Our Program's Goals

Improving a company's bottom line, while training MBA students in energy efficiency

Climate Corps staff on a building tour at the 2009 fellow training

Companies are missing significant savings in annual operating costs—some estimate around $40,000 for every 50,000 square feet in office space using no-cost or low-cost measures—and opportunities to increase property values, help the environment and improve employee morale through more comfortable working environments.

So why aren't more companies taking advantage of these energy (and cost) saving measures? A variety of financial and operational obstacles get in the way of making the business case for energy efficiency.

Together with our partner, Net Impact, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) embeds trained MBA students from top-ranking business schools in leading companies to develop practical, actionable energy efficiency plans. Climate Corps fellows spend up to three months identifying and analyzing savings opportunities. They also develop detailed investment and implementation plans that help businesses cut costs and reduce emissions. In turn, host companies commit to opening up their financial and operational records, providing senior level support and sharing results.

In 2009, we had 23 companies and 26 fellows participate. Our second class of Climate Corps fellows uncovered efficiencies in lighting, computer equipment, and heating and cooling systems that will help the host companies to:

• Save $54 million in net operational costs over the project lifetimes;
• Cut the equivalent of 160 million kilowatt hours of energy use per year—enough to power 14,000 homes;
• Avoid over 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year— equivalent to taking more than 12,000 SUVs off the road.

We plan to place 50 fellows in companies across the US for Climate Corps 2010. 

Interested in hosting a fellow?  Learn how hosting works »

Posted: 12-Nov-2008; Updated: 08-Oct-2009