American and Quanta.

Economic Justice, Food Justice and Access, and Climate Change and Gentrification
March 5, 2022. 10am-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructors: Multiple, WE ACT


Students and alums may register for these events through the Earth Institute Job List. For more information please email us.

Past Earth Institute Sustainability Skill Building Seminars:

  • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
  • Sustainable Agriculture
  • Product Lifecycle Assessment and Carbon Footprinting
  • Green Building Design and LEED training
  • Consulting 101: How Consultants Win Work
  • Networking and Interviewing Skills Seminar
  • Sustainable Smart Technology and Controls Seminar
  • Climate Adaptation Planning Seminar
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Seminar
  • Sustainability Metrics
  • Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Corporate GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard
  • Public Speaking — Communication Strategy and Delivery

For more information, please email us.