New Class of EDF Climate Corps Fellows Advances Energy Leadership in World-Class Organizations

(NEW YORK, NY – June 2, 2015) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today announced that its 2015 EDF Climate Corps fellows have been deployed to organizations throughout the United States, Mexico and China to begin the critical work of cutting costs and carbon emissions through improved energy management.

EDF Climate Corps pairs fellows—top graduate students from the nation’s leading universities—with companies, cities, schools and public institutions to identify and implement high-value ways to save energy, carbon emissions and money.

“We are now in our eighth year of EDF Climate Corps,” said Managing Director Victoria Mills. “Over that time, the focus of both our fellows and their host organizations has expanded beyond picking the low-hanging fruit to elevating energy management to a strategic business priority.”

This year’s class of 117 EDF Climate Corps fellows will work in 96 of organizations around the United States—Nestlé Waters, Verizon, The U.S. Army Fort Bragg and Yahoo!, for example—and eight fellows will work with global organizations in Mexico and China. Their projects will focus on energy strategy, data management, financing and clean energy solutions such as demand response and renewables, in addition to building retrofits and equipment upgrades.

EDF Climate Corps not only advances energy management today, it also positions tomorrow’s leaders to create value through environmental initiatives, wherever their careers take them. 72 percent of EDF Climate Corps alumni currently work in sustainability careers, many at the managerial level.

“My experience as an EDF Climate Corps fellow was foundational to my career in corporate sustainability,” said Jenny McColloch, director of Global Sustainability at McDonald’s Corporation. “The fellowship provided practical experience demonstrating the business value of energy and sustainability strategy within a large, complex organization. Additionally, EDF and the Climate Corps network set the stage for the cross-sector collaboration that is essential to real progress in this field.”

All 2015 fellows have just completed a rigorous three-day training program—a boot-camp of sorts—that positions them to hit the ground running when they arrive at their host organizations and facilitates the network connections that are critical to their success. This year’s training focused on two major tracks: building management and energy strategy.

This year’s fellows were selected from a pool of nearly 700 applicants for their relevant professional experience and skills. Fellows come from top graduate programs including Duke, Yale and Columbia, and represent a range of academic backgrounds including business, engineering, environmental studies and international affairs.

Jayson Uppal, a graduate student at Yale University’s School of Management and School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, will be spending the summer at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, an 80-year-old institution that welcomes more than 2 million guests every year and cares for 32,000 animals.   

“I think there are a lot of opportunities. You have falling costs of renewable energy. You have energy efficiency opportunities,” Uppal said. “We’re at an exciting time because we have the blending of the business case and the environmental case—and interests aligning among various stakeholders. It’s an exciting time to be part of the field.”

For a complete list of 2015 Climate Corps fellows and their host organizations, go to www.edf.org/NxG.